It has been quite a successful year in Kansas City. Our three professional sports teams have represented this city very well. Sporting Kansas City, the Chiefs and the Royals have all proven over the previous year that they can hang with anyone. All three have reached the playoffs and look to add to this success at the end of their respective seasons. Kansas City has waited long enough, and its winning ways have returned.

For starters, the only team on the Kansas side, Sporting KC, is the defending champion of Major League Soccer. Sporting finally finished the job after three consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference Championship resulted in the 2013 MLS Cup. Players such as Matt Besler, Aurelien Collin and Graham Zusi have led this team over the last several years and have promoted a winning attitude. A U.S. Open Cup and MLS Cup are just some of the accolades that this team has accumulated recently. With the newly built Sporting Park to call home and a raucous crowd, which includes the fan section “The Cauldron”, Sporting has a definite homefield advantage. As soccer continuously grows in the United States, championships and stellar performances further prove that Kansas City is the soccer and sports capital of America.

The Chiefs have been extremely disappointing for a very long time. Years of questionable decision making and failing in the playoffs have plagued the Chiefs. But additions of head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Alex Smith have given this team confidence. A 9-0 start to last season helped propel this team to an 11-5 record and a trip to the playoffs. Even though the season ended in an epic four touchdown collapse against the Indianapolis Colts, 2013 was a success.  Arrowhead is the loudest outdoor stadium in the United States and Kansas City fully supports the Chiefs. Sitting at a current record of 3-3, the KC Chiefs look to make another playoff push.

Now to the beloved Royals. The boys in blue continue to impress as they continue a truly magical postseason run. Going into the World Series, the Royals are 11-0 in in the postseason dating back to 1985. The Royals took a wild card berth into the 2014 playoffs after years of rebuilding and patience for the fans and the organization as a whole. Twenty-nine years of waiting was terrible for the citizens of Kansas City. Championship & playoff droughts are common for this city, but times are changing. A tantalizing match up with the San Francisco Giants is a great opportunity for Kansas City to finally capture another World Series title and end the title drought.

Championships have been foreign to this city for many, many years. But the last calendar year has shown that a new horizon has come to Kansas City. We will stumble and fall, but excellent coaching and players will ultimately prevail. Also, not many cities can say three teams are succeeding right now. These teams are not going away anytime soon and it is time for people to take notice. Kansas City is making noise in the world of sports and all of a sudden there is hope. This is a new age for Kansas City sports and America needs to be ready.