If you’ve made it through your depression about your busted bracket (thanks, Kentucky!) then you might be looking for more outlets for your sports fandom.
This is one of the best times of the year in Kansas City. Not only is spring springing, but Royals baseball is just around the corner, waiting to disappoint us with a 5-23 April.
Your Kansas City Chiefs are off in remote islands sucking face with music stars and Sporting Kansas City is dribbling down their leg, losing leads at a frenetic pace.
But hope springs eternal in this cow town and there’s another major player who has just moved into the yuppie-laden Berkley Park district ready to take your hard-earned cash for a hot dog and a craft beer. And these ladies came to play.
Welcome to CPKC Stadium and The Kansas City Current. While the Current has been playing at Sporting Park the last few years, they have vaulted into the spotlight with the opening of their new womens-soccer-only built stadium inches from the Kit Bond Bridge and steps away from City Market.
Make that quite a few steps – but we’ll get to that in a moment. Living just one exit north, I took this opportunity to get season tickets to the Current this season in anticipation of an exciting year. After their home opener last weekend, I can tell that this team won’t disappoint. It’s a collection of wonderful characters from the insanely talented Vanessa DiBernardo to the “celly queen” Lo’eau LaBonta and their stoic keeper Adrianna Franch.
CPKC Stadium is also privately funded. So as you hear in the coming weeks about voting to give tax dollars to sports owners for stadiums in Jackson County, know that this one was built differently.
Now, they still need to work on how to actually, yanno, get to the stadium. It might be tucked at the base of the Bond Bridge, but unless you want to pay the $50 to park (FIFTY DOLLARS), then your options are to park on the other side of the railroad tracks at City Market and walk over. It’s about a 35-45 minute walk depending on how slow you are. Both ways. There are also team-provided shuttles, along with bike valet stations as well. So it’s not impossible. But it is definitely not Kauffman Stadium or parking at T-Mobile Center.
It’s going to be really fun out there in a couple of years as the Streetcar expands across the tracks, a few bars and restaurants are built, and it becomes less of an island in the middle of downtown. For now… plan ahead.
I’d strongly encourage you to visit the Current this summer and make it part of your sports-watching rotation along with the Royals, Sporting and the American Association Champion Kansas City Monarchs (which I happen to work for, by the way.) Maybe you’ll get to do a celly after one of those goals. It’s got all the materials to make for a great night out for a family, friends, or loved ones.
(Follow Chris Kamler on X, where you’ll find his rambling adventures as @TheFakeNed)