KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s a weekend of firsts at Berkley Riverfront Park when the KC Current plays the first round of the NWSL Playoffs at the first stadium built exclusively for a women’s pro sports team in its first year in operation.
KC Current President Raven Jemison says it’s one thing to open that facility but then to have the team be in the hunt for a championship helps pull the stadium’s first year together.
“The product on the pitch, the field, the ice, whatever, it is extremely important, and that 100 percent makes the jobs easier,” said Jemison.
“Having our team perform on the pitch the manner that they have, whether it’s here in Kansas City or nationally with the NWSL, that absolutely helps and makes things a little bit easier for us.”
The Current sold out every home game for the first year in the new stadium, bringing in new and younger fans that Current VP of Marketing Jocelyn Monroe says can help grow the sport and the league.
“Those little girls and those little boys who are three and four years old who are wearing kits from our players will never know a time when a women’s professional sports team does not have its own facilities and sports stadium,” said Monroe.
“[The team] having a space that’s their own has everything to do with why they’ve been so successful this year,” said CPKC Stadium General Manager Stefanie Tomlin.
“How can you not feel motivated to come out and give your all when you have something that’s built for you?”
Just this weekend, Tomlin and the stadium are balancing the Big 12 Women’s Soccer Championships with the Current’s playoff game Saturday, helping elevate the stadium and the teams inside it.
“Yes, this is a part of history, but this is a part of setting the standard that probably should have always been, but we’re now really looking at women’s sports getting the investment that they deserve,” said Monroe.
CPKC Stadium will host the NWSL Championship on November 23, whether the Current advance that far or not.
KC Current, CPKC Stadium preparing for a weekend full of firsts
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