Photo by Kory Brinton / Upper 90 Photography
How cool is that photo? So much of what makes Sporting Kansas City home matches a one-of-a-kind gameday experience is captured. There's the setting, state-of-the-art LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. The moment, a championship match hosted here in Kansas City. And this team, whose winning ways have Sporting KC in first place in the Eastern Conference and the team's spot secured for the 2013-14 CONCACAF Champions League.
And then there's that capacity crowd, behind the boys in blue with a sea of support that turns the stadium into a Cauldron of collective cheers and chants, applause and animation. That atmosphere -- which will be nationally showcased on the NBC Sports Network for each of the team's next two home games -- is accentuated by the colorful displays of banners, signs, attire and flags that amplify the buzz and bring LSP to life.
Which is why Sporting Club, Sporting KC and LIVESTRONG Sporting Park are introducing a new stadium policy aimed at allowing the atmosphere to continue to grow by permitting all fans, in all sections to wave flags, within the following guidelines:
- If the flag is attached to a pole, the pole must be made of hollow PVC plastic piping
- The flag and flagpole will be subject to the normal search policies of the stadium
- The flag must be free of all commercial, offensive and/or inappropriate messages
- The flag should not be waved during the run of play so as to not obstruct the view of any guests
- The flag must not obstruct the view of stadium signage or present any safety hazard
- Sporting KC reserves the right to remove and/or confiscate any sign, banner or flag
This policy strives to encourage even greater crowd involvement in building upon the home-field advantage and will be in effect for all remaining Sporting KC home games in 2012, beginning with Friday's Eastern Conference Championship rematch with the Houston Dynamo and continuing with a visit from our good friends (they get touchy when we use the word rivals) from Chicago on September 28.
As some may know, the Fire front office feels pretty passionately about having the freedom to fly flags at MLS stadiums and events. So much so that their home stadium, Toyota Park, prohibits "Poles to Display Banners, Flags, etc." and their head coach Frank Klopas had his staff remove the KC Cauldron's banners at a Reserve League match earlier this year.
