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Central Standard

MLS All-Star Game Gives Kansas City A Fever Pitch

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Flickr -- Creative Commons

Wednesday is the 18th Major League Soccer All-Star Game and it will pit the best that MLS has against Italy’s AS Roma team.  All of this will happen right here in Kansas City.

On Wednesday's Central Standard, Suzanne Hogan will explore how revamping, rebranding and a winning record has helped soccer become a stadium-packing event in Kansas City. We’ll also look at the financial impact the All Star game will have in Wyandotte and Jackson County and the growing popularity of MLS across the country.  Finally, we'll sit down with some folks from the Cauldron, a group that prides themselves as Sporting KC’s biggest (and loudest) fans.

Our guests are:
  Greg Echlin | KCUR Sports Reporter
  Bridget Jobe | Executive Director of the Kansas City Kansas Conventions and Visitors Bureau
  Jonathan Kaplan | Social Media Manager for Sporting KC
  Sean Dane | Co-leader of the KC Cauldron
  Barbara Goebel | Member of Ladies of Sporting KC

The game takes place Wednesday, July 31 at  8pm Sporting Park in Kansas City, KS.  It will be broadcast on ESPN 2 and Univision. More information can be found here.

There are also a number of watch parties happening around Kansas City. Here are the most notable ones:

2013 AT&T MLS All-Star Game Viewing Party, Power & Light District
Dave & Buster's, 1843 Village W Pkwy #201, Kansas City, KS 66109
Tiffany Athletic Zone, 8201 NW 97th Terrace, Kansas City, MO 64153 
Sporting Park Member's Club, 1 Sporting Way, Kansas City, KS 66111
Stuey McBrews, 321 SE Main St, Lees Summit, MO 64063
The Red Lyon, 944 Massachusetts St, Lawrence, KS 66044-2868

And if you want to be a super-fan, here are all the chants and songs you'll need to know (some explicit language):

Carefree SKC

Carefree, wherever we may be
We are the famous SKC
And we don't give a damn
Whoever you may be'
Cause we are the famous SKC

400 Degrees (Instrumental Version by Juvenile)

Greatest Midfield in the World (Tune of "The Entertainer")
Ah ahahah
We have the greatest midfield in the world
Benny and Bobby, Zusi and Xavi, Uri & Nagamura ah ah (repeat)

Here We Go (typically sung during first kick)
Here we go here we go here we gooooo
here we go here we go here we gooooooo
Here we go here we go here we go
Here we go-o
Here we go.

Oh When the Wiz ("When the Saints Go Marching In")
Oh When the Wiz, Go marching in
Oh when the wiz go marching in
Oh how I long to be in that Cauldron
Oh when the wiz go marching in

Shots (sung during SKC corner kicks)
EVERYBODY Shot shots shots shots shot shot
shotshotshotshot shots
Shot shot shots shot shot shots shotsshots shot shot shots EVERYBODY
(You may recognize that chant from the popular LMFAO song and video that came later.

Sporting Sporting Kansas City ("Glory, Glory")
Sporting Sporting Kansas City
Sporting Sporting Kansas City
Sporting Sporting Kansas City
The wiz go marching on!

There's Only One Jimmy Nielsen
There's only onnnne Jimmy Nielsen
Only onnne Jimmy Nielsen.
He's guarding the post, saving some goals,
walkin in a Jimmy wonderland! (repeat)

I love Kansas City
I love Kansas City
Sporting, Kansas City
I love Kansas City
Sporting, Kansas City
I love Kansas City
Sporting, Kansas City
I love Kansas City
Sporting, Kansas City

We love you Sporting
We love you sporting, oh yes we do.
We love you sporting and we'll be true.  
We will forever, bleed blue!
Oh Sporting we love you.

Tags
Central Standard soccerSporting KCMLS
Every part of the present has been shaped by actions that took place in the past, but too often that context is left out. As a podcast producer for KCUR Studios and host of the podcast A People’s History of Kansas City, I aim to provide context, clarity, empathy and deeper, nuanced perspectives on how the events and people in the past have shaped our community today.<br/><br/>In that role, and as an occasional announcer and reporter, I want to entertain, inform, make you think, expose something new and cultivate a deeper shared human connection about how the passage of time affects us all. Reach me at hogansm@kcur.org.
Matthew Long-Middleton has been a talk-show producer, community producer, Media Training Manager and now the Community Engagement Manager at KCUR. You can reach him at Matthew@kcur.org, or on Twitter @MLMIndustries.