KANSAS CITY, Mo. — About 15 years ago now, Sporting Kansas City’s new ownership group contemplated a site for a soccer-specific stadium, making good on a vision Lamar Hunt had told them would be a necessity for survival in this town.
The initial two options, brightly as the renderings had glowed on paper, fell through without a shovel hitting the dirt. As they examined a third, a spot near the Kansas Speedway, principal owner Cliff Illig stiff-armed the pretty pictures.
“I want to start with a list of who’s going to be in the building,” he had said that day. “We’re going to design the building around them.”
