Richmond Kickers News Release -- www.richmondkickers.com
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
RICHMOND, Va. – The Richmond Kickers are pleased to announce a special $20 Anniversary Golden Ticket to the regular season home opener on Saturday, April 7. The Kickers $20 Anniversary Golden Ticket is available for purchase at RichmondKickers.com/GoldenTicket and can be exchanged at the stadium for an unlimited number of tickets. Groups of friends, family members, neighbors, co-workers and acquaintances are invited to celebrate the Kickers 20th anniversary with a one-time $20 purchase.
“On behalf of our players, I sincerely hope the entire Richmond community supports this generous offer and gets behind the team for our home opener,” said Leigh Cowlishaw, Head Coach and Director of Soccer. “Kickers versus Battery matches always provide an abundance of drama and it will be a great feeling for our players and fans to have City Stadium rocking for our home opener. I can recall back to 1995 when our first game drew close to eight thousand fans and it would be amazing if we can replicate that experience on April 7th.”
Wearing retro 1993 green and blue adidas uniforms, the Kickers will open the 2012 campaign against the Battery for the first leg of the Pioneer Cup on Saturday, April 7 at 5 p.m. at Richmond City Stadium before swapping home field advantage on Saturday, April 14 at Blackbaud Stadium. The winner of the Pioneer Cup will be determined by the aggregate score of the two-game series.
Established in 1993, the Richmond Kickers have consistently been one of the most successful professional soccer clubs in America. Over the past 19 seasons, Richmond has qualified for postseason play 17 times, and last reached the title match in 2010 for the sixth time in the past nine campaigns, falling just short of the championship. Richmond’s seven previous league Championship appearances (1995, 1996, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009) include winning the Premier League title in 1995, a penalty shootout loss to Seattle in the USL First Division final in 2005 and taking the USL Second Division crown twice against Charlotte in 2006 and 2009. Claiming the U.S. Open Cup title in 1995, the Kickers made history last season, ousting the Columbus Crew and Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer en route to the semifinals, becoming the first lower division team to defeat back-to-back MLS teams on the road in the process.