A New Kingdom for Kansas City
By Wally Fish
If you’ve ever visited this site before today, chances are that you’ve noticed things look quite a bit different than they used to. We’ve got a new name, new logo, new look and a new mascot.
The Genesis of Change:
Our Kansas City Local site, formerly Fountain City Focus has struggled since its inception back in February for a number of reasons. A “.co” domain. A site name that had closer ties to an area near Knoxville, Tennessee than Kansas City which is so aptly named the City of Fountains. But perhaps more important than all of that was a general lack of staff and content generated on the site. Without regular content, it’s hard to grow a following and it’s hard to build a brand. We are in the business of writing and without actually doing some writing we’re not really in business are we?
This site had a grand total of 147 articles published on it from the day it was originally launched – February 28th, 2012 – to the end of October. It was a start but it wasn’t nearly enough to adequately cover the Kansas City sports scene. Changes at the helm were needed and that’s where I come in.
I’ve been writing online for about four years now with all but about four months of that time with FanSided. I got my start covering the Royals on Kings of Kauffman as the site’s first Lead Writer/Editor and have been covering baseball ever since on a number of our MLB sites and have also served as a part of our network’s leadership for the past three years.
While covering other sports as a writer is a new experience for me, I call Kansas City home and follow all our local teams. November 8th was my first day on the KC local beat. Current KoK Editor – and KU grad – Michael Engel has joined me to cover some Jayhawks basketball along the way. We will be looking to add to our staff in the coming months so if you want to write for this site and cover one or more of the local teams, please don’t hesitate to apply here.
What’s In A Name?
The site’s new name came about after a long and extensive search. We kicked around countless ideas – many of them rather poor – but knew we wanted something readily identifiable with the market. At the same time, we wanted something that didn’t lean too heavily toward one sport or another while “excluding” others.
In the end we settled on KC Kingdom which ties either directly or loosely into the professional sports teams of the market both past and present. It draws in the old Monarchs of the Negro Leagues, the former Kansas City Kings (NBA) and Scouts (NHL), the Royals and the original name – Wizards – of our beloved Sporting KC. The Chiefs are the main outlier on the surface, but the site name also pays homage to the Chiefs Kingdom radio program hosted by play-by-play man Mitch Holthus.
As an added bonus, KC Kingdom has a nice natural flow with a touch of alliteration mixed in. It’s short, easy to remember and anyone that comes across the site in a search engine or directly will immediately know that the site has something to do with Kansas City.
Why Purple and Gold?
Short and sweet, purple is the color most often associated with royalty and it has mystic qualities. It is the color of good judgment, peace of mind and spirituality. It also happens to be one of my favorite colors, and I didn’t want the site to be blue or red which are all too common in the sports world.
The gold is in place mainly because it is one of the colors that complements purple the best, but also because every kingdom needs a healthy amount of gold in its coffers.
Gerald – that’s his name – in his initial stages was intended to be the new mascot on Seedlings to Stars. When I was offered the spot to write for our KC Local there was no hesitation on my part. I knew Gerald was coming with me.
I love mascots, and my 8-year old son loves owls. The way my mind works, it was a natural evolution to put the two together and feature him on the site. Owls, as you may or may not know, have a long standing place in ancient and medieval history as well as fantasy so he works with the “theme” of our new site. They are also nocturnal and since I tend to do a lot of my writing late at night (I have a wife, kids and a day job after all) Gerald the owl is a fitting mascot and companion.
Gerald is an owl for all seasons. He loves all sports, loves to eat mac and cheese and is very thankful for high definition television.
I think all of that sums up the reasons and logic behind the changes. We hope you will enjoy reading the content we produce daily on this site as I can assure you we will be having a blast crafting and publishing it. If we’re lucky maybe a few more of our local teams will win on a more consistent basis.
Here’s to the success and strength of our very own KC Kingdom!