Patrick Mahomes and wife Brittany swap football for soccer as they attend Kansas City Current’s first game at their new $120m stadium – the first-ever built just for a women’s team

club, play in venues built for the men.

But the vision of the Current’s ownership group, led by Chris and Angie Long and including investors such as Chiefs quarterback Mahomes and Brittany, was to build facilities of their own. They began with an $18m, purpose-built practice facility, then turned their attention to the stadium, where they could control standards, scheduling and, most importantly, revenue.

The predecessor to the Current, known as FC Kansas City before it folded in 2017, played at various times at a high school football stadium, a college soccer stadium and the training field of MLS club Sporting KC.

When the club reformed as the Current in 2021, it began playing in a minor league ballpark before moving a few blocks over to Children’s Mercy Park, one of the jewels of MLS but a stadium that nevertheless belonged wholly to someone else.

Season tickets have been sold out for months, and the demand for single-game seats is strong enough that some fans already are wondering when the stadium will expand. It was designed so that seats can be added in the future.

Yet the construction of CPKC Stadium – naming rights were sold to the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway – has not been without detractors.