Kansas City Current open 'game-changing' stadium with 5-4 win - ESPN

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Current ushered in the grand opening of CPKC Stadium, the first stadium built specifically for a National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team, in style on Saturday, defeating the Portland Thorns 5-4 in a match that tied a league record for most total goals.

«I think this game was brilliant, to have both teams score, because I don't think one person that was here in this stadium is not going to want to be back for the next game,» Lo'eau LaBonta, the Current's captain, said. «They are going to tell more people. Everybody's going to want to come now because that was a show.»

— Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, NWSL more (U.S.)

The match marked the start of a new era for individuals, including the return of former U.S. women's national team head coach Vlatko Andonovski to the NWSL and his adopted home, as well as the team and the league.

CPKC Stadium cost over $120 million and was mostly privately funded. The Kansas City Current's owners also built an $18 million training center that opened in 2022 and will be expanded further in the near future. A sellout crowd of 11,500 fans to open the stadium on Saturday punctuated the team's unprecedented spending on facilities for a women's soccer team.

«It's so much more than I expected,» NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman told ESPN at halftime. «We've been saying if you build it they will come, internally, and then coming here and actually seeing what it means to actually invest in brick and mortar physical infrastructure, it's a game-changer.

»They have changed the footprint of this city forever, and I think it will have an even greater impact than anyone can imagine."

Kansas City midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo opened the scoring 22 minutes into