Kansas City unveils world’s first pro women’s sports stadium
- The first football stadium built for professional women’s sports opens in March in Kansas City, US
- It will be the new home of Kansas City Current, a National Women’s Soccer League team
- Women’s football has been in the spotlight since the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup
Next month, Kansas City in the US state of Missouri will witness the opening of a brand new stadium, believed to be the first purpose-built facility for a women’s professional sports team in the world.
CPKC Stadium (named after railroad company Canadian Pacific Kansas City) will be the home ground of Kansas City Current, a relatively new professional team that was founded in 2021.
More than three years in the making since it was announced in October 2021, it is one of the boldest construction projects Kansas City has undergone. Located near the downtown area, the seven-acre site is on the edge of the scenic Berkley Riverfront Park, and will boast 11,500 seats when it opens at the start of the 2024 National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) season in March.
The stadium is jointly owned by two husband and wife teams: asset manager Angie Long and her husband Chris Long (who is on the NWSL’s Board of Governors and Expansion Committee); and former player Brittany Mahomes and her husband, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. “In the soccer capital of America, we are building the world’s best women’s soccer club,” they said in a joint statement.
A historic marker for women’s football
Kansas City Current has been sharing premises with men’s club Sporting Kansas at Children’s Mercy Park; before this it played home games at baseball park Legends Field.
The opening of this groundbreaking stadium marks a significant milestone in the journey towards gender equality in football, which includes gaining maternity rights and closing the pay gap that exists between men and women players.
In 2015, the Women’s World Cup final became the most-watched football game of any kind in US history, however the players were paid four times less than their male counterparts.
Now it seems that women’s football is finally getting the recognition it deserves. The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup broke viewership records around the world, an inarguable signal that led to the Australian government pledging to invest $200 million to improve women’s sporting facilities in the country.
In the UK, Brighton & Hove Albion Women Football Club has been given permission for England’s first purpose-built ground for a women’s team (much like Kansas City Current, the team currently shares grounds with a men’s team, located more than 30 km away). It follows on from Manchester City Women FC, who in October 2023 played their first game at their new home, the renamed Joie Stadium, which became the first stadium dedicated to women’s football in the UK.
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