Together in the Blue Hell

In this paper I explore the possibilities of community through sport in the context of soccer in Kansas City. Drawing from the conceptualizations of community in Esposito’s oeuvre and utilizing the ontological framework of Deleuze and Guattari (1980/1987), I explore the rise of the professional soccer club Sporting KC and its entanglements within the politics of Kansas City and beyond. This dissertation begins with a discussion on the philosophical origins of community and locate Esposito and Deleuze’s work within this discourse as well as elaborate how their ontological work translates into research into the possibilities of community for this paper. I then present four separate chapters each organized on exploring the different aspects of the empirical material encountered during this research project, and I discuss how discourse on these topics might further our understanding of what is possible in considering the relationship between sport and community in Kansas City.