Category: Sporting KC

Sporting KC adds striker, waives two forwards

Sporting Kansas City announced Tuesday that the club has acquired 25-year-old striker Nikola Vujnovic on loan from Serbian side FK Vozdovac with an option to buy the player at the end of the 2022 MLS season.

Vujnovic, one of the Serbian SuperLiga’s top scorers and a member of the Montenegro Men’s National Team, will occupy an international spot on Sporting’s roster pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate and P1 visa.

Vujnovic will join Sporting on the heels of a career season at Vozdovac, where he has tallied 10 goals and an assist during the 2021-22 campaign in Serbia’s top division. The striker ranks fourth on the league’s goal scoring charts, hitting double digits with starts in 21 of 22 league appearances for a Vozdovac outfit that sits sixth in the 16-team SuperLiga.

A native of Cetinje, Montenegro, Vujnovic has bagged 16 goals and added three assists for Vozdovac over the last two seasons. He previously spent the 2019-20 campaign with FK Podgorica in the top-flight Montenegrin First League, where he notched seven goals and helped the team to a fifth-place finish after being promoted to the first division in 2018-2019.

Vujnovic began his professional career by signing for Serbian club Radnicki Obrenovac and making his Serbian SuperLiga debut on loan at FK Rad as a 17-year-old in November 2014. The rising teenager joined Spanish La Liga side Villarreal in early 2015 and featured regularly for Villarreal C from 2015-2018 and Villarreal B from 2018-2019, recording 12 goals in 64 appearances across both teams. He notably competed for Villarreal B in the 2018-2019 Premier League International Cup, scoring in a victory over the Liverpool Reserves on Nov. 21, 2018, prior to his move to Podgorica the following summer.

On the international stage, Vujnovic represented Montenegro at the U-17 through U-21 levels from 2013-2017 before landing his senior debut on Oct. 7, 2020, in a friendly against Latvia. Three of his five caps have come in recent qualifying matches for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, including a 2-2 draw against European heavyweights Netherlands on Nov. 13, 2021, in which Vujnovic opened his Montenegro scoring account with an 86th-minute equalizer.

Prior to breaking into Montenegro’s senior team, Vujnovic competed for Montenegro in UEFA European Championship qualifying at the U-17, U-19 and U-21 age groups, including a four-goal salvo in the lead-up to the 2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship.

Vujnovic is the seventh newcomer to sign for Sporting this offseason, following fellow Europeans Logan Ndenbe, Marinos Tzionis and Robert Voloder as well as MLS free agents Kortne Ford, Uri Rosell and Ben Sweat.

Sporting will kick off the 2022 MLS campaign on Feb. 27, visiting Atlanta United FC in a 2 p.m. showdown on FS1, before playing host to rival Houston Dynamo FC in a highly anticipated Children’s Mercy Park home opener on March 5 at 2:30 p.m.

Sporting KC season tickets and several 2022 ticket packages and promotions and are available by calling 888-4KC-GOAL or visiting SportingKC.com.

Sporting KC waives two forwards

Sporting Kansas City announced Monday that the club has waived forwards Grayson Barber and Tyler Freeman.

Barber, 21, started two of nine appearances during his lone MLS season with Sporting in 2021. Freeman, 19, has played 35 USL Championship matches for Sporting KC II since signing an MLS contract in 2018.

With the roster move, Sporting Kansas City has these under MLS contract for the 2022 season:

Goalkeepers (3): Kendall McIntosh, Tim Melia, John Pulskamp
Defenders (9): Andreu Fontas, Kortne Ford, Nicolas Isimat-Mirin, Logan Ndenbe, Kayden Pierre, Kaveh Rad, Ben Sweat, Robert Voloder, Graham Zusi

Midfielders (8): Jake Davis, Cam Duke, Roger Espinoza, Felipe Hernandez, Gadi Kinda, Jose Mauri, Uri Rosell, Remi Walter
Forwards (6): Ozzie Cisneros, Alan Pulido, Johnny Russell, Daniel Salloi, Khiry Shelton, Marinos Tzionis

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Legislative auditors skeptical Prairiefire development can pay off $64.8M in bond debt

STAR bond success: $150M MLS stadium debt retired in less than seven years

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The Overland Park retail, office, hotel and residential development attached to the Prairiefire museum struggles to attract out-of-state tourists and could default on $64.8 million in bond debt issued through a state economic development program under scrutiny by the Legislature.

Auditors with the Legislature said their analysis of the PrairieFire project built with capital raised through issuance in 2012 of Sales Tax Revenue Bonds, or STAR bonds, indicated the project wasn’t generating enough sales tax revenue to repay debts in the required 20-year period. Originally, $64.9 million in bonds were issued for the project. Debt remaining to be paid: $64.8 million.

Auditors predicted it could take until 2046 or 2104 to produce sufficient sales tax revenue to retire the PrairieFire obligations held by the city of Overland Park.

“They are in danger of default,” said Andy Brienzo, of the Legislature’s audit division. “We can’t say that definitively. There is some additional development that is slated to happen.”

Bob North, general counsel with the Kansas Department of Commerce, said he didn’t share skepticism of auditors but also couldn’t guarantee success of Prairiefire, which includes a museum for traveling natural history exhibits. The commerce department has approved 19 STAR bond projects since the 1990s for Atchison, Garden City, Salina, Wichita, Topeka, Goddard, Manhattan and other cities.

He said museums, racetracks, sports facilities and other venues build with of $1.1 billion in bond proceeds were intended to raise the quality of life for benefit of Kansans and to attract tourists to the state. He said the objective of STAR bonds wasn’t simply generation of tax revenue.

“If they were, we’d take our money and build a bunch of Walmarts,” North said. “The goal of STAR bonds is to create attractions that are going to bring visitors to the state.”

The House and Senate commerce committees this week invited the Kansas Division of Legislative Post Audit to outline findings of a 2021 audit of STAR bond initiatives. Auditors discovered only three projects outside of the mega-development at Village West in Wyandotte County that fulfilled the objective of elevating tourism.

“STAR bonds are a very, very effective and strong economic development tool,” North said. “They’ve worked well in most instances. I’m not going to tell you every project is perfect.”

Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican, said she was disappointed with the quality of information submitted to the state by STAR bond recipients.

“As we look at the annual reports that were submitted to the Department of Commerce,” she said, “some of it doesn’t give real data. It might say visitation went up 30%. Well, 30% from what number?”

Sen. Jeff Pittman, D-Leavenworth, said the assessment of STAR bonds by legislative auditors was “a particularly narrow evaluation.” It was based on estimates of out-of-state visitors and documentation of sales tax revenue but didn’t take into account other evidence of economic development such as the multiplier effect of those new businesses, he said.

“I have some issues with some of this,” Pittman said.

The latest STAR bond annual report submitted to the Legislature by the Department of Commerce pointed to success of Children’s Mercy Park where the Sporting Kansas City professional soccer team plays. It’s become one of the state’s top tourist destinations.

To build the MLS soccer complex, $150 million in STAR bonds were issued in 2010. That debt was paid off in less than seven years.

Jake Reid, president and chief executive officer of Sporting Kansas City, said the franchise derived significant benefit from the STAR bond law and the private-public partnership with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and the state of Kansas.

“We’re the second-smallest market in our league, yet we often times consistently punch above our weight class in terms of on-field results as well as the business results,” Reid said. “On average, we drive over 600,000 per year through Children’s Mercy Park.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/01/22/legislative-auditors-skeptical-prairiefire-development-can-pay-off-64-8m-in-bond-debt/

Sporting acquires 20-year-old international center back

Sporting Kansas City has acquired Robert Voloder, a 20-year-old German youth international center back, in a transfer from NK Maribor in the Slovenian first division.

Voloder has signed a three-year MLS contract through 2024 with an option for 2025 and will occupy an international spot on Sporting’s roster pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate and P1 visa.

A left-footed center back, Voloder has played every minute for Slovenian powerhouse NK Maribor since the 2021-22 PrvaLiga season began in July, guiding the team to the top of the table through 20 matches.

In addition to scoring two goals and helping Maribor post 10 shutouts in league play, the German-born defender started four qualifying matches in the inaugural 2021-22 UEFA Europa Conference League last summer.

Prior to joining Maribor, Voloder began his professional career at heralded German side FC Cologne. He developed in the club’s academy from 2016-2020 and captained the U-19s during the 2019-20 season, scoring five goals from central defense in 18 appearances.

Voloder was also selected to Cologne’s first team squad for three German Bundesliga matches at the end of the 2019-20 campaign.

Voloder featured regularly for FC Cologne II in 2020-21, starting all 26 appearances and contributing to six shutouts as the side earned a fifth-place finish in the 21-team German Regionalliga West.

On the youth international stage, Voloder represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the U-17 through U-19 levels from 2017-2019. He was a staple for the Bosnians in their 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship campaign, starting in all six qualifiers and all three group stage matches of the competition.

Voloder switched his national team allegiance to Germany in September 2019, debuting for the country’s U-19s in a friendly against England. He played his first of five matches for the German U-20s in the fall of 2020 and recently captained the team in an Under 20 Elite League matchup against Norway on Sept. 6, 2021.

A native of Frankfurt, Voloder spent time in youth academies at Eintracht Frankfurt (2008-10), FSV Frankfurt (2010-14, 2015-16) and SG Rosenhohe Offenbach (2014-15) before moving to FC Cologne.

Voloder becomes the fifth newcomer to sign for Sporting this offseason, joining fellow European defender Logan Ndenbe and free agent trio Kortne Forde, Uri Rosell and Ben Sweat. For a full list of Sporting’s roster moves, visit SportingKC.com/news/tracker.

Sporting will kick off the 2022 MLS campaign on Feb. 27, visiting Atlanta United FC in a 2 p.m. showdown on FS1, before hosting rivals Houston Dynamo FC in a Children’s Mercy Park home opener on March 5 at 2:30 p.m. Sporting KC season tickets and several 2022 ticket packages and promotions and are available by calling 888-4KC-GOAL or visiting SportingKC.com.

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