By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
After making the move from Kansas City earlier this year, the St. Joseph Goats arena league football team is proud to call St. Joseph home.
While they’ve only had one home game thus far, the St. Joseph Goats have been a hit in their first year in St. Joseph, selling out their home opener at Civic Arena.
Team President and General Manager Ted Sweeney says since making the move, he’s loved every second of being in St. Joseph
“Being in Kansas City last year, not having a place to play, we had looked at St. Joseph before we even moved to Kansas City, so we were very familiar with St. Joe, but we had no idea that this place was so crazy about football,” Sweeney says. “It’s been insane.”
Sweeney says never in his tenure has he seen the type of crowd that turned out during that opener.
Sweeney says he already sees some differences between playing in Kansas City and St. Joseph that are beneficial
“Kansas City is a larger community so although we had support, it wasn’t crazy like it’s starting to get here,” Sweeney explains. “And the arena is tailor made for arena football, there’s no bad seats, you know Municipal (Auditorium) is a beautiful, historic building, but it also seats 12,000 people, Civic Arena, 3,200 and they’re all great seats and it gets very loud.”
Sweeney says that despite a loss and some technical issues during the home opener, the crowd on hand was still very positive and one of the best he’s seen and hopes to see another good crowd on hand Saturday.
Sweeney says for those who have not experienced arena league football, you’re in for a lot of action
“It’s high speed, the collisions are something to see, obviously the walls come into play quite a bit, they’re going into them, they’re going over them,” Sweeney says.
And the Goats also bring a roster full of close to National Football League talent
“We have a gentleman we just picked up who was in the Washington Commanders camp. We have some Missouri Tigers, a Jayhawk, Ole Miss, and you’re watching these guys play, depending on your seat, from five feet away,” Sweeney says.
The roster also features some local flares with former Missouri Western safety Antonio Taylor on the roster as well.
The Goats are back at Civic Arena on Saturday, taking on the Iowa Woo, the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year. Kickoff is at 7pm; tickets are still available.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.