Analytics? Big roster budget? New Sporting KC sporting director Mike Burns has a vision

For the second time in six months, Sporting Kansas City introduced a new sporting director to fill a role that has been held by Peter Vermes for nearly 18 years.

After announcing the hiring of Mike Burns to the position last Friday, Burns was introduced to the local media in a news conference on Tuesday morning.

“For me to have the second opportunity to be in a sporting director role, it’s a true privilege and one that I don’t take lightly,” Burns said in his opening remarks. “I certainly have a lot of responsibilities, and it’s work I’m super excited to be involved in.”

Burns will oversee Sporting’s first team, Sporting KC II and the Sporting KC academy. While the three entities have varying levels of connection, he believes the first team’s success is paramount to the success of all three.

“There’s no greater responsibility for me in undertaking this role than the success of the first team,” Burns said. “That’s paramount.”

Burns spent nearly 15 years in charge of the New England Revolution’s roster build, which included four trips to the MLS Cup Final, two trips to the U.S. Open Cup final and a U.S. Open Cup title in 2007.

Success over those years was frontloaded — the Revolution made the playoffs in each of Burns’ first five seasons with just two more postseason appearances over the remaining nine. Burns was relieved of his duties in New England midway through the 2019 season.

In his five years since working for a club, Burns said he needed to take some time away from the daily grind and “recharge the battery.” He cited COVID-19 as another reason for the extended time away.

In 2022, Burns finally got back into the sport, consulting with the MLS league office in the player personnel department and working on various projects with MLS Next (academy level), MLS Next Pro (second team) and some of the first teams.

“It was helpful as the league has changed,” Burns said. “To keep me involved and abreast of the changes that were occurring was fantastic for me. It gave me time to reflect on … some of the things I thought I might have done well (with New England and) gave me time to reflect on some of the things I think I can be better at.”

As a player, Burns spent the final two years of his career in Kansas City, and his second child was born in Kansas City.

“My wife and I loved being here for the two years (when) we were here,” Burns said. “And we’re thrilled to be back.”

How Sporting KC got to this point

Hiring someone to the position of “sporting director” has been in the works since last August, according to Peter Vermes, who held that title for 18 years — 16 of which while coaching Sporting KC.

“I think for the health of the club, even moving forward for some day that I’m not here, it’s important that those two roles are bifurcated,” Vermes said. “Because it’s gonna be very hard for somebody to come in and do both jobs.”

Vermes wanted to focus on the team on the field and continue to coach. He also wanted to ensure that the ownership group made the hire, as they saw someone they felt they could trust and work within that role.

Burns will report directly to Peter Vermes, which Burns says “is the way it should be.”

“Peter has been here forever and has certainly earned that,” Burns said. “This is not me coming in here telling Peter or anyone else what to do. Having said that, I’m certainly comfortable enough in my own skin that if Peter and I have a discussion, ownership and I have a discussion, I’m going to be honest with them and give my honest opinion.

“More often than not,” he added, “it will be a collaboration. But in terms of a pure reporting structure, my direct report is (to) Peter.”

There’s plenty of work to do

Burns will be tasked with building the roster and specifically looking at the first team right away.

Since the start of 2022, Sporting KC has a record of 27-42-17 with a minus-26 goal differential. With roster movement stagnating over the past three seasons, there are 17 roster spots that could be opened this winter.

MLS has changed, even since Burns last was in charge of a roster. The U-22 initiative hadn’t come quite full circle, but the dollar amounts that MLS teams have been investing in roster builds have increased significantly since 2019.

Vermes said that ownership has committed to giving Burns “the largest budget that we’ve ever had in our history” over the next four years.

“For Mike, it’s a great position to come into because he’s starting off right away with a real budget in front of him,” Vermes said.

“I feel like I’m coming into a phenomenal opportunity both from a roster and budget standpoint,” Burns said. “We still have a lot of this season left to play, right? But we do have a lot of roster flexibility.”

Burns didn’t want that to be “conveyed or construed as” he would come in and clean house.

“When you have a lot of roster and budget flexibility, you’re allowed to do a lot of different things, right?” Burns said. “So the fact that we have that currently, and then the infusion of more resources to enhance the team from a first-team player standpoint, it’s phenomenal. You don’t have a blank canvas, but you’ve got a pretty nice canvas to paint on.”

‘More horsepower’

Beyond the increased spending, Burns will be tasked with further expanding the technical staff, which includes more scouts, analytics staff and, as Vermes said, “more horsepower.”

Burns said that in the shifting landscape of MLS, it’s more important to get more people in the building to help make better-informed decisions.

“If we’re going to invest in more expensive players, then the infrastructure around that also has to continue to rise with that, right?” Burns said. “There’s no foolproof way (or) a 100% way to get it right. But you want to do as much homework and due diligence as possible to minimize the risk and minimize the downside as you can.”

Vermes noted that he wants to improve Sporting’s analytics department, which is notoriously one of the slimmest in the league — if it exists at all. While assistant coach Ash Wallace handles most of that for the team right now, there is currently no listed analytics staffer.

“Ten years ago, there were no analytics departments,” Burns said. “Right now now, everyone has it.”

Burns believes it is a valuable tool more so than the ultimate decision maker. But whether it is sports science or part of the scouting and statistical information side, “it’s something that I feel like we have to have.”

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.