For Valentine’s Day this year, we caught up with three couples on how they love to support their favorite team together. Click here to download your own SKC Valentine's Day card.
The power couple
Six months after they started dating, Mollie Bechtold took her then-boyfriend Brian Bechtold to the inaugural Sporting Kansas City game at Children’s Mercy Park for his birthday. And though she had been watching the team since it got its start in 1996, Brian had never been to a match.
Four and a half years later, the pair could easily be called a Sporting KC power couple — they got engaged at the 2013 preseason, they took their engagement photos at Children’s Mercy Park, and the team even sent the couple a personalized video as their wedding present.
To Mollie and Brian, supporting their hometown team is about more than just attending an occasion Saturday night match. Experiences like wedding video surprise mark some of their favorite memories together.
“They filmed a little video with the players right before the playoffs to wish us a happy marriage and thank us for being fans,” Mollie said. “They revealed it at the rehearsal dinner and we had no idea what it was. Nobody else does that for their supporters. Nobody takes care of them like that, and it just makes you so honored to be a fan.”
And it’s hard to find fans as dedicated to the team (and each other) as Mollie and Brian. Between Sporting-themed birthday gifts, helping paint tifos and traveling with the Cauldron, the couple always makes time to be together and do what they both love.
“For us I think it’s a bonding experience,” Mollie said. “It’s something we have in common. We had only been dating six months since the inaugural game happened, so for us it was a bonding experience in our relationship. It’s date night for us when we go to the game. It’s just a really good way to connect. It’s just the two of us and we make sure it’s just our time when we go to the games or other events. It’s always been something we just do together.”
Even during the off-season, the pair finds ways to bond over their love for the team, constantly passing team news back and forth throughout the day
“It’s like a race to see who gets Sporting news first and passes it to the other one,” Brian said.
New beginnings
And just like Sporting KC brings some couples closer, it brings others together for the first time.
When Alyssa Rathbun moved to Kansas City from central Illinois in April 2014, she was excited to finally be in a city with a professional soccer team. After a friend took her to a game in the South Stands, she was hooked. She started following players and fellow fans on Twitter to stay connected with her new favorite team. One of them was Justin Zimmerman.
“I didn’t really say anything to him, I just saw that he tweeted about Sporting a lot,” Rathbun said. “A couple months later he changed his profile picture on Twitter to one of him with a beard, so I messaged him and said ‘Nice beard,’ and it kind of all spiraled from there.”
The two met in person for the first time at the 2015 Sporting KC annual warehouse sale. After getting to know each other a bit, they decided to take their first trip together to the team’s match against the Houston Dynamo later that season.
A year later, the pair continues to bond over their love for the team and share new experiences together in the KC Cauldron.
“It has been very memorable," Zimmerman said. "We’ve had a lot of laughs, though. She’s been pretty easy to get along with, so it’s been pretty amazing. As we’ve grown in the relationship, we’ve pretty much figured out that we’re two peas in a pod.”
A common thread
Brittany Stichka and her boyfriend Adam Conklin don’t have much in common. He likes metal music. She likes pop music. He works outside all day. She works at a desk. She wants to go out at night while he wants to unwind from the day.
But they do have one important thing in common: their love for Sporting KC. Stichka, who has always been a soccer and Wizards fan, got Conklin into the game when they first started dating, and the two have since become regular staples in the Members Stand.
“I think it’s a connection thing for me,” Conklin said. “I didn’t like it at first, but learning to love the game she loves has been great. The first game I was asking questions every five minutes. She’s a rulebook. I mean, she used to be a ref. It’s a different dynamic to our relationship.”
Stichka said Sporting provides the perfect outlet from their everyday lives.
“I love to see him so happy,” she said. “You know, we live our regular lives and he goes to work and I go to work and we come home and take care of the dogs and go to bed. It’s pretty boring. But that right there is his happiness. I like this Adam and I like the Adam I get to see on the weekends when we’re having fun together. I love it.”
