KC Current fans sound torn on stadium-upgrade proposal: ‘I do have some concerns’
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- The Kansas City Current asks for up to $235 million in bond financing to assist expansion.
- The team has sold out all 11,500 seats at every home and playoff match since 2024.
- Supporters express concerns about parking, traffic and accessibility from proposed growth.
The Kansas City Current is looking to expand its historic CPKC Stadium and the infrastructure around it with some partial bond financing.
The push to grow represents how far the National Women’s Soccer League team has come since its inaugural season in 2021. But some fans are concerned about how this latest expansion — to 18,000 seats — will affect logistics around and within the facility that opened in 2024.
Along with expanding capacity inside the stadium, the Current wants to build a new parking structure and improve infrastructure for mixed-use development along KC’s Berkley Riverfront. The organization is seeking up to $235 million in city bond financing to assist with its investment.
The Current presented its plan to a city committee Tuesday; an ordinance authorizing the beginning of the process will come before the city council Thursday. Approval would authorize city manager Mario Vasquez to negotiate a deal between the city and the team’s real estate partner, Palmer Square Capital Management, which is owned by Current co-owners Chris and Angie Long.
Palmer Square would bear the brunt if tax revenue can’t pay off the bonds, managing director Mukul Sharma told the committee.
Under the ownership of the Longs and Brittany and Patrick Mahomes, the Current built its first-of-its-kind women’s soccer facilities with minimal public financing. In 2022, the Current used $5.5 million from the Missouri Development Finance Board to help improve infrastructure in the part of town that would become CPKC Stadium.
The team is proud the venue was constructed primarily with private financing. But the Current’s ambitions have progressed rapidly in five years.
For some fans, being asked for public investment is a little much. Danielle Russell, vice president of the KC Blue Crew supporters, is disappointed about that element of the team’s latest project.
“It feels like that was the ultimate thing, the ultimate plan,” Russell said, “which then makes it even worse — that they talked about how ‘We didn’t use taxpayer (money),’ when they knew that that was always how they’re going to fund the expansion.
“So it’s really disappointing for that part. It’s really complicated.”
Like many other Current fans, Russell enjoys the game-day experience at CPKC Stadium. The team has sold out all 11,500 seats in each regular-season home and playoff match it has played at the stadium since it opened two years ago.
Current fans enjoy cheering on a winning team and sampling food and drink from local vendors. And the stadium has played host to other sports and events, too, such as college soccer, including the NCAA Division I women’s Final Four. USA women’s rugby matches and men and women’s lacrosse have also taken place there.
But the experience of getting to and entering CPKC Stadium, with its limited number of parking spots and constant traffic, can sour the experience, some fans told The Star.
The Current encourages spectators to leave cars at home and make use of alternative means of reaching the stadium, such as walking, biking, taking the streetcar or using ride-shares.
“I think we’ve built a really cool home environment, and the fact that more people get to experience that is amazing,” fan Maren Ludwig told The Star. “I do have some concerns about if it’s going to make it even harder logistically to get in and out of the stadium. We’re going to need even more street cars to move another 6,000 people.”
Mike McGrew, a landscape architect by trade, said the means of transporation encouraged by the Current fail to adequately address the needs of people with disabilities and others who require certain accommodations.
Since the team is asking for public investment, he said, listening to public opinion should be even more important.
“What can we get in terms of a public investment into our community, how do these outdoor spaces work?” McGrew said. “What kind of accommodations can we get inside the actual stadium to make this as accessible as possible for everyone?
“All those kinds of things can be done now, and that’s where I think a lot of the effort needs to come in.”
To date, the Current has invested $350 million into the project exceeding $1 billion in cost along the riverfront. Expanding the seating capacity of CPKC Stadium to 18,000 would position the team to host games during the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The event will take place at sites across the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica.
Bringing World Cup matches to the first stadium purpose-built for women’s soccer would be worth the public investment, several Current fans told The Star. But they hope the team retains the community and fan-experience focus that has been so endearing.
“The Pride Game did not feel like a Pride Game, and back in the day, they went all out,” Russell said of a recent game-day experience. “It feels more corporate every year, which I guess you have to do in order to get money, but it makes it not as fun as well.”
