CPKC Stadium

CPKC Stadium is an 11,500-seat soccer stadium on the Berkley Riverfront in Kansas City, Missouri, that opened March 16, 2024, as the home of the Kansas City Current of the National Women’s Soccer League — widely reported as the first stadium in the world purpose-built for a professional women’s sports team.¹²

Overview

CPKC Stadium sits on a roughly 7-acre parcel on the south bank of the Missouri River, just northeast of Kansas City’s River Market and within the Berkley Riverfront redevelopment district led by Port KC.¹ It is the permanent home of the Kansas City Current and anchors the riverfront’s transformation from former industrial land into a mixed-use entertainment district. The venue takes its name from CPKC — the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway — under a naming-rights agreement.

Design and construction

The stadium broke ground on October 6, 2022 and opened for its inaugural match on March 16, 2024.¹³ It was privately financed by the Current’s ownership group — Kansas City financial executives Angie and Chris Long — with construction cost reported between roughly $117 million and $120 million.¹²

Design and construction details:

• Capacity of 11,500, with every seat located within about 100 feet of the touchline for an intimate, close-to-the-pitch atmosphere.¹²
• The women-owned construction firm Monarch Build was involved in the project, reinforcing the venue’s framing as a milestone for women in professional sports.¹
• Purpose-built exclusively for soccer (not a converted multi-use venue), which is central to its “first purpose-built women’s professional sports stadium” distinction.²

Significance

CPKC Stadium is widely described as the first privately financed stadium purpose-built exclusively for a professional women’s soccer team, and is broadly reported as the first such venue for a women’s professional sports team anywhere in the world.¹² Its opening placed Kansas City at the center of the national women’s-sports infrastructure story and gave the city a globally recognized landmark.

The inaugural match drew a sellout crowd and saw the Current defeat the Portland Thorns 5–4, with Vanessa DiBernardo scoring the stadium’s first goal.¹³ By the end of the 2024 season, the Current had become the first NWSL team to sell out every home match across a full season.¹

Riverfront context

CPKC Stadium is a cornerstone of the Berkley Riverfront district. A companion CPKC Pavilion, designed by Burns & McDonnell to evoke the Missouri River, is being built as the riverfront’s “front door” and incorporates a new KC Streetcar station; the streetcar’s Riverfront Extension, which opened May 18, 2026, includes a stop adjacent to the stadium.³

• Neighborhood: Berkley Riverfront
• Adjacent: River Market to the south and west; the Missouri River to the north; downtown beyond
• Transit: served by the KC Streetcar Riverfront Extension as of May 2026

Sources

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia — “CPKC Stadium” (accessed 2026-07). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPKC_Stadium — Confirms: opening March 16, 2024; groundbreaking October 6, 2022; ~7-acre riverfront parcel; capacity 11,500 with every seat within ~100 feet of the touchline; cost reported ~$117M–$120M; Monarch Build; first purpose-built women’s professional soccer stadium; inaugural 5–4 win over Portland; first NWSL team to sell out a full home season. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. Beyond Sport — “Athletes & Fans Celebrate World’s 1st Women’s Professional Stadium” (2024-03-22). https://beyondsport.org/2024/03/22/athletes-fans-celebrate-worlds-1st-womens-professional-stadium/ — Confirms: first stadium in the world purpose-built for a women’s professional sports team; ~$120M cost; capacity and seating proximity. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. KCUR — “Kansas City Current fans pack brand new CPKC Stadium to capacity and celebrate a win” (2024-03-16). https://www.kcur.org/sports/2024-03-16/kansas-city-current-fans-pack-brand-new-cpkc-stadium-to-capacity-and-celebrate-a-win — Confirms: inaugural-match sellout; Vanessa DiBernardo first goal; riverfront setting. (Streetcar/CPKC Pavilion detail cross-referenced from berkley-riverfront sourcing.) ↩ ↩² ↩³