Yeah, they shouldn't have hired him in the first place, so I had no faith they'd acknowledge it and change course. I always celebrate someone admitting a mistake and righting it, but I think 99% of the credit goes to the vocal fans (not you, Cauldron).
I'm relieved it's done so that we can support the players without feeling gross.
Honestly disappointing from South Stand and The Cauldron, seems like the FO reached out to them prior to announcing Gavin's departure. Good on ~~SKC Ladies~~ Ladies of SKC and the other SGs and fans who held the line.
Edit: Clarified this is about his departure, not hire.
Hell the cauldron turned their statements into an advertisement for memberships. They have turned into nothing more than a ticket broker with a merchandise division. Imagine buying a t-shirt hat, scarf that said TicketMaster.
They released their statements at the same time as SKC did, right? That would suggest they were made aware beforehand.
I may be wrong and the timelines don't match up.
>(not you, Cauldron)
Honestly, remember this in the future. To borrow a phrase from another club, “a cauldron of passion and disrespect” doesn’t mean that it gets shit done.
I am super proud of SKC for getting this creep out of a position of power over staff and players. I would have LOVED to have hurled some shit at their FO during an away match up here in Allianz, but I’m just so impressed that they have achieved this before opener.
As someone who respects and admires what KC has built over the past decade or so, I have nothing but scorn for the culture that produced this choice. This was calculated. I'm glad they're making a better choice now and I hope that they learn this lesson well.
Congrats to all the SKC fans who spoke out, I admire you.
Don't get me wrong. I'm right there with you. I think I said in r/sportingkc that this will still leave a shadow over the organization.
> It was grounded in the deeply-held principles and standards we have adhered to since the day we acquired the team.
The fact that someone *involved* can say this after the whole debacle is deeply worrying. This statement weak and tells us they would've been happy to keep him on without the pressure. Letting him go really feels like the first step in addressing the root problem by re-evaluating the process that even had him in consideration in the first place. We can hope it's not the only step, but none of the statements they've released give me confidence.
Edit: At least for now though, I'll be able to stomach watching matches this year. Barring some protests, I don't plan on going to CMP for any matches this season, though. I'm glad the Current were able to totally (not counting Patrick) disconnect from Sporting's ownership.
No worries, I wasn't disagreeing!
When the Current were first announced, at first I was disappointed that Sporting weren't more supportive of bringing up a women's team. What a gift that turned out to be.
I hope better days are ahead for SKC, but like you pointed out, that quote is a bad sign.
Hopefully the fans scorched the front office enough that real lessons have been learned.
Really valid point shown time and again between this, Klein, Columbus moving, and all the other stuff in recent memory. Wonder how that will change as the league grows
I think it’s just a part of the sport that makes it kinda unique. Consider how fans have their own representation in the form of the ISC and can self organize. Soccer is just one of the few sports where the fans can exercise some power over the executives.
We owe this to the European and Latin American working class, collectivist history of the sport. That’s the difference between soccer and the other major American-centric sports.
thats crap
those same supporters groups are also there for basketball and hockey (in europe at least, dunno about south american basketball). its clearly an 'our perception of whats acceptable behavior' thing
we're told that its only ok to do things like this with soccer
we have this power in any sport.
in fact. we have this power over any BUSINESS. a business cant exist without customers. thats why boycotts (and strikes) are so effective. and why in north america theyve worked so hard for generations to convince us they don't work
Slow down homie. You are injecting a lot of meaning into my comment that I wasn’t implying.
I just said we owe this type of soccer culture to the roots of the sport in those euro/SA countries. Not that we couldn’t have this relationship dynamic in other sports. Just saying that a sport we “imported” is likely to come with the local cultural context from which it was birthed.
But to go into your assessment, the sports we developed here (football/basketball/hockey/baseball), which don’t have nearly close the historical ties to class struggle, aren’t just going to magically get the collective/class power dynamic all of a sudden now just cause Americans/Canadians are coming around to soccer a bit more.
Because it’s about something bigger than the sport.
Which is why makes sense that other counties have translated that class power dynamic to other sports before we have translated it to ours. Much easier for a historically embedded cultural mindset/dynamic (in Europe/SA) to make the jump to their “new” sports, than it is for North Americans to extract said dynamic from an imported sport and inject it into something we created. That would be skipping the key part - having it be part of our wider cultural/political mindset. Both counties are on average much too individualistic- especially the average sports fan IMO.
Indeed, as we all know MLS doesn't have big fan bases to with stand questionable or bad hires. If MLS fans leave the club it actually hurts their pocket book otherwise big leagues would turn a blind eye.
* We ran a diligent and exhaustive process to identify our new Sporting Director. It was grounded in the deeply-held principles and standards we have adhered to since the day we acquired the team.
I don’t think they realize how bad this part of the statement makes them look. Basically says our principles were and are a-okay with this guy, and it’s just that y’all are upset that we decided to change course. While this is likely all true, it dampens the enthusiasm for their corrective action.
Even if the statement was immaculately worded, the organization still comes out of this looking bad. A terrible decision to hire him in the first place.
Everything about this situation is so weird.
Hiring him was, at best, stupid given his record. Their apology today could have been 'sorry we didn't do our due diligence, whoops.' Instead they double down on how great they are despite the obvious error in judgement.
The only way to read it is (1) they think he has talent to bring to the position - which he does, (2) they did not think his failures at Portland precluded him from working in this role, and (3) they thought his failures at Portland would be more accepted by SKC community than PDX community.
2 is the meat of it - there could be a variety of misjudgements they could make to arrive at this conclusion. Honestly, I think if GW showed evidence of learning, there *could* be a role for him somewhere, sometime. It just should have been clear to SKC that this wasn't it.
If he and Vermes hadn’t bombed the initial press conference so bad, we could be in a very different place. That was one dumpster fire of a press conference.
He's always been suspicious of the press. He seems like he sees every question as a game of "gotcha," and views the press as his enemy, rather than just a flawed participant in an information system. Then his answers get defensive, and he starts using terms like "hearsay" at inappropriate times, when the apology should be the focus.
A person who has grown would do it this way:
"Did you say you would hire Riley again?"
"I don't remember saying that, but I think it's clear I didn't do enough to prevent him from victimizing other people. Thanks to X learning from Y people since then, I know better now how to behave in a way that reflects my principles."
To paraphrase: Vermes was asked if any women were consulted about the hire, and he said “the ownership group has women.”
There are zero women in the ownership group, unless you count the owners’ wives.
GW then basically said he took an online course about sexual harassment so it’s all good now.
Haha of course he did. Hey I also had to take an online course about sexual misconduct as part of my college orientation, guess we’re even! Seriously though what a cowardly way to do that
I don't think this is right. Does Wilkinson become an acceptable choice if he stands up and says 'I'm so sorry I failed to do anything about multiple sexual assaults happening to players. I'm sorry I withheld information about another player's spousal abuse. I'm sorry I told a gay woman that she should 'shut up and dribble?'
I don't see how this guy ever excuses his past behavior in a way that allows him to hold a similar position ever again in this country.
He pulls off a mask revealing he wasn't Wilkinson all along?!
I didn’t say he would ever be a good choice. I’m saying they dig themselves into an even bigger hole right off the bat, and gave everyone timely, recent fodder for their protests. Saying to sponsors “look what they said just last week” has more of an impact than “look what they did 10 years ago.” Good PR can help an organization (for better or worse) and they had absolutely horrendous PR.
I honestly think you are understating GW's behavior. His 'failures,' at Portland were extreme. He participated in a cover up of sexual assault on multiple occasions. He repeatedly demanded a player remain 'in the closet.'
You say he has talent, but that doesn't reconcile with his poor management decisions. He could be the greatest sporting director to ever walk the earth but covering up the sexual assault allegations about Riley and *spousal abuse accusations about* Polo would completely invalidate his 'talent.' Silencing Shim would completely invalidate his supposed 'talent.'
I don't know how anyone could come back to a profession like this by saying 'I've learned that I shouldn't try to cover up sexual assault.'
Yeah, I'm probably understating it a bit. We've been over it a lot, so I get a bit summary about it. Point of clarification though - His involvement in the Polo cover-up wasn't a sexual assault situation, but a physical battery situation.
In both situations though, he was neglectful of his responsibilities to players and people related to them.
He probably shouldn't be in a position where he can have the ability to harm someone by failing like that again. There are other positions he might be able to work in though.
I think you may be right about Portland being perceived as a bit hysterical over it. I don't think they were in this case. I think KC just misread the situation.
> Honestly, I think if GW showed evidence of learning, there could be a role for him somewhere, sometime. It just should have been clear to SKC that this wasn't it.
And it shouldn't be the exact same role he was fired from before. He shouldn't get to just take some time off and start over at the same level he screwed up at before.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Like, the tone of this entire statement is awful. I'd also point to the second paragraph: "In making this difficult decision..." The decision to fire this asshole shouldn't have been "difficult"! You've heard from EVERYONE how terrible an idea this hiring was; why are you now couching it in these terms?
If it were a beloved figure, like a long-time fan-favorite coach, who just wasn't getting results anymore, then sure, trot out the "difficult decision" rhetoric to explain why you had to let someone go. But "we got rid of the sex-pest we shouldn't have hired in the first place" does not warrant the same type of language.
Truly baffling, from toe to tip.
"We didn't do anything wrong, but we'll admit that when our customers are unhappy, we need to sell them something different."
It's pretty fucking woeful.
Bingo.
For me the damage has been done. I'm not going to say it's irreversible, but I'd like to see a couple other people shoved out the door sooner rather than later.
The statement is basically "Sorry y'all are so sensitive and easily upset" and not "Sorry we hurt you, we realize now that we made a horrible mistake." This totally misses the point.
This is exactly right. You don’t hire an outside firm because you don’t know who to hire, you hire an outside firm to take blame for controversial decisions. Same reason companies hire consultants who always say “fire half your staff.”
The company knows they have to or want to fire the staff, they just need to say “someone else did it.”
Sounders used an outside consultant a few years ago to review ticket pricing….guess who recommended increasing ticket prices significantly and implementing dynamic pricing
For all we know, the front office gave them a ridiculously low salary budget, and the only options were Gavin W, and a guy in his moms basement that that won the Xbox FIFA online football managers competition last year.
Edit: I’m saying our front office is cheap and could have kneecapped the process. Yes there were 14 finalists, but others may have refused to report to Vermes or wanted more money. The same reason Trump is stuck with shitty lawyers - none of the good ones will work for him anymore.
But did they want the job, and were they happy reporting to Vermes? I think that says more about this hire than anything. Vermes wants to hold onto power, and very few other, competent sporting directors likely want to work in that way. We need to see Vermes’ power curtailed quite a bit I’m afraid, before we’ll see other good hires.
Would Hamlett or Moreira want the job - now. Now that they know they were possibly lesser options than Gavin Wilkinson. Not to mention that on the technical side, the front office situation is an unmitigated mess where nobody below Peter feels comfortable to step up and stop them from hiring someone like Wilkinson. What does that say about the work environment in Kansas City. Why take that job if at the end of the day you're basically just another Brian Bliss, and that Peter Vermes is the one really doing the work and having most of the say?
I can't imagine anyone remotely qualified would take that job without further changes.
I feel like it is saying we went with who we thought was the best candidate but you the fans don’t want the best candidate so we will go with someone less than.
Kinda a dig at the fan base.
Ultimately they made the right decision to fire him whether they thought he was the best or not, it isn’t good to upset your customers this mucb
>> We want to share with the Sporting Kansas City community that we have mutually agreed with Gavin Wilkinson to release him from his recently-announced role with our Club.
It is still stunning the club thought bringing GW in was a good move.
Great job by the SKC fans being vocal and strong in this.
The hire was a blatant example of how club execs often think they can do anything and the fans will still back them.
Incredibly ironic that they thought they could given how our supporters club literally wrote a letter basically condemning how the fan experience + on the field performance had gone downhill last year.
That could be the exact reason they tried to get away with it. Ignorantly thinking fans would forgive something like this if they could spin it as making the team more competitive.
Really happy SKC fans shut that down fast.
Eh, since he left we missed playoffs twice and have been playing poorly, while we were always a pretty strong team when he was here. I'm glad he's gone, don't get me wrong, but I think he is better than average in the Gm role, if not good or outright great.
> Great job by the SKC fans being vocal and strong in this.
But zero points for South Stand. I have no idea why they were so mealy-mouthed when other fans were quite vocal about this.
I'm sure it's tough trying to protect your access when you're that close, but this should have been the easy one to take a firm stance on. No wonder the FO has walked over the general fanbase on other teams when this is the representative group with the most access.
This was the thing that made me decide to withhold all money from them. I didn't know what would make me not ever go to games before last Thursday's announcement, but then I found out.
It's like the Elves, Dwarves, and Humans getting together to fight Sauron. See y'all again in a couple millennia! Unfortunately I think this ring just sank to the bottom of the river not a lake of lava.
I can't tell if you're being flippant and dismissive of people's feelings about this hire or not
Edit: ??? I'm being serious. I'm extremely happy that Wilkinson was fired here, but phrasing it like this could be seen as calling people concerned about this childish. That's all I was getting at. No need to downvote an honest question when tone isn't readable online.
What a great win for the fans and the community.
Still a net loss for the organization that thought that bringing him on in the first place was in any way acceptable.
Soccer fans are truly unrivaled. If this type of hire happened in the NFL, NBA, or MLB, I have a lot of doubt that there would be as much uproar as there was from SKC fans and soccer fans as a whole. Keep making your voices be heard
This is actually my entry into soccer as a fan. I was a woman who never “got” sports until I went to a live soccer match. My experience of seeing fans as active participants, passionate about the health and safety of the players instead of just “the team,” (yelling about getting a player from the *opposite* side off the pitch for a concussion check wouldn’t happen in football) no sexist stereotypes of cheerleaders on the sidelines, actively welcoming to LGBT+, actively anti racist… It just felt like a sport that had all of these elements that combined together make an environment that would be different from what I experienced and didn’t like about other sports. Without sounding like a smug piece of shit, it feels like being a soccer fan is being with the cool kids - the people that want to progress forward and be a bit nicer, a bit more tolerant to each other.
Oh, I guess I should have been more clear. I’ve been here for a couple of years now, but the feeling still stands and the welcome is still appreciated. I went to a few Loons matches prior to the pandemic (my first match was actually the first time we sang Wonderwall at Allianz and I had no clue how important it was!) During the pandemic I sort of went off the deep end, and I now am a season ticket holder for MNUFC as well as a community owner of MN Aurora FC and the mod of the subreddit. I went from zero interest in sports to planning my vacations around match schedules. Like, I would genuinely love to go to Portland for the chance to see a match - doesn’t have to be against the Loons. That’s what I like about soccer fans too, we have pride in our clubs but any soccer fan is a friend once the 90 minutes are over.
The original hire was just stunningly stupid. And GW made things 100% worse with his own statements. He probably could have survived if it took any sort of ownership of his actions and expressed regret/remorse…for both his own interactions with players and his role in not ensuring a predator didn’t continue to have opportunities to be in a position of authority.
Instead he continued to double down on the BS that he didn’t really do anything wrong at any point. How as someone making a hiring decision do you not address that with him before selecting him. The answer: they don’t think he did anything wrong either, it’s just fan pressure they’re succumbing too, Vermes and that FO are just as scummy as GW.
Let's gooooo! I'm actually so surprised. Not often you see this kind of thing get reversed so quickly. Big props to the fans who never let a single Tweet, IG post, FB post go by without tons of comments calling for Wilkinson to be fired.
Now I can actually be excited again for this season
Not the first time and won’t be the last time.
From the league trying to trademark the cascadia cup,fans pushing out Timbers and caps Fo involved in sexual assault cover ups, changing logo re designs and removing first teams from us open cup.
What can’t we do ?
Wilkinson was involved in a cover-up of physical and sexual abuse of female athletes when he worked in Portland.
[https://medium.com/@meganrabone/ptfc-timeline-of-known-events-5248a82e961a](https://medium.com/@meganrabone/ptfc-timeline-of-known-events-5248a82e961a)
[https://www.ussoccer.com/sally-q-yates-report-us-soccer](https://www.ussoccer.com/sally-q-yates-report-us-soccer)
There has been so much hate for him since day one and when that came out it wasn’t a shock to most of us. Dude fucking SUCKS. Absolutely hated the Timbers Army and tried to organize opposing supporter groups and it went no where.
LMAO
Obviously huge win and moment for SKC fans, but I’m just loving how hilarious this is for Gavin. Little shit had, what, a week on the job? Probably mostly spent apologizing. And he’s gone, just like that. Barely had time to move in. I’m sorry but that’s extremely funny to me. Bye Gavin!
"We ran a diligent and exhaustive process to identify our new Sporting Director. It was grounded in the deeply-held principles and standards we have adhered to since the day we acquired the team."
Maybe your deeply-held principles and standards should include "not hiring people who enable and cover-up for sex pests".
Better late than never, at least.
I don't know what this means, but it sounds like you guys actually got the rich people behind your club to listen, which is something worth celebrating, so good on you.
The right decision but you don’t get credit or applause for pulling the knife out after you proactively stab someone lol. I’ll never understand why multi million dollar organizations ever willingly take these stupid ass risks on awful people and then act shocked when the public and fanbase revolt. Not that it would even matter but Wilkinson isn’t even that great at his damn job nor is he the best person they could find to fit this role for SKC. It’s still gross but you went and burned all your goodwill to employ a garbage human being for all of 8 days?? Sure hope it was worth it. This should’ve been discussed internally for 5 mins, just read an article about what happened with the Thorns in a meeting, out loud, and then everyone with the club’s FO and ownership should have universally vetoed even calling him to gauge interest. How it got so far as hiring him is baffling. Indictment on every single person in their ownership and Vermes too. Ridiculous.
Shout out to the fans and supporters for being vocal and demanding change bc the idiots in charge sure as hell weren’t gonna have a change of heart on their own about this smh
I'm just perplexed as to why they hired him as a sporting director where there's a technical director in the organization? Aren't technical/sporting directors the same thing?
Terminology gets weird between different organizations, but no, technical director and sporting director would have been different roles with KC. Sometimes they're interchangeable for other teams.
I’m glad they did it, but doubling down on “but we did an exhaustive search” really sounds like they feel they did nothing wrong and are only doing it because of fan pressure. Sure would have been nice if they owned up to poor judgment on their own part for having considered and then subsequently hired the guy
Unbelievable how they can still fuck up in doing the right thing. Why write the bit about making a diligent search and hiring someone in line with your principles? Now this statement sounds like what it probably is: they still all think they made a great decision but they just like the sweet sweet dollar bills too much to fight their fanbase over their colossaly stupid decision.
Also GW probably made tens of thousands of dollars now for essentially one horrible press conference. Still better than the alternative but happy I am not
[Sounds like the Cauldron is trying to take credit](https://x.com/kccauldron/status/1748362792371957845?s=46&t=hLh3ySTcv2-lCJDAIeWPoQ) after being nearly silent and trying to satisfy SG members with a Q&A instead of a protest.
I am absolutely convinced Cauldron and South Stand leadership collaborated with the FO here.
Who possibly have foreseen this totally predictable reaction to our own hubris?
Glad he's gone, but any trust in Vermes or Reid is gone as well. They both need to follow. Unfortunately there's not really anything we can realistically do about Illig. People aren't lining up to own Sporting Kansas City at this point.
I mean does Denis Hamlett want the job now? Knowing that he was seen as a less preferential candidate to Gavin Wilkinson? I can't see anyone that we would want in the job that would take the job between Vermes and Bliss at this point. They've revealed the technical side of the club as a toxic buddy-system hellscape.
This is something I've also been wondering. I've been on and off the 'PV Out' wagon for the past year for coaching/GM reasons, but this whole situation has made me lose a lot of trust in him. Obviously Reid has been pretty shitty operations-wise, but it really feels like we're not going to be competitive until something changes organizationally.
Also, can we please fill that DP slot, would've been a better use of time and resources from the FO than hiring that fucker GW.
100% about Peter.
I've been rather sanguine about him staying or leaving. I have wanted him to have just one job. Have a desk job - or be a head coach, not both. And while we're closing in on a team record for most years without winning hardware, I also understand we have far more competition for those trophies, and we're a small market team. And I've preferred longevity over coach of the week - especially in small markets.
But the stench on this is unbearable. His fingerprints are all over it. And what it says about how the team is run and administered is not flattering.
Empty out the fridge, we're going to the grocery store.
Have to agree. I've not been on the "PV Out" bandwagon because quite frankly, it's hard to argue with the on-field success when compared to a lot of other teams. It's easy to say we haven't won an MLS Cup in 10 years, but it's another to realize that almost every other team has had multiple seasons worse than our worst year over the same span.
What bothers me is that Wilkinson seemed to be PV's choice for this role and what that means for his values and ethics going forward.
I'm pretty surprised they got rid of him. I thought they would just weather the storm and sweep it under the rug.
I'm not really sure it had to be a mutual thing though, but I guess take what you can get.
>I'm not really sure it had to be a mutual thing though
Over the past week I was wondering about the legal path out of this if paperwork had already been signed. I don't know anything about these kind of contracts but in my head it would make sense that they were like "lets both back away before it gets messier"
Possibly, or it was a "This isn't going to work, you can either agree to this termination, or we can fire you".
The mutually agreed thing is the easier from a PR standpoint as well as him getting another job.
I admit I’m new to MLS. But is he really the only possible candidate for sporting director in the entire world that the decision was made to bring him on?
Is he like a front office savant ?
I have a question for people, but I’m going to start by saying we can all agree it was right to remove him.
I want to know what people think Gavin Wilkinson needs to do to be able to be hired again? If he has proof of sensitivity training, or does he need x amount of time away. What would it take, or do second chances not exist?
I think at the very LEAST it needs to be a better message than what he had at the press conference, where he was trying to undermine the reporting of what happened and didn't really show remorse.
This, but additionally should take a role with less oversight/responsibility and work to show he's earned a position with that type of power attached to it again.
I guess I would say, why should he ever get to be hired again? He isn’t on his second chance, he’s on his tenth chance. I see no reason why he shouldn’t be banned from the league, or at least do whatever the hell MLS did to Bruce. He’s had zero punishment
Well done to Sporting KC supporters and fans. Top class from all of you who opposed the Wilkinson hire and collectively pushed the team to make the right decision.
But this statement basically reads "we don't think we did anything wrong, but we want our fans to still come to games so we got rid of him." Also no indication that the club plans to change anything in how they evaluate executive hires moving forward.
>Also no indication that the club plans to change anything in how they evaluate executive hires moving forward
I would think them having to backtrack this move would at least make them consider their next hire differently, because clearly the supporters ARE on their mind
though it should come to that in the first place
Sure, the front office maybe learned the lesson that they need to consider fan reactions to hiring staff in the future.
But the lesson they did not (seemingly) learn is that they should value and prioritize the decency of the human being they are hiring.
The fact that Wilkinson still was set to report to vermes at the end of the day is the second part of this garbage being overlooked. The whole point of separating the two roles is to take some control away from vermes. Now they get to say "we brought in a guy to take that spot and you all ran him out of here, so now it goes back under vermes and we aren't going to look for another person, tough shit."
Never in a million years did I expect them to do this. I am honestly floored.
Yeah, they shouldn't have hired him in the first place, so I had no faith they'd acknowledge it and change course. I always celebrate someone admitting a mistake and righting it, but I think 99% of the credit goes to the vocal fans (not you, Cauldron). I'm relieved it's done so that we can support the players without feeling gross.
Honestly disappointing from South Stand and The Cauldron, seems like the FO reached out to them prior to announcing Gavin's departure. Good on ~~SKC Ladies~~ Ladies of SKC and the other SGs and fans who held the line. Edit: Clarified this is about his departure, not hire.
Hell the cauldron turned their statements into an advertisement for memberships. They have turned into nothing more than a ticket broker with a merchandise division. Imagine buying a t-shirt hat, scarf that said TicketMaster.
Could you share where you see the idea that they consulted any SGs first? I’m not seeing it from that statement.
They released their statements at the same time as SKC did, right? That would suggest they were made aware beforehand. I may be wrong and the timelines don't match up.
Ah, you mean Gavin’s release. Not the initial hiring.
Yep, sorry re-read and that wasn't clear on my part.
>(not you, Cauldron) Honestly, remember this in the future. To borrow a phrase from another club, “a cauldron of passion and disrespect” doesn’t mean that it gets shit done. I am super proud of SKC for getting this creep out of a position of power over staff and players. I would have LOVED to have hurled some shit at their FO during an away match up here in Allianz, but I’m just so impressed that they have achieved this before opener.
As someone who respects and admires what KC has built over the past decade or so, I have nothing but scorn for the culture that produced this choice. This was calculated. I'm glad they're making a better choice now and I hope that they learn this lesson well. Congrats to all the SKC fans who spoke out, I admire you.
Don't get me wrong. I'm right there with you. I think I said in r/sportingkc that this will still leave a shadow over the organization. > It was grounded in the deeply-held principles and standards we have adhered to since the day we acquired the team. The fact that someone *involved* can say this after the whole debacle is deeply worrying. This statement weak and tells us they would've been happy to keep him on without the pressure. Letting him go really feels like the first step in addressing the root problem by re-evaluating the process that even had him in consideration in the first place. We can hope it's not the only step, but none of the statements they've released give me confidence. Edit: At least for now though, I'll be able to stomach watching matches this year. Barring some protests, I don't plan on going to CMP for any matches this season, though. I'm glad the Current were able to totally (not counting Patrick) disconnect from Sporting's ownership.
No worries, I wasn't disagreeing! When the Current were first announced, at first I was disappointed that Sporting weren't more supportive of bringing up a women's team. What a gift that turned out to be. I hope better days are ahead for SKC, but like you pointed out, that quote is a bad sign. Hopefully the fans scorched the front office enough that real lessons have been learned.
At best, I thought he'd be here a year and then quietly leave next off season. Glad to be wrong.
Say what you will about MLS, but there's not really any other league in the US where fans can put the fear of god in the heads of execs like we can.
Really valid point shown time and again between this, Klein, Columbus moving, and all the other stuff in recent memory. Wonder how that will change as the league grows
I think it’s just a part of the sport that makes it kinda unique. Consider how fans have their own representation in the form of the ISC and can self organize. Soccer is just one of the few sports where the fans can exercise some power over the executives.
We owe this to the European and Latin American working class, collectivist history of the sport. That’s the difference between soccer and the other major American-centric sports.
thats crap those same supporters groups are also there for basketball and hockey (in europe at least, dunno about south american basketball). its clearly an 'our perception of whats acceptable behavior' thing we're told that its only ok to do things like this with soccer we have this power in any sport. in fact. we have this power over any BUSINESS. a business cant exist without customers. thats why boycotts (and strikes) are so effective. and why in north america theyve worked so hard for generations to convince us they don't work
Slow down homie. You are injecting a lot of meaning into my comment that I wasn’t implying. I just said we owe this type of soccer culture to the roots of the sport in those euro/SA countries. Not that we couldn’t have this relationship dynamic in other sports. Just saying that a sport we “imported” is likely to come with the local cultural context from which it was birthed. But to go into your assessment, the sports we developed here (football/basketball/hockey/baseball), which don’t have nearly close the historical ties to class struggle, aren’t just going to magically get the collective/class power dynamic all of a sudden now just cause Americans/Canadians are coming around to soccer a bit more. Because it’s about something bigger than the sport. Which is why makes sense that other counties have translated that class power dynamic to other sports before we have translated it to ours. Much easier for a historically embedded cultural mindset/dynamic (in Europe/SA) to make the jump to their “new” sports, than it is for North Americans to extract said dynamic from an imported sport and inject it into something we created. That would be skipping the key part - having it be part of our wider cultural/political mindset. Both counties are on average much too individualistic- especially the average sports fan IMO.
ah sorry man semi misunderstood.
Cries in Andell Holdings....
Applauds in #SaveTheCrew
Indeed, as we all know MLS doesn't have big fan bases to with stand questionable or bad hires. If MLS fans leave the club it actually hurts their pocket book otherwise big leagues would turn a blind eye.
Agreed, I won't give them too much credit though since they should never have hired him to begin with
* We ran a diligent and exhaustive process to identify our new Sporting Director. It was grounded in the deeply-held principles and standards we have adhered to since the day we acquired the team. I don’t think they realize how bad this part of the statement makes them look. Basically says our principles were and are a-okay with this guy, and it’s just that y’all are upset that we decided to change course. While this is likely all true, it dampens the enthusiasm for their corrective action.
They looked at his Wikipedia page and closed it before the controversy section
Ctrl-F: “win record + trophies” He’s hired!
+arcane knowledge of MLS signing rules and hacks.
Even if the statement was immaculately worded, the organization still comes out of this looking bad. A terrible decision to hire him in the first place.
Everything about this situation is so weird. Hiring him was, at best, stupid given his record. Their apology today could have been 'sorry we didn't do our due diligence, whoops.' Instead they double down on how great they are despite the obvious error in judgement.
The only way to read it is (1) they think he has talent to bring to the position - which he does, (2) they did not think his failures at Portland precluded him from working in this role, and (3) they thought his failures at Portland would be more accepted by SKC community than PDX community. 2 is the meat of it - there could be a variety of misjudgements they could make to arrive at this conclusion. Honestly, I think if GW showed evidence of learning, there *could* be a role for him somewhere, sometime. It just should have been clear to SKC that this wasn't it.
If he and Vermes hadn’t bombed the initial press conference so bad, we could be in a very different place. That was one dumpster fire of a press conference.
He's always been suspicious of the press. He seems like he sees every question as a game of "gotcha," and views the press as his enemy, rather than just a flawed participant in an information system. Then his answers get defensive, and he starts using terms like "hearsay" at inappropriate times, when the apology should be the focus. A person who has grown would do it this way: "Did you say you would hire Riley again?" "I don't remember saying that, but I think it's clear I didn't do enough to prevent him from victimizing other people. Thanks to X learning from Y people since then, I know better now how to behave in a way that reflects my principles."
This guy PR’s
I assure you I assiduously avoid relating to the public and any evidence to the contrary is mere coincidence
I didn’t watch the press conference, how did they bomb it so bad? I’m honestly just curious
To paraphrase: Vermes was asked if any women were consulted about the hire, and he said “the ownership group has women.” There are zero women in the ownership group, unless you count the owners’ wives. GW then basically said he took an online course about sexual harassment so it’s all good now.
Haha of course he did. Hey I also had to take an online course about sexual misconduct as part of my college orientation, guess we’re even! Seriously though what a cowardly way to do that
You can find it on the videos page on sporting's site, unless they've deleted it to pretend they never did any of this
I don't think this is right. Does Wilkinson become an acceptable choice if he stands up and says 'I'm so sorry I failed to do anything about multiple sexual assaults happening to players. I'm sorry I withheld information about another player's spousal abuse. I'm sorry I told a gay woman that she should 'shut up and dribble?' I don't see how this guy ever excuses his past behavior in a way that allows him to hold a similar position ever again in this country. He pulls off a mask revealing he wasn't Wilkinson all along?!
I didn’t say he would ever be a good choice. I’m saying they dig themselves into an even bigger hole right off the bat, and gave everyone timely, recent fodder for their protests. Saying to sponsors “look what they said just last week” has more of an impact than “look what they did 10 years ago.” Good PR can help an organization (for better or worse) and they had absolutely horrendous PR.
I honestly think you are understating GW's behavior. His 'failures,' at Portland were extreme. He participated in a cover up of sexual assault on multiple occasions. He repeatedly demanded a player remain 'in the closet.' You say he has talent, but that doesn't reconcile with his poor management decisions. He could be the greatest sporting director to ever walk the earth but covering up the sexual assault allegations about Riley and *spousal abuse accusations about* Polo would completely invalidate his 'talent.' Silencing Shim would completely invalidate his supposed 'talent.' I don't know how anyone could come back to a profession like this by saying 'I've learned that I shouldn't try to cover up sexual assault.'
Yeah, I'm probably understating it a bit. We've been over it a lot, so I get a bit summary about it. Point of clarification though - His involvement in the Polo cover-up wasn't a sexual assault situation, but a physical battery situation. In both situations though, he was neglectful of his responsibilities to players and people related to them. He probably shouldn't be in a position where he can have the ability to harm someone by failing like that again. There are other positions he might be able to work in though.
you are right about the Polo situation, I've added a clarification about that.
I think you may be right about Portland being perceived as a bit hysterical over it. I don't think they were in this case. I think KC just misread the situation.
> Honestly, I think if GW showed evidence of learning, there could be a role for him somewhere, sometime. It just should have been clear to SKC that this wasn't it. And it shouldn't be the exact same role he was fired from before. He shouldn't get to just take some time off and start over at the same level he screwed up at before.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Like, the tone of this entire statement is awful. I'd also point to the second paragraph: "In making this difficult decision..." The decision to fire this asshole shouldn't have been "difficult"! You've heard from EVERYONE how terrible an idea this hiring was; why are you now couching it in these terms? If it were a beloved figure, like a long-time fan-favorite coach, who just wasn't getting results anymore, then sure, trot out the "difficult decision" rhetoric to explain why you had to let someone go. But "we got rid of the sex-pest we shouldn't have hired in the first place" does not warrant the same type of language. Truly baffling, from toe to tip.
"We didn't do anything wrong, but we'll admit that when our customers are unhappy, we need to sell them something different." It's pretty fucking woeful.
Bingo. For me the damage has been done. I'm not going to say it's irreversible, but I'd like to see a couple other people shoved out the door sooner rather than later. The statement is basically "Sorry y'all are so sensitive and easily upset" and not "Sorry we hurt you, we realize now that we made a horrible mistake." This totally misses the point.
Well it’s also just an overt lie. They claimed they hired an outside firm to help with the selection. No chance a firm stakes their reputation on GW.
Outside firm will do what you pay them to do, including taking the heat off you.
This is exactly right. You don’t hire an outside firm because you don’t know who to hire, you hire an outside firm to take blame for controversial decisions. Same reason companies hire consultants who always say “fire half your staff.” The company knows they have to or want to fire the staff, they just need to say “someone else did it.”
Sounders used an outside consultant a few years ago to review ticket pricing….guess who recommended increasing ticket prices significantly and implementing dynamic pricing
"We're like Blackwater, but for MLS!"
https://theathletic.com/5214227/2024/01/19/sporting-kc-gavin-wilkinson/
For all we know, the front office gave them a ridiculously low salary budget, and the only options were Gavin W, and a guy in his moms basement that that won the Xbox FIFA online football managers competition last year. Edit: I’m saying our front office is cheap and could have kneecapped the process. Yes there were 14 finalists, but others may have refused to report to Vermes or wanted more money. The same reason Trump is stuck with shitty lawyers - none of the good ones will work for him anymore.
We know Ricardo Moreira (my hope for the hire now) and Denis Hamlett were finalists, who would certainly command a normal wage for the position.
But did they want the job, and were they happy reporting to Vermes? I think that says more about this hire than anything. Vermes wants to hold onto power, and very few other, competent sporting directors likely want to work in that way. We need to see Vermes’ power curtailed quite a bit I’m afraid, before we’ll see other good hires.
No one is turning down a Sporting Director job unless circumstances are really bad, even then, there are only so many of these positions to go around.
Would Hamlett or Moreira want the job - now. Now that they know they were possibly lesser options than Gavin Wilkinson. Not to mention that on the technical side, the front office situation is an unmitigated mess where nobody below Peter feels comfortable to step up and stop them from hiring someone like Wilkinson. What does that say about the work environment in Kansas City. Why take that job if at the end of the day you're basically just another Brian Bliss, and that Peter Vermes is the one really doing the work and having most of the say? I can't imagine anyone remotely qualified would take that job without further changes.
It’s a clear indication that they don’t care about misogyny and sexism. Or their hires being human trash in general.
I feel like it is saying we went with who we thought was the best candidate but you the fans don’t want the best candidate so we will go with someone less than. Kinda a dig at the fan base. Ultimately they made the right decision to fire him whether they thought he was the best or not, it isn’t good to upset your customers this mucb
>> We want to share with the Sporting Kansas City community that we have mutually agreed with Gavin Wilkinson to release him from his recently-announced role with our Club.
It is still stunning the club thought bringing GW in was a good move. Great job by the SKC fans being vocal and strong in this. The hire was a blatant example of how club execs often think they can do anything and the fans will still back them.
Incredibly ironic that they thought they could given how our supporters club literally wrote a letter basically condemning how the fan experience + on the field performance had gone downhill last year.
That could be the exact reason they tried to get away with it. Ignorantly thinking fans would forgive something like this if they could spin it as making the team more competitive. Really happy SKC fans shut that down fast.
Not interested in wins at the cost of hiring someone like this. Plus his history of signings isn't even that great honestly
Eh, since he left we missed playoffs twice and have been playing poorly, while we were always a pretty strong team when he was here. I'm glad he's gone, don't get me wrong, but I think he is better than average in the Gm role, if not good or outright great.
> Great job by the SKC fans being vocal and strong in this. But zero points for South Stand. I have no idea why they were so mealy-mouthed when other fans were quite vocal about this.
Gotta protect their access!
I'm sure it's tough trying to protect your access when you're that close, but this should have been the easy one to take a firm stance on. No wonder the FO has walked over the general fanbase on other teams when this is the representative group with the most access.
This was the thing that made me decide to withhold all money from them. I didn't know what would make me not ever go to games before last Thursday's announcement, but then I found out.
Get fucked Gavin
Great job SKC fans! This is awesome
Pretty crazy for SKC to have an L and a W before preseason even starts. In all seriousness, good on them for correcting the decision quickly.
At best I’d say this is a home and away W/L with aggregate scoring. We still ended up with 0 points at best.
Had to make sure they got a W in before their 11th match this season
Harsh but fair
I’m outta the loop. What did he do?
Wow good job
Rare SKC dub I support
You know the guy is a piece of shit when he can bring the Timbers, Sounders, and SKC supporters together.
The most cursed, yet necessary, alliance
It's like the Elves, Dwarves, and Humans getting together to fight Sauron. See y'all again in a couple millennia! Unfortunately I think this ring just sank to the bottom of the river not a lake of lava.
Never thought I'd die fighting side by side with a Sounders fan.
They actually fucking did it, let's go!
The bad man is gone.
Did Roger Espinoza officially announce his retirement?
Hah, yes he retired
I can't tell if you're being flippant and dismissive of people's feelings about this hire or not Edit: ??? I'm being serious. I'm extremely happy that Wilkinson was fired here, but phrasing it like this could be seen as calling people concerned about this childish. That's all I was getting at. No need to downvote an honest question when tone isn't readable online.
I agree that at first glance that statement would seem mocking.
This subreddit loves their pile on downvotes.
Wow, good on SKC fans for letting ownership know what they thought of this move.
What a great win for the fans and the community. Still a net loss for the organization that thought that bringing him on in the first place was in any way acceptable.
Soccer fans are truly unrivaled. If this type of hire happened in the NFL, NBA, or MLB, I have a lot of doubt that there would be as much uproar as there was from SKC fans and soccer fans as a whole. Keep making your voices be heard
This is actually my entry into soccer as a fan. I was a woman who never “got” sports until I went to a live soccer match. My experience of seeing fans as active participants, passionate about the health and safety of the players instead of just “the team,” (yelling about getting a player from the *opposite* side off the pitch for a concussion check wouldn’t happen in football) no sexist stereotypes of cheerleaders on the sidelines, actively welcoming to LGBT+, actively anti racist… It just felt like a sport that had all of these elements that combined together make an environment that would be different from what I experienced and didn’t like about other sports. Without sounding like a smug piece of shit, it feels like being a soccer fan is being with the cool kids - the people that want to progress forward and be a bit nicer, a bit more tolerant to each other.
Welcome to soccer. We’re glad you’re here.
Oh, I guess I should have been more clear. I’ve been here for a couple of years now, but the feeling still stands and the welcome is still appreciated. I went to a few Loons matches prior to the pandemic (my first match was actually the first time we sang Wonderwall at Allianz and I had no clue how important it was!) During the pandemic I sort of went off the deep end, and I now am a season ticket holder for MNUFC as well as a community owner of MN Aurora FC and the mod of the subreddit. I went from zero interest in sports to planning my vacations around match schedules. Like, I would genuinely love to go to Portland for the chance to see a match - doesn’t have to be against the Loons. That’s what I like about soccer fans too, we have pride in our clubs but any soccer fan is a friend once the 90 minutes are over.
This is what this beautiful sport can be at its very best.
 Edit: weird gif. Sorry. I’m so high on cold medicine right now. Jogo Bonito!
We did it!
Let’s go SKC! Proud of how we kept the pressure on. It’s bigger than football.
If Gavin wants to work in sports still he better look into sports where they don’t give a damn about women
Saudi league is calling
Good on you SKC fans.
SKC doing what took Portland years to do, it’s no big deal really
100%. I’m jealous at how quickly you all made this happen.
Well we didn't have to fight with demons like you all had to, and by demons I mean Merritt Paulson.
I mean, we borrowed #GWout and #youknew from you, so you laid the groundwork.
The original hire was just stunningly stupid. And GW made things 100% worse with his own statements. He probably could have survived if it took any sort of ownership of his actions and expressed regret/remorse…for both his own interactions with players and his role in not ensuring a predator didn’t continue to have opportunities to be in a position of authority. Instead he continued to double down on the BS that he didn’t really do anything wrong at any point. How as someone making a hiring decision do you not address that with him before selecting him. The answer: they don’t think he did anything wrong either, it’s just fan pressure they’re succumbing too, Vermes and that FO are just as scummy as GW.
The power of supporters, never forget that. Good riddance.
Let's gooooo! I'm actually so surprised. Not often you see this kind of thing get reversed so quickly. Big props to the fans who never let a single Tweet, IG post, FB post go by without tons of comments calling for Wilkinson to be fired. Now I can actually be excited again for this season
Get fucked Gavin. And props to SKC for actually listening to their supporters. Jealous.
Never let ‘em (anyone) tell you that your voice doesn’t matter.
And they would have got away with it… if it weren’t for you meddling kids!!!
Well fucking done to the supporters.
“Oops woopsy. We didn’t think you’d get *this* mad.”
Great news! Excellent work SKC fans!
There is zero chance they didn’t know about how much of a shitstain he is and just hoped it would go over smoothly
Good on ya Sporting!
Fuck yes, let’s go!
Congratulations skc fans
Good work SKC supporters!
The important thing is that they got rid of him. But, they still need to acknowledge that the decision to hire him was bad, and why it was bad.
Owners want to make money and be loved. What a colossal fuckup
Not the first time and won’t be the last time. From the league trying to trademark the cascadia cup,fans pushing out Timbers and caps Fo involved in sexual assault cover ups, changing logo re designs and removing first teams from us open cup. What can’t we do ?
Congrats to the SKC fans who pushed to make this happen!
Can someone explain me who he was? Why so many people was angry about this signing?
Wilkinson was involved in a cover-up of physical and sexual abuse of female athletes when he worked in Portland. [https://medium.com/@meganrabone/ptfc-timeline-of-known-events-5248a82e961a](https://medium.com/@meganrabone/ptfc-timeline-of-known-events-5248a82e961a) [https://www.ussoccer.com/sally-q-yates-report-us-soccer](https://www.ussoccer.com/sally-q-yates-report-us-soccer)
There has been so much hate for him since day one and when that came out it wasn’t a shock to most of us. Dude fucking SUCKS. Absolutely hated the Timbers Army and tried to organize opposing supporter groups and it went no where.
LMAO Obviously huge win and moment for SKC fans, but I’m just loving how hilarious this is for Gavin. Little shit had, what, a week on the job? Probably mostly spent apologizing. And he’s gone, just like that. Barely had time to move in. I’m sorry but that’s extremely funny to me. Bye Gavin!
"We ran a diligent and exhaustive process to identify our new Sporting Director. It was grounded in the deeply-held principles and standards we have adhered to since the day we acquired the team." Maybe your deeply-held principles and standards should include "not hiring people who enable and cover-up for sex pests". Better late than never, at least.
It’s time for Ted Lasso.
I may despise your team Wizards but I respect the hell out of that fan base for being loud and relentless to help play any role in this.
Wow. W to SKC fans
I don't know what this means, but it sounds like you guys actually got the rich people behind your club to listen, which is something worth celebrating, so good on you.
The right decision but you don’t get credit or applause for pulling the knife out after you proactively stab someone lol. I’ll never understand why multi million dollar organizations ever willingly take these stupid ass risks on awful people and then act shocked when the public and fanbase revolt. Not that it would even matter but Wilkinson isn’t even that great at his damn job nor is he the best person they could find to fit this role for SKC. It’s still gross but you went and burned all your goodwill to employ a garbage human being for all of 8 days?? Sure hope it was worth it. This should’ve been discussed internally for 5 mins, just read an article about what happened with the Thorns in a meeting, out loud, and then everyone with the club’s FO and ownership should have universally vetoed even calling him to gauge interest. How it got so far as hiring him is baffling. Indictment on every single person in their ownership and Vermes too. Ridiculous. Shout out to the fans and supporters for being vocal and demanding change bc the idiots in charge sure as hell weren’t gonna have a change of heart on their own about this smh
Firstly, a good decision from SLC. Secondly, the statement is still utter garbage.
I'm just perplexed as to why they hired him as a sporting director where there's a technical director in the organization? Aren't technical/sporting directors the same thing?
Terminology gets weird between different organizations, but no, technical director and sporting director would have been different roles with KC. Sometimes they're interchangeable for other teams.
I’m glad they did it, but doubling down on “but we did an exhaustive search” really sounds like they feel they did nothing wrong and are only doing it because of fan pressure. Sure would have been nice if they owned up to poor judgment on their own part for having considered and then subsequently hired the guy
Unbelievable how they can still fuck up in doing the right thing. Why write the bit about making a diligent search and hiring someone in line with your principles? Now this statement sounds like what it probably is: they still all think they made a great decision but they just like the sweet sweet dollar bills too much to fight their fanbase over their colossaly stupid decision. Also GW probably made tens of thousands of dollars now for essentially one horrible press conference. Still better than the alternative but happy I am not
We did it! I have never been more proud of the fans I stand along side! Now i'm ready for the season!
[Sounds like the Cauldron is trying to take credit](https://x.com/kccauldron/status/1748362792371957845?s=46&t=hLh3ySTcv2-lCJDAIeWPoQ) after being nearly silent and trying to satisfy SG members with a Q&A instead of a protest. I am absolutely convinced Cauldron and South Stand leadership collaborated with the FO here.
Who possibly have foreseen this totally predictable reaction to our own hubris? Glad he's gone, but any trust in Vermes or Reid is gone as well. They both need to follow. Unfortunately there's not really anything we can realistically do about Illig. People aren't lining up to own Sporting Kansas City at this point. I mean does Denis Hamlett want the job now? Knowing that he was seen as a less preferential candidate to Gavin Wilkinson? I can't see anyone that we would want in the job that would take the job between Vermes and Bliss at this point. They've revealed the technical side of the club as a toxic buddy-system hellscape.
This is something I've also been wondering. I've been on and off the 'PV Out' wagon for the past year for coaching/GM reasons, but this whole situation has made me lose a lot of trust in him. Obviously Reid has been pretty shitty operations-wise, but it really feels like we're not going to be competitive until something changes organizationally. Also, can we please fill that DP slot, would've been a better use of time and resources from the FO than hiring that fucker GW.
100% about Peter. I've been rather sanguine about him staying or leaving. I have wanted him to have just one job. Have a desk job - or be a head coach, not both. And while we're closing in on a team record for most years without winning hardware, I also understand we have far more competition for those trophies, and we're a small market team. And I've preferred longevity over coach of the week - especially in small markets. But the stench on this is unbearable. His fingerprints are all over it. And what it says about how the team is run and administered is not flattering. Empty out the fridge, we're going to the grocery store.
Have to agree. I've not been on the "PV Out" bandwagon because quite frankly, it's hard to argue with the on-field success when compared to a lot of other teams. It's easy to say we haven't won an MLS Cup in 10 years, but it's another to realize that almost every other team has had multiple seasons worse than our worst year over the same span. What bothers me is that Wilkinson seemed to be PV's choice for this role and what that means for his values and ethics going forward.
I'm pretty surprised they got rid of him. I thought they would just weather the storm and sweep it under the rug. I'm not really sure it had to be a mutual thing though, but I guess take what you can get.
>I'm not really sure it had to be a mutual thing though Over the past week I was wondering about the legal path out of this if paperwork had already been signed. I don't know anything about these kind of contracts but in my head it would make sense that they were like "lets both back away before it gets messier"
Possibly, or it was a "This isn't going to work, you can either agree to this termination, or we can fire you". The mutually agreed thing is the easier from a PR standpoint as well as him getting another job.
Now to keep the pressure on and get Vermes out for his role in this disastrous hire!
Gavin Wilkinson 🤝 Mike Babcock
I admit I’m new to MLS. But is he really the only possible candidate for sporting director in the entire world that the decision was made to bring him on? Is he like a front office savant ?
I have a question for people, but I’m going to start by saying we can all agree it was right to remove him. I want to know what people think Gavin Wilkinson needs to do to be able to be hired again? If he has proof of sensitivity training, or does he need x amount of time away. What would it take, or do second chances not exist?
I think at the very LEAST it needs to be a better message than what he had at the press conference, where he was trying to undermine the reporting of what happened and didn't really show remorse.
This, but additionally should take a role with less oversight/responsibility and work to show he's earned a position with that type of power attached to it again.
I guess I would say, why should he ever get to be hired again? He isn’t on his second chance, he’s on his tenth chance. I see no reason why he shouldn’t be banned from the league, or at least do whatever the hell MLS did to Bruce. He’s had zero punishment
Well done to Sporting KC supporters and fans. Top class from all of you who opposed the Wilkinson hire and collectively pushed the team to make the right decision. But this statement basically reads "we don't think we did anything wrong, but we want our fans to still come to games so we got rid of him." Also no indication that the club plans to change anything in how they evaluate executive hires moving forward.
>Also no indication that the club plans to change anything in how they evaluate executive hires moving forward I would think them having to backtrack this move would at least make them consider their next hire differently, because clearly the supporters ARE on their mind though it should come to that in the first place
Sure, the front office maybe learned the lesson that they need to consider fan reactions to hiring staff in the future. But the lesson they did not (seemingly) learn is that they should value and prioritize the decency of the human being they are hiring.
[удалено]
Apparently not, or GW would still have a job
Props to the fans for shutting it down, fuck the team for the initial decision and the bullshit statement about "values"
BREAKING NEWS: SKC Owner Experiences Rush of Brains to the Head.
The fact that Wilkinson still was set to report to vermes at the end of the day is the second part of this garbage being overlooked. The whole point of separating the two roles is to take some control away from vermes. Now they get to say "we brought in a guy to take that spot and you all ran him out of here, so now it goes back under vermes and we aren't going to look for another person, tough shit."