Kansas City Comets (2001-2005)

Major Indoor Soccer League (2001-2005)

Background

The original Kansas City Comets of the first Major Indoor Soccer League were a phenomenom during the 1980’s. The team routinely outdrew the NBA’s Kansas City Kings at the Kemper Arena during the early part of the decade, helping to usher the basketball team out the door to Sacramento in 1985. The Comets remained a standard bearer for the league throughout the 1980’s and averaged over 10,000 fans per game as late as 1990. But the Comets folded in the spring of 1991 and the original MISL followed suit a year later.

Kansas City remained a relatively strong city for indoor soccer during the 1990’s even as interest in the sport faded nationwide. The U.S. hosting of the World Cup in 1994 and the ensuing debut of Major League Soccer in 1996 permanently shifted the interest of fans, media and sponsors back to the outdoor game.

Kansas City got a new team in the lower-budget National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) in 1991 a few months after the Comets closed up shop. The Kansas City Attack relocated from Atlanta and began play in the fall of 1991. The Attack had a small but stable following throughout the 1990’s. They were excellent in competition, making three Finals appearances against their arch rivals, the Cleveland Crunch, and winning two championships. The club also had a stalwart owner in Don Kincaid, who endured millions of dollars in losses keeping the club going for more than a decade.

Deja Vu

In August 2001, the NPSL changed its name to the Major Indoor Soccer League. It was a nostalgic bid to harken back to the glory years of the sport and the original MISL of the 1980’s. Attack owner Don Kincaid triggered a simultaneous re-brand of his team, dropping the Attack name after nine seasons in favor of a return to the Comets.

Version 2.0 of the Kansas City Comets debuted in October 2001.  The throwback name failed to change the team’s fortunes. Crowds still hovered around 4,000 a night as they had for more than a decade now and Kincaid continued to lose piles of money on the team.

The new Comets announced a two-year suspension of operations in September 2005, ostensibly waiting for a more intimately scaled arena to be built in suburban Overland Park. Don Kincaid estimated he lost $15 million owning the Attack/Comets between 1993 and 2005.²Flanagan, Jeffrey. “Comets go dark for two seasons”. The Star (Kansas City, MO). September 14, 2005 The team never returned to competition and the second version of the MISL split apart in 2008.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Yet another re-boot of the club began play in 2010 as the Missouri Comets, playing in yet a third version of the Major Indoor Soccer League. In 2016 the team changed its name back to the Kansas City Comets and even re-introduced the original Comets logo of the 1980’s. (Kincaid’s Comets of 2002 to 2005 featured an original and rather ugly logo.). This third version of the Comets plays out of Independence, Missouri and remains active today in the Major Arena Soccer League.

Kansas City Comets Shop

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