Days after the Colorado Rapids parted ways with coach Chris Armas, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment President of Team and Media Operations Kevin Demoff joined Rapids president Pádraig Smith on the podium at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
At the surface, it felt like any other end-of-season debrief, but Demoff’s presence boded a future that looks different, for better or worse. Smith’s front office will soon make the fourth head coaching hire of his 11-year tenure as a Rapids executive. With only a handful of playoff appearances and even fewer playoff wins, it was hard to ignore the sense that a cycle was starting over again.
And yet the high-ranking KSE executive sitting next to Smith at Thursday’s news conference expressed an expectation for the franchise that ran counter to that reality.
“This club should be competing for titles, full stop,” Demoff told reporters during a rare public appearance in Commerce City. “I think that is the goal, that is the challenge and that is what we wake up every day doing. It should be no different from any teams in our system, and this club is no different.”
Last month, the Rapids crashed out of a playoff position and failed to make the postseason in consecutive campaigns. With just one more point from a woeful final stretch of matches, they’d have done so for just the second time since winning the MLS Cup in 2010.
Speaking on the future of the club, Smith and Demoff didn’t offer a revolutionary vision for a turnaround and asked more open-ended questions about how to get to the MLS mountaintop than they answered. The goal under Armas was to become a perennial playoff team. But despite the down year, the coach leaving, and the numerous player contract decisions that loom, the ambition increased on Thursday.
“This club should be competing for the MLS Cup year in and year out, and I don’t think anybody in this organization will stop competing until we get to that point,” Demoff said. “That, to me, is what our fans should expect. That’s what ownership expects from us. That’s what I expect of this club.”
The Rapids are the only KSE team without a trophy this decade, and they haven’t captured one since that 2010 season in any competition not named the Rocky Mountain Cup. The closest they came was a conference final loss in 2016.
So what does a title push look like for this iteration of the Rapids? Item No. 1 is a head coach. The uncertainty around Armas’ future, followed by his eventual departure, has created an expedited feeling this time around. Nine players are awaiting club options for 2026 by the Nov. 26 deadline, all decisions a coach would presumably play a role in.
After that, it’s the roster build. The Rapids have a solid core of exciting young prospects and experienced journeymen, with the future centered around Paxten Aaronson, who inked a five-year deal in August for a club-record $7 million transfer fee. He’s on a $2 million base salary, another outlier for Colorado.
Fans have long criticized the club for trying to ball on a budget. The cash flow is starting to trend higher, with two record incoming transfers and two record outgoing transfers in the past two years, but the Rapids routinely spend below league average in salary. This year, the Rapids slightly overperformed their spending (23rd in MLS) by finishing 21st. Still, Demoff brushed aside the notion that the club doesn’t spend enough to win.
“There’s no correlation between spending and winning in the MLS. … It’s not about spending for spending’s sake,” he said. “It is truly about building a philosophy and identity, a core competency that no one else has, and continuing to invest in that model to drive forward.”
While it’s true that money does not automatically equate to wins, there is a correlation between spending (salary-wise, at least) and winning in MLS.
Demoff pointed to examples from this season, like the Philadelphia Union (dead-last in salary, but first place in the league) and Atlanta United (fourth in spending, 26th-place finish), while making his point. But those are the exceptions, not the rule.
A leaguewide comparison of salary data and final MLS regular-season standings showed that teams in the top half of spending finished 13th on average, while those spending in the bottom half averaged an 18th-place finish. Without the aforementioned outliers, the margins grow to 12th and 20th, respectively.
That means, on average, spending in the top half of the league in salary is the difference between potentially avoiding a play-in game and missing the playoffs entirely. Aside from just writing big checks, the next step is clear: building a roster and culture rooted in accountability and organization-wide collaboration.
Since taking his role in March of 2024, Demoff has been present for the Rapids in a way KSE hasn’t in some time. On multiple occasions, Smith has praised Demoff’s involvement and ideas toward building a better club. After multiple big signings since then, Demoff has been one of the first on Smith’s thank-you list.
That said, Demoff’s presence at Thursday’s news conference loomed over Smith’s hold on the top front office job with the Rapids. Smith’s contract is up after the 2026 season, and when asked if Demoff would normally allow one front office to make a fourth head coaching hire, he said no.
Demoff signaled this coaching search — the first he and Smith will partner on — will mark a new era of the club. That phrase has been tossed around plenty of times, but a period that promises better cooperation between the club and KSE is cause for cautious optimism.
According to Demoff and Smith, their partnership includes better sharing of “best practices and resources” between the Rapids and all KSE teams, and making that “interconnectivity” better.
“I think first and foremost our job right now is, ‘How do we build the best roster in the short term and the long term?’” Demoff said. “This is going to be one of the best clubs year in and year out. That is the only goal that we should have for the Rapids.
“I have full confidence in Pádraig to partner with us to do that, but it is up to us to both A) develop that model together, B) give the support and then hold accountable. I think from here, we are all accountable for the results that this club has. It’s not about 2014 through 2025. This is about 2025 moving forward, and are we doing the best job for our club, for our fans and for our city?”
Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.