Elementary-age girls are playing soccer all over southwest Missouri. All Springfield high schools have girl’s teams, as do Missouri State, Drury and Evangel universities. With the popularity of women’s soccer on the rise, there’s a new venue in Kansas City that is setting records both in the city and in the league.
The Kansas City Current have a new home in the first stadium in the world built for a professional women’s sports team. The CPKC Stadium seats 11,500 and according to Kansas City sports talk radio there is already talk about increasing the capacity. The league has awarded the 2024 championship game to Kansas City to showcase the new stadium.
The stadium is named for the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern Railway, CPKC. At the June 28 game, each time the Current scored, they blasted a loud locomotive horn to celebrate. The stadium opened March 16 this year, and so far every game has been a sellout.
The U-shaped stadium sits along the Missouri River just west of the Christopher S. Bond Suspension Bridge. In the game June 28, a Current player launched a shot at the goal that went high and out of the stadium and ended up floating down the river, another first.
In an era when professional sports teams demand public money to finance their venues, CPKC stadium, which cost around $120 million, was almost entirely financed privately. All of the vending in the stadium is completely local. The ownership of the team is also local. Brittany and Patrick Mahomes are part co-owners and attend many of the games. There are plans for a Kansas City waterfront area development to include housing, restaurants and shops near the stadium. Eventually the new Kansas City streetcar will connect the stadium with the UMKC/Brookside neighborhood.
The NWSL league is the National Woman’s Soccer League made up of 14 teams but about to increase to 16 teams. With the victory on June 28 the Current has an undefeated record of 17 consecutive games dating back to last season. That’s a league record. The undefeated streak ended July 6 when the Current was edged 2-1 in a road game in Orlando, but the league record of 17 straight undefeated games still stands.
There are 26 regular season games plus playoffs. The regular season runs from March 16 through Nov. 3, followed by the playoffs. Each team has 28 roster spots including three goalkeepers. In the March 16 opening game in the new stadium the winning goal was scored by 16-year-old Alex Pfeiffer.
This year season tickets are sold out, but single game tickets are available. Ticket and team information are available online at kansascitycurrent.com.
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