Sporting KC
Former Assistant, Zoran Savic, Sues Sporting KC
Lawsuit alleges Sporting KC used anticompetitive and monopolistic tactics with former Academy Affiliate run by Savic.
*Note: All allegations in the lawsuit, are just that, allegations. They will need to be proven in a court of law.
Former Sporting Kansas City assistant coach, Zoran Savic, is involved in a lawsuit against OnGoal LLC in Jackson County circuit court. The case alleges that Sporting engaged in pervasive and widespread anti-competitive conduct with teams, coaches, players, facilities, equipment, and pathways to collegiate and professional soccer. Savic, under the Missouri Valley Sports Club, Inc, which he founded, says the case is about the monopolization of competitive youth soccer in Kansas City.
The petition, which is available on Missouri’s court site, makes allegations to Sporting KC’s control of youth soccer in the KC metropolitan area. They start by focusing on Sporting’s affiliate system and the alleged influence and control they can have over youth soccer coaches, players, and their families. They refer to SKC directly or indirectly owning/controlling 49 of 62, or 79% of the turf fields for competitive soccer; Central Bank Sporting Complex, Compass Minerals Sporting Fields, Garmin Olathe Sports Complex, Scheels Overland Park Complex, and Swope Soccer Village. Of those five complexes, four of them are mostly used on weekends by Heartland Soccer Association for competitive soccer games. Outside of that, all are used for recreational soccer Sporting Blue Valley’s recreational league is at Scheels, Sporting Brookside’s league is at Swope Soccer Village, and Sporting KC’s has recreational leagues at Central Bank, Compass Mineral, and Garmin.
That would leave just the Paragon Star Sports Complex, the KC Current’s University of Kansas Health System Training Center, and one-off fields like at Z-Sports in Greenwood, MO and the 9th and Van Brunt Athletic Fields Park. As turf fields that are not directly or indirectly owned or controlled by Sporting.
The plaintiffs argue that with Sporting’s academy, Academy Affiliates, and Sporting Club Network along with ventures like Sporting Stripes, Sporting Stars, Sporting Recreation League, Sporting Camps, Sporting control the pathway to collegiate and professional soccer. Along with the associated costs of uniforms and equipment that go through exclusive vending agreements that generate more revenue for SKC.
They argue that other professional leagues, the NFL, NBA, and MLB do not permit their teams to operate team-branded for-profit youth programs, while the NHL’s Dallas Stars team-branded for profit youth hockey program is being investigated by the Texas Attorney General’s antitrust division.
The petition then goes into who Savic is and his ties to the situation. It says that Savic formed Missouri Valley Soccer in 2018 at the urging of Sporting because they wanted a competitive presence in Lee’s Summit and the southeast side of the metropolitan area. At the time, Savic was the Technical Director for another Sporting Academy Affiliate, Sporting Lee’s Summit. Sporting KC immediately named Missouri Valley Soccer an affiliate and Sporting Missouri Valley was formed. It continues that Savic attracted top-tier coaches who signed agreements with restrictive covenants to be part of the club. The covenants included restrictions “not to engage, directly or indirectly, in competition with the club” and “not to solicit any employee, coach, member or child of the club to terminate his relationship with the club.”
The petition then says in 2022 when Sporting secured the lease rights to be the primary tenant for the Central Bank Sporting Complex in North Kansas City, Dan Popik, Sporting’s Vice President of youth soccer advised Savic that Sporting was increasing their presence in Missouri and needed teams in North Kansas City to fill the new fields. It alleges that Popik clearly expected Savic to transfer coaches and players to SKC’s new affiliate club for that purpose.
Later in 2022, Popik allegedly informed Savic that Sporting’s intent was to terminate Missouri Valley Soccer’s affiliation and to start a new, competing affiliate called Sporting City East. They allege that Sporting targeted Missouri Valley Soccer with monopolistic and anti-competitive conduct specifically designed to drive the plaintiff out of the market. As part of this and the loss of the affiliation, they claim they were directed to forfeit a sponsorship and fully rebrand.
The suit claims that despite comments from the club about a smooth transition and leaving Missouri Valley Soccer in a good place, it alleges that Sporting was planning to exert and abuse their monopoly power to raid the club’s staff and players and because of Savic’s continued employment with Sporting as an assistant coach for the first team, would be unlikely to resist.
In the summer of 2023, Savic met with Sporting’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Jake Reid. In that meeting Savic is said to advise Reid of the devastating financial impact the loss of coaches and players had on Missouri Valley Soccer’s financial stability. When Savic mentioned legal recourse, Reid is alleged to have told him, “If you do that you are done here.”
Savic took that to mean termination of his position as a coach for the first team if he or Missouri Valley Soccer took adverse action against SKC’s youth operations or their former coaches. According to the suit, SKC converted a number of coaches, their Director of Coaching, and administrator to Sporting City East, with each coach taking their entire team with them. The suit alleges that Sporting has employed the same or similar tactics against other competitors, including other soccer clubs.
The petition then discusses the harm the alleged monopolistic and anticompetitive conduct has caused. Missouri Valley Soccer says they have suffered damages in excess of $3.3 million. It also claims that Sporting have affiliated with or drive other competitive clubs from the market, monopolizing the territory and diminishing free and fair competition. They claim that this has led to fewer options for players and families to affordably participate in youth soccer.
In the suit they are calling for damages along with treble damages for counts 1 and 2 which deal with the alleged monopoly of youth soccer in the KC area by Sporting Kansas City. The threefold damages is because of Mo. Rev. Stat. § 416.121.1. On counts 3 and 4 which have to deal with the alleged poaching of coaches by Sporting, they are asking for punitive damages.
When reached for comment, Sporting Kansas City provided the following, with a quote from Sporting KC attorney Dan Blegen of Spencer Fane LLP:
“We welcome the opportunity to share the facts of this case, which was filed by a disgruntled former coach. We trust that the legal process will fully validate our position, as well as our counterclaim.”
Missouri Valley Soccer is still around, having rebranded from Sporting Missouri Valley to Kansas City Soccer Club in May of 2023. In April of 2025, the club announced that they were merging with KC Surf but would continue to operate on the Southeast side of the Kansas City metro (KC Surf’s primary facility is AdventHealth Sports Park at BluHawk).
There is certainly a lot to unpack in the case, whether you have opinions on Savic himself, Sporting KC, or youth soccer in KC and the US as a whole in general, there is a little something for everyone to take interest in with regards to the suit. As someone who had a player in Sporting Missouri Valley when all of this went down, it is interesting to see all of this come to light. For full disclosure, we did leave the club in May 2023 along with most of the team that my child was on. There had been rumors and whispers of Sporting’s affiliation with Sporting Missouri Valley being discontinued at the end of that 2022-2023 competitive soccer season that entire year. We did not go to Sporting City East as many players are alleged to have done in the suit. We ended up going to a club not affiliated with Sporting Kansas City.
This case will be interesting to follow on multiple levels. The first scheduled event in the suit is scheduled for Monday, April 20th.
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When youth soccer is run for profit, things like this will happen. It comes down to what Sporting wishes to do with their youth programs. Are they a money maker or are they developing the talent of the future? This would make it seem that it’s the former.
To be clear, I’m not saying that it’s wrong for them to make money on youth programs, but I do think it severely restricts the pool of talent they pull from. I was a decent player growing up, but nowhere near the Academy level and my club team was stupid expensive. Where I live now, in Memphis, there was a non-profit club that started a pay-what-you-can club team and within two years they were competing against the top clubs at the State tournament because they were pulling in talent that otherwise couldn’t afford to play club soccer.
It would cost a lot, but if Sporting didn’t view their affiliates as cash cows and saw them as developmental tools, I don’t think you’d have suits like this coming against the club.
You’re spot on, its not wrong to make money on youth programs, but it is wrong to imply that you’ll only get noticed if you are playing for a sporting team and/or program. Especially when you factor in the commitment of youth soccer, branded uniforms $300+, thousands of dollars every year and in state and out state tournaments, all to never be in with a sniff of the single professional affiliate for each gender.
Sporting controls teams, coaches, facilities to such an extent that “small” independent clubs now just get eaten up, between them and the other large affiliates in the area.
No other Academy in the world is run in that way, one wonders if this does affect the ability to actually develop true Academy players. Pay to play culture in full force and the talented, low income, youngsters meanwhile are left to fight over scholarships at every one else’s expense.
Who knows, maybe the new owner will be willing to pony up more money to make our academy system more affordable. I fully believe that the first MLS team to move away from the pay to play model will have the most successful products. Not that kids who can afford it are somehow worse than kids that can’t, but you’re missing a pretty big part of the soccer population when it’s isolated to those who can afford it.
Unless something has changed, the Academy is fully funded. The affiliate clubs are not but they are not the only path into the Academy. If you play for an affiliate, they get more chances to be seen of course, the coaches get training and visibility also. But there are tryouts for the Academy. It would be crazy for them to turn down talented kids for the Academy because they did not come from an affiliated team.
In the past, I know there was some financial help for kids who were good but not ready for the Academy. The affiliates have been on the lookout for those in the past but I do not know any details or if it was all of them.
The affiliates are a chance for SKC to make money but it is not only path to the academy.
SKC Academy is changing to only have the 15, 16 and 18 teams. The intent is to focus more time and resources on those age groups. The Center of Excellence will focus on the younger teams which includes affilates and ithe intent to keep an eye on “local and regional talent”.
Just trying to point out that club soccer and academy is different.
I really appreciate this, especially since you know a lot more about the Academy than me. I’m glad that the Academy is fully funded, but to your point, I wish club soccer was more like this too. How many kids are overlooked because they can’t afford a club? How many could be pulled into that Center of Excellence if they had gotten eyes at the club level?
Obviously, this is a bigger issue than just SKC and this article is more specifically about SKC being anti-competitive. So I guess this is just me airing my frustrations with club soccer in general haha. Bottom line is I want to see American soccer get better and it starts from the bottom up. It takes long term investment in youth to train up players that eventually run our national team. Even with some of our best athletes being taken up with football and basketball, there are so many kids that we’re probably missing because of how youth soccer is set up.
My own rant now.
Youth soccer and most sports are money-making businesses. I saw a lot of coaches who knew little about developing players make a lot of extra money with multiple teams when my daughter played. Some of them were highly regarded but it felt like they were getting good players because of the past success.
It does seem that the local club ecosystem is always shifting. Smaller clubs being devoured and new ones are popping up. SKC, FCKC (KC Athletics), Scott Gallagher, Rush, Legends and others have all been the big clubs in town, eating up others at different points when I paid attention. Now the Current are doing it as well. Not saying it is good, just not new.
Watched it happen in StL as well. The clubs there fought and took over each other and poached teams and coaches.
I was a decent player that was recruited to a couple of big club teams. I could not afford it, not even close. I was rostered for some tournaments so they would have an extra defender, but they were not going to fund me to play regular club soccer way back then.
It is stupidly expensive at times. My house would easily be paid off if my daughter had not played soccer. I could say the same for her in choir and orchestra. We even had to buy uniforms for that most of the time. Concert blacks, a different dress for a choir she was in that had to get tailored by a dressmaker. Had to get a better viola that she could play. She did end up all state choir and orchestra.
Oddly, as competitive and all that was in club soccer, it was high school that ruined her soccer experience. She loved playing but in high school she played one year and then only played club after that.
Not saying club soccer is cheap, but I’ve talked with parents with hockey kids, baseball kids, gymnastics and other sports and they all think they put out the most money.
I would love for soccer to be free or super cheap like it is in some other countries. Once we have pro teams at high density, that might change as each club will be trying to grab the best talent and trying to bring them into their own fold.
They should counter sue for him being such a horrible set-piece coach for so many years.
I saw a recent trend where private equity, which has bought up and ruined many brands across this country, is getting into youth sports. It’s only going to get worse, not better if that trend continues.