The Kansas City Chiefs are not the only team in town making sports history. When the Kansas City Current takes the pitch in 2024, they will be playing in the world’s first-ever women’s professional sports stadium.
“There’s never been a purpose-built stadium specifically for women’s sports,” said Courtney Kounkel, founder and owner of Monarch Build.
Kounkel joined Tom Proebstle, founding partner and design director of Generator Studio, and Scott Sherry, vice president of JE Dunn Construction, to discuss the stadium at a recent breakfast event hosted by the Kansas City Chapter of DBIA-MAR.
Generator Studio is in charge of the project's design, while Monarch Build and JE Dunn Construction have collaborated on the construction of the FIFA-compliant stadium which is being built on a 7-acre site situated on the east end of Berkley Riverfront Park.
In 2020, team owner Chris Long approached Proebstle to assist in designing a training facility and sports stadium for the newly acquired women's soccer team he and his wife, Angie Long, own.
Proebstle stated that the search for a suitable site for the construction of the stadium extended across both sides of the state line. He added that the team had evaluated approximately 12 different sites before ultimately landing on the riverfront for the project.
According to Proebstle, the Longs' original plan was to construct both the training facility and the stadium on the riverfront site. However, Proebstle explained that constructing a training center with multiple pitches would not have been the optimal use at that location. Consequently, the Longs built a $17 million training center in Riverside, Mo., which is now open.
The riverfront site was chosen to make a bold statement about the future of women's athletics, according to Proebstle. He also noted that the Longs' objective was to raise the profile of women's athletics and promote its growth.
“They’re not just wanting to build a soccer team or to build a stadium. It’s incredibly important to them to raise the bar - really level the bar for women in all things, since sports, as you know, is often the catalyst to changing people’s mindset about a lot of things,” said Kounkel.
Sherry noted that nearly all of the on-site project management team and the majority of the construction team consultants include women.
“In the 23 years that I’ve been in construction, I’ve never walked into a trailer where the females outweigh the men inside of the trailer,” said Sherry.
“I think that we are at about 30 or 40 percent of the construction value being woman-owned. It might be the highest percentage of a construction job ever in Kansas City,” Kounkel said.
The stadium will be a horseshoe configuration containing 11,500 seats. Proebstle said the stadium will have 12 to 14 different seating types, including 13 suites.
“Again, that’s a clear indication of the investment in women’s athletics. We started the conversation at about 6,000 seats, and as news got out and this became in fact an international story, all a sudden we’re at 11,500 seats,” said Proebstle. “It allows all of us to have a different experience in the stadium."
According to Proebstle, Angie Long wanted a stadium that would not look outdated in a decade. As a result, the stadium is being built with bright, simple materials with a stadium design that aims to bring the audience as close as possible to the pitch.
“What I think is one of the most important hallmarks to a sports venue is when you walk around the concourse you should be able to see out to the field of play, in this case, the pitch, at any time. It helps you orient yourself to the field, what’s going on, and know where you are and know where your seats are, rather than having a concourse that’s remote from that field,” he said.
The construction of the stadium began with a groundbreaking ceremony in October 2020, drawing 6,000 attendees. Currently, the vertical construction has not yet commenced; however, the underground work is underway with approximately 40,000 cubic feet of detention already on site, according to Sherry.
The site has presented several challenges due to its sandy soil and the fact that it used to be a dump site. “When the Kemper Arena roof collapsed, this is where they took it,” Kounkel said.
Before the KC Current owners acquired the site under a 50-year lease from Port KC, a significant portion of the remediation work had already been carried out (by Port KC), according to Kounkel.
The stadium's location also initially raised concerns about the possibility of flooding; Sherry confirmed that the pitch was designed to be just above the highest flooding event ever recorded along the riverfront.
“When the grass gets down there, there won’t be any more truck traffic or foot traffic that walks on that pitch until the players take the field next year,” said Sherry.
The KC Streetcar will extend to Berkley Riverfront Park in 2025, which was another enticement for selecting this site. There will be surface parking when the stadium initially opens.
“All eyes are on Kansas City about this project,” said Proebstle.
Apart from hosting the KC Current's matches, there are plans for utilizing the stadium in other ways. It is expected that a World Cup team will utilize the stadium as a training facility and the pitch will include some retractable seating which will allow the stadium to be used as an American football field. There are also plans to host concerts at the stadium.
The stadium, which is yet to be named, is set to open in March 2024, while the pitch installation is scheduled to commence in August.
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Feature image/Rendering credit: Generator Studio.