Kansas City’s women’s soccer stadium hit big. Can Denver’s NWSL home go bigger?

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When players walk from the locker rooms to the field at CPKC Stadium on the banks of the Missouri River, they pass 37 words tiled on a wall.

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

Those words, Title IX, apply only to educational institutions, but they triggered a decades-long revolution in the world of professional sports. Players for the Kansas City Current, of the National Women’s Soccer League team, walked onto that pitch for the first time last year. They’ve sold out every game since. 

Even with the team on the West Coast late on a Saturday night in April, 60 fans gathered at Friction Beer Co. to watch the women from KC take on the San Diego Waves.

“It’s 11 p.m. here in KC and there’s still a full bar watching the game,” said Monica Bradley, who was rocking the Current’s signature teal kit. She attended the stadium’s inaugural game last year.

“I remember exactly where I was sitting, I remember exactly watching the game happen,” she said. “I stood outside for 40 minutes before they even opened the gates.”

The Current is the first professional team of any sport to play at a venue dedicated to women’s sports. They won’t be the last.

Eight hours west on Interstate 70, Denver NWSL plans to spend more than $100 million to build a stadium and training center of their own near the South Platte River. The team owners want the public to chip in. Denver City Councilors are hesitant to pay.

The $70 million question

NWSL Denver is breaking records as it prepares for its 2026 debut. The owners paid a $110 million franchise fee, the highest in NWSL in history. 

On April 7, the team surpassed 10,000 season ticket deposits, the most in NWSL history. 

They did it in two months, the fastest in NWSL history.

While the team will play at a temporary venue in Centennial for its first two seasons, they plan to debut a 14,500-seat stadium by 2028. It would sit south of downtown Denver, on a vacant parcel of land south of downtown known as Santa Fe Yards, bounded by Interstate 25, and Santa Fe Drive.

Rob Cohen, the team’s controlling owner, and Mayor Mike Johnston are asking Denver City Council to approve $70 million to support the project. Buying the land and building its infrastructure would cost $50 million. Then, $20 million would be spent to improve the area around the former Gates Rubber Co. campus, including widening Santa Fe, glamming up Vanderbilt Park and building an additional pedestrian bridge on the property to reach the Interstate 25 and Broadway light rail station. 

The Johnston administration wants to use interest from the Elevate Denver Bond Program for at least $50 million of the funding. The city would own the land under the stadium, leasing it to the team for several decades. After the lease ends, Denver would retain ownership of the land and could redevelop or sell the land.

An agreement has not been reached on specific terms. Cohen told city council members he expects the privately constructed stadium to cost $150 million to $200 million. 

The public-funding request pales in comparison to the public portion of the $168 million used to build Coors Field, which opened in 1995, and the $400 million spent on Empower Field at Mile High, which opened in 2001. Still, at an April 9 meeting of the seven-member South Platte River Committee, council members were skeptical of the proposal.

“The economic situation when we built Coors Field is not the economic situation we are facing now,” Councilwoman Sarah Parady said, referring to the economic boom the state experienced in the 1990s. “We are facing the collapse of global financial markets, and I don’t believe this stadium will ever be built.”

Cohen said Denver was awarded a team over other cities because of its promise of a stadium, and that the franchise is dependent on it. The team is backed by an ensemble of wealthy owners, including Project Level, the Ariel Investments’ fund dedicated to investment in women’s sports. Ariel’s co-CEO Mellody Hobson serves as the team’s alternate governor. 

No matter the economic situation or the cost, Cohen says, Denver NWSL players will get their own pitch.

“I can unequivocally tell you we won’t abandon this project because it’s important to our core values of what we’re trying to do, it’s important to what we believe and we made a commitment,” Cohen said.

Earlier this month the team announced Jen Millet as its first president. She’s currently the chief operating officer for Bay FC which shares a field with the MLS San Jose Earthquakes. Millet sees the stadium issue as a major hinderance to growth in women’s sports. 

 “It’s difficult for women’s sports to succeed when the majority of the clubs are tenants,” Millet told The Colorado Sun. “It’s difficult to even just get a schedule done, which makes it harder to sell tickets for fans. It’s difficult to get broadcast schedules organized because you’re not sure when you’re going to be able to play the match.”

Every major men’s sports franchise in Colorado has its own stadium. Millet, who grew up in Denver and graduated from the University of Colorado, said she came to NWSL Denver because of the ownership’s vision to build a global franchise and invest in a women’s team, at the same level seen by most of the state’s men’s teams. 

Johnston’s office is considering using a tax increment financing scheme, or TIF, for some of the $20 million in off-site improvements. This would allow any additional sales tax revenue generated by the property to be used to cover the cost of that work. The city has already approved a TIF for the Broadway Station Metropolitan District, which encompasses all of Santa Fe Yards. Under the proposal, the stadium TIF would repay the metropolitan district before the city.

The committee presentation came just a few weeks after the team’s stadium aspirations were was announced. If the deal between the city and the metro district is approved, the project will still need to return to Council for rezoning and other bureaucratic hurdles. In the hearing, Council President Amanda Sandoval brought a load of questions on the funding proposal and took particular issue with the TIF.

“What we’re doing here is we’re being asked to invest $70 million in a time of economic hardship … and we’re the last person to get repaid from the TIF,” Sandoval said. “The rate that the information has come to us, it feels overwhelming.”

CPKC filled seats and spurred growth

The Missouri River serves as the backdrop to CPKC Stadium, a $140 million privately financed venue. Denver’s proposal mirrors some of the strategy used to build CPKC Stadium, which anchors revitalization efforts of a former dumping site along the Missouri River. Santa Fe Yards, the chosen site for the Denver NWSL stadium, was home to the Gates Rubber factory, which closed in 2001 and sits vacant.

The land is owned by Port KC, a quasi-governmental agency that serves as Port Authority and one of the economic development agencies for Kansas City. The team leased the land for 50 years.

While the team did receive a $5.5 million tax credit from the state of Missouri, the Berkley Riverfront, where the stadium sits, was previously developed and cleaned up. It did not need to invest in the amount of new infrastructure that Santa Fe Yards will require. 

Every part of the stadium is designed with inclusivity in mind, and not just for women. Along the interior wall hangs a tribute to the trailblazing 1985 U.S. women’s soccer team, sensory rooms for overstimulated fans are available in the stands and most of the bathrooms are gender-neutral with floor to ceiling stalls, helping fans miss less of the game waiting in line.

“I know that’s probably not a thing for the guys, but for the girls, I am in awe with what they did,” Port KC Director of Communications Meredith Hoenes said of the efficiency. Even the team’s locker room is shaped like an oval “so that nobody felt like they were ever in a corner,” according to Hoenes.

Two of the Current’s owners, Chris and Angie Long, purchased 19.3 acres of the 78.6 acre riverfront from PortKC to create an entertainment district and build 1,000 apartments over 10 years. A $1 billion bond was issued by PortKC for the riverfront redevelopment which began in March 2024, and the city’s RideKC streetcar is being extended to the riverfront. No bond money went to the stadium project.

Hoenes credits the stadium and Current’s popularity for the growth spurt on the riverfront. “We love it. It’s a gem for Kansas City.” 

Not just a moment, an era

In January, the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s Minnesota Frost and Montréal Victoire played a sold-out Ball Arena to deafening chants of “We want a team!” 

Christina Skinner was there. 

And on April 13, she was watching the Chicago Star battle Bay FC at The 99ers, Denver’s first women’s sports bar.

“As a woman who loves sports, it is so cool to have a spot that is women-centric,” Skinner said.

She plays soccer but wasn’t rooting for either team. She’s saving her cheers for whatever Denver ends up with. She wants to be at the team’s inaugural game and thinks the $70 million from the city would make a statement that Denver supports women’s sports.

“It just shows women that you genuinely do care about what they’re doing and you’re interested,” Skinner said. “If it was just, hey, we’re not going to fund that — we love that you guys got a sports team, but we’re not going to help aid and access to it. It doesn’t seem that serious. It feels like people don’t actually care.”

Back in Kansas City, Bradley, who is originally from Denver, is building her own women’s sports bar. It would be Kansas City’s first and is set to open in June (midway through the Current’s season). When the Current faces Denver for the first time in Colorado, she said she’ll be torn. But she wants to be in the stands.

“It’s just going to be just such a beautiful addition to the fabric of Denver,” Bradley said.

The Current beat San Diego 2-0. 

Denver City Council’s Platte River Committee votes on Wednesday.