Kansas City Building First Women’s Sports-Focused Stadium for Mahomes-Backed Soccer Team
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The Kansas City Current, co-owned by Patrick and Brittany Mahomes, will open a $120-million stadium to play and train in next year
Kansas City Current
Halfway around the world from World Cup action, Kansas City is making an investment in women’s sports.
The Kansas City Current, whose owners include Brittany and Patrick Mahomes, will play and train at a new $120-million facility — which is the first stadium built exclusively for a women’s professional sports team, and is set to open next spring, according to ABC News.
"I think what we're seeing on the riverfront is not just the stadium, but it is a mecca for women's sports, certainly for other economic activity in Kansas City," Mayor Quinton Lucas told the outlet. “We believe in women's soccer as an anchor for something substantial."
The National Women’s Soccer League team, which made it to the title game last season, is drawing national attention for the facility, which will seat 11,500 fans at its opening and can expand to 22,000 in the future, per ABC News.
Other NWSL teams — including those with celebrity owners such as Natalie Portman, Jennifer Garner and Jessica Chastain (Angel City); Naomi Osaka (North Carolina Courage); and Chelsea Clinton and Jenna Bush Hager (Washington Spirit) — are taking note, Dani Welniak, Kansas City Current Vice President for Communications, told ABC News.
"I can't tell you how much feedback we get from not only Kansas City fans, but people across the globe who want to know how we're doing this, who want to bring a team to another state or even build upon the women's teams that they have overseas," Welniak said. "And so I know from the conversations that I've had, bigger picture, people are inspired."
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While promoting her three-part HBO docuseries Angel City in May, Portman spoke to PEOPLE about the impact of the sport.
"I was so inspired by the women at the Women's World Cup, the last one, who were fighting for pay equity alongside their incredible game," Portman said. "And I saw my son looking up to the female athletes the same way that he looked up to his male heroes, and I was like, 'Wow, this is really culture-shifting.' "
The Kansas City stadium, which is being built in the downtown area, has a 50-year lease with Port KC, according to ABC affiliate KMBC-TV.
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