What is an Academy Affiliate?
In addition to being members of the Sporting Club Network, select youth soccer clubs may also be eligible to be affiliates for the Sporting Kansas City Academy program. The clubs that rebrand as Academy Affiliates strive towards a common goal of growing the game, while providing the best possible resources, education, and developmental opportunities to all members both on and off the field.
As an Academy Affiliate, each affiliate club has access to receiving discounted tickets to Sporting KC games!
Click the button below to find the name of your Sporting KC ticket representative and their email/office number.
SKC Affiliate Observation Days will give the Academy Affiliate coaches the chance to observe training sessions from the youth & professional teams of SKC. Depending on the daily schedule, these on-field coaching education could include the Centers of Excellence (U9/U11), the SKC Academy (U12-U19 teams), the Swope Park Rangers (USL), and even the SKC Senior Team (MLS).
Periodically throughout the year, SKC may host Academy Affiliate Director’s Summits. At these events, key Affiliate staff hear from guest speakers, participate in round table discussions & on-field demonstrations, and more. These events create a positive learning environment where Directors can share & increase their knowledge in youth soccer, and collectively work towards further developing their clubs.
Sporting Club Network hosts two Academy Affiliate All-Star Experiences throughout the year, one in the spring and one in the fall. The All-Star Experience includes four All-Star teams, two boys and two girls teams. Each of our Academy Affiliate clubs has the opportunity to send top boy and girl players to Kansas City to participate in the All-Star Experience.
The experience consists of a full weekend of events including but not limited to the following:
Sporting Club Network and SKC Academy have collaboratively created a regional player pool. For the Academy Affiliate boys who are talented enough, but may have restrictions of travel/location, the pool gives them the opportunity to be a part of the SKC Academy while staying close to home.
The boys regional pool benefits include but are not limited to:
Two Academy Affiliate teams, Sporting St. Louis Academy Bryant U13 girls and Sporting Iowa 2004 Academy 1 U15 girls, battled it out in exciting championship matches but came out on top and were named champions at the USYS National President’s Cup, presented by Chipotle, this past Sunday.
Over this past weekend, we had a total of 24 Academy Affiliate teams who were named champions or finalists in their respective State Cup tournaments. Congratulations to all the teams who placed and thank you for representing the Sporting brand so well!
Each of our 14 Academy Affiliate clubs sent 2 boys & 2 girls to KC for a weekend full of a exclusive Sporting KC experience. Take a look into what the Affiliate All-Stars did & the opportunities they had over the weekend.
For more information on Academy Affiliates or on how to become an Academy Affiliate, please contact Chris Boyajian at cboyajian@sportingkc.com.
