The first match at Kansas City Current's new bespoke women's football stadium is set to be played on Saturday, 16 March in a groundbreaking day for women's football across the world. The NWSL side, who are part-owned by Patrick and Brittany Mahomes, are set to play Portland Thorns in their first match at the new CPKC Stadium after building work was completed in January.
The match is a big moment for women's football as it is the first time that a professional women's team will play in a stadium that was specifically built for them. The CPKC Stadium has a capacity of 11,500 and co-owner, Angie Long, believes it could be the beginning of a domino effect across the globe. She said:
“We are the first and we won't be the last. I'd like to know what major successful sports franchise in the world is just happy to sit back and be a tenant in somebody else's stadium. Every time one team levels up, the expectations of the players become that they deserve this – it begins to feel like the new norm.
“For too long, many female athletes are used to the norm of being second and we can set the role model that they aren't and that can change the perspective.”
Momentum builds momentum
Season tickets for the new CPKC stadium have already sold out which isn't a huge surprise when you consider how rapidly women's football is growing in terms of popularity across the globe. In the UK, record attendances are being broken regularly with Arsenal and Man Utd playing in front of over 60,000 fans in a recent WSL match.
Also in the UK, Brighton have announced that they are set to build a new stadium specifically for their women's team, too, showing that Mahomes and co were perhaps ahead of the curve. Given professional female athletes their own stadium is something that Kansas City Current's co-owner, Chris Long, sees as “common sense”. He said:
“It's about knowing the platform of women's soccer and knowing that we, from investing, can make a large impact and really, we hope, change the game globally. For me, I want my girls, girls broadly, worldwide to have the same opportunities that I have as a man.
“These facilities, it just makes common sense to have them also purpose-built for women's professional sports. There is nothing that is unusual about that. We definitely won't be the last. I think momentum builds momentum and, as an example, Angie and I have fielded many calls and Zooms talking about the training facility and stadium.
“There has been a lot of interest globally. I think people are really sharpening their pencils on something that is a crucial ingredient in where you want your team to go.”