Pioneering Sports

By RANDY MASON

In recent years, the Chiefs, Royals, Sporting KC and Monarchs have all brought home championships.

KC’s National Women’s Soccer League team, KC Current, is building the first stadium purpose built for a women’s professional team and the World Cup is coming to town in 2026.

Now we’ve added an esports franchise — the Pioneers. Professionals competing in tournaments for Rocket League and Madden NFL in front of huge online audiences is further proof that this is the “ultimate sports town.”

We talked about it with Pioneers Strategic Advisor Jeremy Terman; Chief Gaming Officer LJ Browne; and one of the professional athletes who’s signed on — Andrew Wylie, offensive lineman with the Kansas City Chiefs.

ANDREW WYLIE: There is definitely an energy that surrounds all sports here. The Chiefs have training camp up north [in St. Joseph] and there’s a massive amount of people waiting at the gates just to watch practice. And we’ve got the loudest stadium in the world! Now we’ve got esports gaming centers popping up too.

RANDY MASON: So what exactly are the Pioneers?

JEREMY TERMAN: The easiest way to think about this is if you put the Chiefs, Royals and Sporting KC under one team name, that’s us. We have multiple EA Sports teams featuring players who put thousands of hours into the games.

These are athletes, they’re just not competing on a field. They’re competing with a keyboard or a controller. And there have been matches this year where we’ve had hundreds of thousands of people watch our games in real time.

RM: What’s the response been? I know Mayor Lucas declared July 21 Pioneer Day in Kansas City.

LJ BROWNE: We wanted to start and build locally. So that was huge for us. And the way people came out to the Halo Championship Series event here in April, it was probably the most hype event that Halo has ever thrown, as far as crowd engagement and interaction.

RM: Where do you see all this in five years?

JT: The key for the Pioneers is that no one’s doing what we’re doing in the Midwest. We’re talking to city leaders, working with Mayor Lucas, working with the Boys & Girls Club to help show youth that it’s not just being a pro-gamer, it’s the whole industry. You want to build the PC, you want to design the headsets? You can be a content creator. Or maybe one day, you can be a pro.

RM: Is that how Andrew fits in?

LJ: We’re lucky to have Andrew. I think he was the first pro athlete to come on board.

AW: I started out just enjoying playing video games. Now I’m going to these competitions, these events. It’s mutually beneficial and I’m having a lot of fun with it!

JT: What we’re building is more than just Kansas City. And that’s why our tagline is Kansas City founded, globally driven.