KC NWSL closes the book on first season Saturday... and they’re making it a celebration

Kansas City’s women’s pro-soccer team could approach Saturday evening as the end, a chance to finally close the book on a rough first season of too few wins and too many losses. KC will finish 10th, last in the National Women’s Soccer League, regardless of how their season finale turns out at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kan.

Instead, the KC club plans to treat this final match of the year, against the Washington state-based OL Reign, as a celebration of all it has accomplished since being awarded a franchise in December 2020.

The party will include a halftime unveiling of the home team’s new permanent name and crest.

And this team really does have much to celebrate in spite of its 3-13-7 record: a $15 million training facility will be built in Riverside, and the first NWSL-specific soccer stadium will be built in the Berkley Park riverfront area starting next year.

Not too shabby for an organization whose roster was built in just four months ... and now has a seven-game unbeaten streak at home.

“It’s been an amazing year, right?” co-owner Angie Long said. “You think about everything that has been built within this year, it’s incredible. ... (W)e have every reason to celebrate that.”

Accordingly, Saturday night’s halftime gala will have it all, chief operating officer Amber Cox said.

“A lot of bells and whistles and smoke and lights and lasers,” she said of what’s in store. “We’ve really pulled out all the stops for this reveal.”

Fans will be able to purchase team gear bearing the new name and logo during the second half (that merchandise will be available more broadly starting Monday). The KC franchise has also spent the past week giving away signed gear via social media, and the first 4,000 through the gates Saturday will receive a team poster.

A little over 10 years ago, Sporting KC, then known as the Wizards, unveiled its own re-brand at a downtown ceremony in the Power & Light District. KC NWSL (we can still call them that for now) wanted to do something different.

“I’m so grateful for this fanbase,” Cox said. “They just continue to show up and support. It does not matter what the result is on the field, and they believe and know that (wins are) going to come in due time.

“It really just made so much sense to have this celebration, and do this reveal, at our final match, so the fans who have been with us all season and the community can really be a part of it.”

Coach Huw Williams and his players plan to do their part to make the evening special. They want to finish strong and bank that momentum for next season.

“If we go into this game with nothing to play for, it won’t be pretty,” he said. “We’re going over there to mess things up. That’s part of what our mantra’s been for the last month.”

The Reign enter the game four points behind the league-leading Portland Thorns and three ahead of the Washington Spirit with a goal differential of plus-8.

Kansas City is up for playing spoiler in any way possible.

‘Whoever is in front of us, we’re going to try and make it as tough as we can ...” Williams said. “We don’t want to beat OL Reign just to help whoever, we want to beat OL Reign because that’s the team we’re playing against.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2021 at 6:05 PM.