Join SportingMembership.com

As a supporter of Sporting KC and LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, you have the opportunity to be a part of a new ground breaking program devised to create additional benefits for your engagement. At its core, membership was created to entertain, save you money and provide you unparalleled access to our club. Membership is free and all we ask of you is to provide us some simple profile information in order to better serve you. The only exception is a verification charge of $2 for children under 13 (required of us by federal law) which you will become aware of during the registration process.  Our groundbreaking affinity program will reward you for how much, how often and how deeply you interact with Sporting Club teams, places or events.  It will help you get better connected to our partners, while also providing substantial discounts on the goods and services they offer.

Benefits include:

• Complimentary tickets to road matches.
• Complimentary access to the Members’ Section of the stadium for three (3) Sporting Kansas City matches per season.
• Access to the Sporting Explore mobile app that will provide members the opportunity to interact with the team.  
• Opportunity to interact with players, teams and other fans while you earn points for your engagement.
• Opportunity to redeem interactive points for access to special autograph sessions, team practices, member only events and much more.
• Ability to use your affinity points from Sporting Club purchases on future items.
• Access to exclusive Sporting Kansas City content, as well as invitations to members-only ticket pre-sales for concerts and special events at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park.
• Special membership offers from the team and partners.
• Ability to purchase single-game tickets at a discount.  
• Utilizing your membership card to receive access to events.

Our goal is to create an experience that offers something for everyone – whether you are a diehard Sporting fan, music buff or savvy online shopper. We are continually adding benefits to membership that will provide you access to the players, team and partners like never before. We hope you enjoy the new opportunities that Sporting Club membership provides and we look forward to seeing you during all of the action this year.

How to sign up?

If you are not currently a member, there are multiple ways to sign up for membership. All fans can visit     www.joinsporting.com to sign up for membership at their convenience. While at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, look for the member services kiosks located throughout the stadium in order to sign up for membership and receive your temporary membership card. There also will be membership services personnel walking around the stadium who can assist you with the sign-up process and provide you a temporary membership card. For those fans with smartphones, you can download the Sporting Explore app in the Android Market or at the App Store. The Sporting Explore app provides you with the ability to sign up for membership, as well as engage with the team.

Sporting Explore app:

Sporting Explore lets you experience Sporting Club events in an entirely new way. Whether it’s a Sporting Kansas City match or a big concert at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, we have you covered.
Sporting Explore is fully equipped to allow check-ins and two games: Live Play and Trivia. You can earn rewards along the way for every answer, with bonuses for being right. Anticipate the outcome of the game, answer questions about your favorite player and learn more about the team.

To download the free app, search "Sporting Explore" in the App Store, Android Market or scan the QR code near you at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park.

Membership card:

After you sign up, a membership card will be sent to your home address that will be your gateway to all the benefits of membership (requires that you provide your home address in your profile). Please remember to bring your membership card to all events at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park and get it scanned when you make purchases in order to accumulate your affinity points.

Tonight, Tonight

It's been a crazy journey, hasn't it? Tonight, in just a matter of hours, LIVESTRONG Sporting Park opens its doors for the very first time. You've seen and heard a lot of changes from our side over these last sixteen months, since ground was officially broken on what many thought was such a tiny, tiny lot across from Nebraska Furniture Mart. A lot of that change has occurred in the last 48 hours or so following the launch of SportingMembership.com. Much of the stuff you've seen over here, will now go there, but we'll get into more about how that'll work sometime down the line.

In the meantime, sit back and relax. Enjoy tonight, because we couldn't have done it without you.

Last Night's Gold Cup Action

Last night saw the first round of matches played for Group B in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup from the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

Now, normally you might not be too enticed by Jamaica vs. Grenada, but Monday's contest featured a few familiar faces. Sporting KC’s very own midfielder Craig Rocastle and defender Shavar Thomas were both in the starting eleven last night for their respective sides. Rocastle went off at injured at halftime, Thomas played the full 90 minute and Jamaica topped Grenada by a 2-0 scoreline. You can see the match in its entirety here.

In Monday's nightcap, Honduras suffered a minor setback as they were held 0-0 by Guatemala. Sporting Kansas City left back Roger Espinoza did not feature for Los Catrachos. 

Tonight, the USMNT has a chance to make everyone forget about the drubbing they received from Spain over the weekend. 6:30 p.m. CT, will you be watching?

Boys & Girls Club

On Sunday, Sporting Kansas City teamed up with MLS W.O.R.K.S., Teva Neurosciences, Cerner Corporation and the Pepsi Refresh Project to help improve the Teen Center at the Wyandotte County Boys & Girls Club (1240 Troup Avenue, Kansas City, KS). The makeover includes new computer workstations, shelving, a TV with an Xbox Kinect for FIFA11, new couches and seating, a foosball table and a Sporting Kansas City soccer locker area. Click on the photo above for a full gallery posted on the MLS W.O.R.K.S. official Facebook page.

Sporting KC will also be donating essential soccer equipment and athletic attire to bring soccer programming to the Boys & Girls Club for the first time in its history!

Tonight there will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil the rehabbed room and kick off the Summer Soccer Series at the Boys & Girls Club with a clinic led by SKC players Craig Rocastle, Michael Harrington, Luke Sassano, Chance Myers and Korede Aiyegbusi.

It's Gold Cup Day!

Wow, this whole Gold Cup thing really snuck up on us, huh? The first set of matches in Group A are set to kickoff tonight from Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. Costa Rica take on Cuba beginning at 5 pm CT, followed by--let's face it--tournament favorites Mexico and El Salvador at 7 pm. You can watch the match live on Univision, and CONCACAF will also be streaming the matches live for free.

You could see a few MLSers in action tonight, as well. RSL striker Alvaro Saborio may start up top for Los Ticos, Steve Purdy and Arturo Alvarez look set to feature for El Salvador and Rafa Marquez will most likely slot in at one of the centerback positions for Mexico.

The group stage will continue over the next nine days until June 14th, when Group C concludes at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park right here in KC. Will you be there?

Kamara on International Duty

Sporting KC striker Kei Kamara started and played the full 90 minutes in Sierra Leone's 1-0 victory over Niger on Saturday at National Stadium in Freetown, Sierra Leone for his eighth career international appearance.

The Leone Stars bested the Mena Stars on a second-half strike from Tetteh Bangura (57th minute) and move two points behind group leaders South Africa with two games remaining in qualifying for the 2012 African Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The top team from each four-team group automatically advances with the two best runners-up also securing berths.

It was Sierra Leone's first home win in more than three years and first victory for newly appointed Manager Lars Olof Mattson. The team, ranked No. 118 in the latest FIFA rankings, will return to National Stadium for their next qualifying match against Egypt on September 2nd.

Coming Home

Two local companies -- T2 + Back Alley Films and Austin Walsh Studio -- teamed up to produce a short film feature, dubbed "Coming Home," to promote Sporting Kansas City's home opener next week at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. The flick made its debut tonight, to great applause, at our First Friday party in the KC Crossroads District.

Click on the picture below to play the video and then be sure to show these two KC area businesses some appreciation on Twitter and Facebook.

T2 + Back Alley Films
     - @T2_BackAlley on Twitter
     - T2 + Back Alley Films on Facebook

Austin Walsh Studio
     - @shootoutloud on Twitter
     - Austin Walsh Photography on Facebook

Details for Members Ticket Program

As part of Sporting Club’s groundbreaking membership program, we are giving out 600 complimentary tickets to our members for our home opener next week. As a benefit to its members, Sporting Club will do similar ticket distributions prior to all home MLS matches this season, and Sporting Club members will have the opportunity to get complimentary tickets for up to three Sporting Kansas City matches in 2011.

To kick things off, 200 tickets will be distributed tonight at Sporting Kansas City’s First Friday party.

On June 8, the day before Sporting KC’s home opener, we will give away 200 complimentary Members Stand tickets online on a first-come, first-served basis. Stay tuned early next week for details on how to get your ticket through our online registration process.

In addition, 200 complimentary tickets will be made available on gameday for Sporting Club members. On June 9, the first 200 fans to line up at the Members Club entrance (outside of the east gate of the stadium) will receive a complimentary ticket in the Members Stand at for the first game at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. Members waiting in line will receive their tickets beginning at 4 p.m. and members may begin waiting in line as early as they want to on June 9.

***Anyone who receives a ticket through these opportunities--whether that is at the First Friday event, online, or outside the Members Club on June 9--will have received one of three available free entries under the Sporting Club Membership Program.***

Join the Sporting Club community for your chance to connect like never before and create your own unique experiences with our club, our partners and with LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. 

Local Buzz for LSP

Anyone who was watching NBC Action News during Thursday night's newcasts saw a great report on LIVESTRONG Sporting Park and the soccer-specific stadium's original inspiration from club founder Lamar Hunt. Check out the community feature below, as reported by NBC's Amy Hawley...

The Biggest Event of the Summer

Caption Contest Winner

Congrats to Ray Shirley, the winner in this week's caption contest on the official Sporting Kansas City Facebook page. Ray's caption, an apt reference to this memorable scene in the film "300" which spawned The Sporting 300 who stormed Chicago with banner in hand, was selected as the top entry out of more than 70 submissions and wins him an autographed Sporting KC player photo.

The weekly caption contest will continue next Monday with a photo from Sporting Kansas City's match against Toronto FC at BMO Field on Saturday.