With an accelerated construction schedule and an increase in budget, the Kansas City Current will play its first 2024 home game at its new stadium in late March 2024. Construction on the stadium located on the east end of Berkley Riverfront Park began in October 2022, and it is scheduled for completion at the end of January 2024. The stadium is the first professional women’s sports stadium in the world.
“It’s been a fast and furious 12 months. No doubt about it. To build a stadium of this size in 15 or 16 months is not a small feat,” said Courtney Kounkel, founder and owner of Monarch Build.
Kounkel was joined by Kendra Burcham, project manager with JE Dunn Construction, and Jocelyn Russell, business development manager with Western Specialty Contractors, to give an update last week on the stadium project at an event hosted by CREW KC. Monica Dahl, commercial banking relationship manager at Arvest Bank, moderated.
“The main thing about that fast-paced schedule is we had to get out ahead of all the materials. We looked at what trades were going to impact us the most and brought them on board early on the project - even before the design was finalized, which is crazy,” said Burcham.
Burcham said the biggest surprise she encountered has been the amount of support for the project, which led to a tripling of the original construction budget.
“When we came onto the project, it was only a $30 million construction budget. Today, it’s at a $90 million budget. I think the amount of changes and how fast-paced it was is just like a ‘whoa moment’ for all of us. Thirty million (dollars) was just never a reasonable number,” she said.
According to Kounkel, the original budget probably could have built a high school stadium, but an objective of team owners, Angie Long and Chris Long, was to elevate what’s expected for all women’s professional sports, not just soccer.
“The experience of an attendee will be unlike any other stadium has been. [T]hat’s why the budget had to grow because the expectation of what they wanted changed,” Kounkel said.
When the project started and the Longs discovered that the original budget was inadequate, they started cutting items from the project, including a planned team store.
“The team store was a separate building so it was an easy one for us to cut. After year one or after year two, they could easily build that building at that point in time. So we cut it. We weren’t expecting it to come back so quickly,” Burcham said.
A team store of approximately 2,000 SF will be completed in the first quarter of 2024.
Burcham said a normal construction schedule for a similar project would be 18 months. This project also was unusual because the design had not been completed when construction began.
“In a perfect world, all the design would be finished. Then we would go and get trade partners, and then we would start construction,” said Burcham.
The natural grass pitch was installed on September 1, 2023.
“And so now it’s off limits. That’s a huge area of the stadium that’s blocked off. The Kansas City Current is actually maintaining it at this point. You can’t walk on it. Everyone is just circling it,” Kounkel said.
“Our drainage system that typically just drains water is hooked up to a sub-air system. It can blow air underneath to promote growth of the grass or it can suck water off like a giant vacuum. So, on rain delays, it actually gets that water off as quickly as possible to dry it out quicker to start playing on it faster,” said Burcham.
There also is a heating system under the pitch to promote growth.
“It kind of tricks the grass into thinking that it’s fall or spring even though it’s wintertime,” Burcham said.
In addition, there are grow lights, the first of its kind, said Burcham.
“So if you drove by it at night, it lights up pink. Those are the grow lights that you see,” she said.
The stadium has been constructed with different expansion points for future growth, Burcham said. When it opens, the stadium will have an 11,500-seat capacity. Ticket prices for KC Current games at the new stadium will be more expensive than patrons are now paying, but there will be a span of pricing.
“But, my argument to you is if you believe women should be paid equally, you should be willing to pay the same as going to a Sporting Kansas City game, which is all they’re doing. All they did was they leveled up the pricing to be the same as if you bought tickets for Sporting,” said Kounkel.
Kounkel acknowledged that stadium parking will be “tricky” the first year. The KC Current will provide a gravel parking lot initially. There are plans for a parking structure which will be open to the public for matches on a lot to the south of the stadium owned by a different developer. The streetcar expansion to the Berkley Riverfront will be complete in 2025.
“The Current is actually going to provide a lot of park and ride around town, so you might be able to drive downtown, park in a parking lot, and they will pick you up and bring you down and bring you back. . . . It will be congested. I think we can just expect that the first season,” Kounkel said.
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Feature photo from L to R: Monica Dahl, Courtney Kounkel, Kendra Burcham and Jocelyn Russell. Photo credit MWM KC | Marcia Charney.