The late Neal Patterson may have been credited as the "driving force" behind Sporting Kansas City's revival, but in the five-person Sporting Club ownership group, another individual has played an instrumental role as well.
Cliff Illig, who co-founded the Cerner Corporation with Patterson and in 2006 went on to purchase Sporting KC, then known as the Kansas City Wizards, spoke about the process in a long-form profile in the Kansas City Star by Sam Mellinger on Friday.
After setting down roots in Kansas City and becoming a venture capitalist aiming to bring economic clout to the region beyond the health-records business that became Cerner, Illig was approached by one of the key figures in MLS history, Lamar Hunt, to see if the soccer club could be a credit to the area and to MLS alike.