KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The place was packed to the concourses – an opening-day record of 20,178 for a stadium that seats 18,457. With pyrotechnics, swirling spotlights and Kansas City band The Architects rocking out in the southeast tunnel entrance, it was as though people had gathered for a soccer match and a concert broke out.
Rapper Tech N9ne, raised just 25 miles away in Kansas City, Mo., took the microphone and led the crowd in the call-and-response chant “I Believe That We Will Win.” There were anthems, salutes to the military – and then Sporting Kansas City took the field and gave fans even more to celebrate, beating the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 in Sporting's 2016 home opener.