Club: Kansas City Wiz

Country: United States of America

Season around: 1995–96 (Major League Soccer inaugural season: 1996)

• Head Coach: Ron Newman
• Club background: Kansas City Wiz were one of the original 10 teams in Major League Soccer (MLS) for the league's inaugural season in 1996. The team played home matches at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, and wore primarily red and blue colors. The franchise later rebranded as the Kansas City Wizards and ultimately Sporting Kansas City.
• 1996 season summary:
  • The 1996 season was MLS’s first season; regular season play began in April 1996.
  • Kansas City Wiz finished the 1996 regular season with a record that placed them second in the Western Conference (they qualified for the playoffs).
  • In the 1996 MLS Cup Playoffs, Kansas City advanced to the Western Conference Final (losing the series), thus not reaching the MLS Cup final that year.
  • Key figures included head coach Ron Newman, who was a highly experienced professional coach in U.S. soccer and the North American Soccer League (NASL) and American Soccer League/indoor leagues before joining MLS.
• Notable players (1996 roster highlights):
  • Preki (Predrag Radosavljević) – attacking midfielder/forward and one of the team’s most influential players
  • Brian McBride – forward (early in his professional career; later became a U.S. national team regular)
  • Mike Sorber – midfielder (U.S. national team midfielder, later with MLS clubs and national program)
  • Tony Meola – goalkeeper (U.S. national team goalkeeper, though note Meola also played for other MLS clubs during his career)
• Coach profile — Ron Newman:
  • Full name: Ron Newman
  • Nationality: English (longtime U.S.-based coach)
  • Coaching background: Newman was an experienced coach in both outdoor and indoor soccer in the U.S., including NASL and various indoor leagues. He was named head coach of the Kansas City Wiz for MLS’s inaugural season and brought decades of coaching experience to the club.
  • Legacy: Respected as a major figure in American professional soccer coaching; inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame (1992).

Additional context: MLS used some experimental rules and a shootout tiebreaker in 1996 (no regular-season draws), and teams’ records and statistics from that first season reflect those unique competition rules. Kansas City’s 1996 roster changed in subsequent years as the club evolved into the Kansas City Wizards and later Sporting Kansas City.