When Angie and Chris Long first decided to build a stadium for their National Women’s Soccer League team, the Kansas City Current, they didn’t exactly have a model to look to—every other franchise in the NWSL shared its home field with one or more men’s clubs. So the new team owners took their inspiration from intimate venues like Duke University’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, settling on a capacity of 11,500 with the goal of creating a fan experience that was loud, crowded and coveted.

By the time CPKC Stadium opened in March 2024, Kansas City had fallen in love with soccer, and the NWSL was beginning to take off. The Current became the first team in league history to sell out all of its home matches that year and now have a season-ticket base of around 8,000—more than four of the league’s 16 clubs are averaging in total attendance this year.

The downside of that success: Many fans haven’t been able to get in the door. As robust as the army of season-ticket holders is, there are still more than 5,000 names on the waiting list, and the number crunch leaves only a couple of thousand seats available for single-game sales. Meanwhile, the stadium’s 12 luxury suites—all of which require long-term commitments—sold out in about two weeks.

“Sometimes scarcity is a really, really good thing, but sometimes it puts people off, too,” says Chris Long, who in addition to owning the Current serves as chairman and CEO of Palmer Square Capital Management, the investment firm he cofounded with his wife that has more than $36 billion in assets under management and is based just across the Kansas border in Mission Woods. “We want to get more people in the tent.”

So barely two years after the stadium opened, the Current are ready to expand it. On Tuesday, the team is unveiling its plans to increase the capacity to 18,000, after Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas proposed a tax increment financing (TIF) district and up to $235 million in bonds to help finance the renovation and the surrounding development earlier this month.

The Current like to boast that no seat at CPKC Stadium is more than 110 feet from the field, and they are aiming to maintain that kind of proximity with the new design. Rather than building a new upper deck, the team intends to add the bulk of the 6,500 additional seats in the corners between the grandstands that currently flank the pitch and raise the roof line to add more premium boxes along the top of the stadium, roughly doubling the suite capacity. The project would also connect the second-level concourse between the east and west sections while preserving a view of the Christopher S. Bond Bridge, which crosses the Missouri River just outside the building.

The team expects to complete the vast majority of the construction outside the NWSL season, likely beginning in the fall........

© Forbes