Sporting Kansas City was founded in 1995 and began play in 1996 as one of Major League Soccer's charter clubs, originally named the Kansas City Wiz — a nod to the state of Kansas's connection to The Wizard of Oz. The club was established by Lamar Hunt, a towering figure in American sports history who also founded the Kansas City Chiefs and helped shape the landscape of professional soccer in the United States. After a legal dispute with an electronics retailer, the team became the Kansas City Wizards in 1997.
The Wizards' first golden era arrived in 2000, when goalkeeper Tony Meola set an MLS shutout record, the club won the Supporters' Shield, and then claimed the MLS Cup with a tightly contested final victory over the Chicago Fire at RFK Stadium. A second MLS Cup followed in 2013, when the club — by then rebranded as Sporting Kansas City — defeated Real Salt Lake on penalties in the coldest final in league history. In between and beyond those championships, the club also lifted the U.S. Open Cup four times (2004, 2012, 2015, 2017), establishing itself as one of MLS's most decorated sides.
The November 2010 rebrand to Sporting Kansas City coincided with a move to a purpose-built soccer stadium, now known as Children's Mercy Park, on the Kansas side of the state line — making the club the only major professional sports franchise in the United States to play home games in Kansas. In the current decade, Sporting has remained a competitive presence in the Western Conference. Long-serving head coach Peter Vermes, who joined the club as a player in its championship 2000 season, has defined the club's identity through disciplined structure and consistent player development.