KC Current players, owners toast women in sports with fans alongside new Boulevard beer
A year ago, the owners and players from Kansas City’s new women’s professional soccer team celebrated International Women’s Day with fans of the club at Union Station.
Since then, the Kansas City Current have sought to elevate women’s sports in Kansas City, and KC itself — especially the women in their community.
“It’s about time,” Brooke Soptic, a KC Current season ticket-holder, said Tuesday night at Boulevard Brewing, where team and fans again convened in celebration.
On a day dedicated to toasting women and their achievements worldwide, Current fans like Soptic flocked to Boulevard’s beer hall to raise a glass in honor of the company’s new “Teal Rising” brew — an ode to the Current, referencing one of their team colors.
And celebrate they did. Not just for International Women’s Day, and not just for the launch of a new beer, but also for what the Current have done for women.
“We play for a team where the owners are committed to exactly what this day is all about,” said Current midfielder Sam Mewis. “It’s such an honor to be here for this team and to have the sense of community here, where everybody’s on the same page about breaking some stereotypes and making sure that women are treated equally. And treated the way that we deserve.”
Mewis and teammates Victoria Pickett and Desiree Scott signed autographs and took pictures with fans throughout the evening. A teenage girl walked out of the autograph room with her mom and took off her mask, revealing an ear-to-ear smile.
Mewis, Pickett, Scott and their teammates have emerged as role models for many local girls. And the club’s commitment to investing back into the community, and supporting girls and women, is proving contagious.
Boulevard has pledged 10% of the proceeds from sales of Teal Rising to the Women’s Intersport Network for Kansas City, known commonly as WIN for KC. The Current have made that level of reinvestment — 10% — their standard.
WIN for KC seeks to empower the lives of girls and women through sports, and the organization has partnered with women’s sports teams in Kansas City before — including with FC Kansas City, before that predecessor of today’s National Women’s Soccer League team relocated to Utah.
“The difference this time around is that while the Current has only been around for a year,” said WIN for KC director Jessica Blubaugh. “The amount of not only financial investment, but community relationship investment, that they have already established in this market is sort of astounding
“It’s game-changing. I’m not sure folks fully understand or see the ripple effect of what kind of impact and precedent that it sets not only for women’s sports, but professional sports in general.”
Fans like Soptic see it. She’s been around since the early days of the NWSL, and to her, those days pale in comparison to what she’s witnessing now. She pointed to the Current’s investment in a new downtown stadium — which is set to open in 2024 — and state-of-the-art training facility that’s slated to open later this year.
“I think that’s going to be the precedent for what a women’s soccer team in the NWSL should have,” Soptic said. “These are things that should never be begged for.”
Players up and down the Current’s roster see and appreciate the investments made by their ownership group. But the work is not over.
“All we want is to be professional and treated in that way,” Scott said. “We’re starting to see that investment come into the women’s game, both from a club perspective, but also people who want to watch the game, and want to be in the stands, and support what we’re doing.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 9:08 PM with the headline "KC Current players, owners toast women in sports with fans alongside new Boulevard beer."