PRE-QUESTION NOTE: Today is a Theme Day. Theme days can be overt, or they can be subtle and connected, in such a way that figuring out the theme may help you answer the questions. Good luck.

The MLS team known as Sporting Kansas City has undergone two name changes in its existence. Its first nickname, "The ___," lasted only a year, at which point legal action from a New York-based electronics giant forced a change. Fill in the blank with that original three-letter nickname from the inaugural 1996 season.

Name the figure skater who won the novice ladies’ title at the U.S. Championships at age 12 in 1969. Seven years later, she won a gold medal at the winter Olympics far away from home in Aus…tria. (Note: as usual, the last name is required here.)

In squash, what is the most common name for the strip at the base of the front wall—typically made of metal and 19 inches high, but 17 inches for most professionals—that functions like a net in tennis, above which all balls must be hit?

Give the nickname—almost always used as a first name—of the former racecar driver who is now the Team Principal and CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team which, as of last weekend, has won nine straight constructors championships. His last name is Wolff, and he features prominently in Netflix’s Drive to Survive.

Gil Meche pitched for the Mariners and Royals in a career that lasted from 1999 to 2010, and made one All-Star appearance in 2007. He was also immortalized by Band of Horses in a song, the title of which includes an adjective in front of his first name. The adjective is used in its slang positive context here, though by and large it's considered a negative word. (That said, if you want to hear it used positively most often in the U.S., you'd need to go to a city whose baseball team won two World Series titles during Meche’s career.) What's the adjective?