KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The pitch at CPKC Stadium has already hosted 10 matches in the Sprouts Farmers Market Big 12 Women’s Soccer Championship since Oct. 30, but it gets another test Saturday with a unique doubleheader.
The Kansas City Current, which opened the first stadium purpose-built for a women’s professional sports team, kick off the NWSL Playoffs in the morning followed by the Big 12 title game later that night.
That makes 12 matches in an 11-day span, which puts stress on the Current’s stadium operations staff to maintain a pristine pitch.
"Oh, we're built for it," Stefanie Tomlin, the Current's vice president of stadium business development and CPKC Stadium’s general manager, said. "We're ready. Look, I would put our groundskeeping team against any groundskeeping team nationally. We went out and we got the best. We have your favorite groundskeepers’ favorite groundskeeper here."
In addition to great personnel, when the Current built CPKC Stadium they also invested in the newest and best technology for managing grass playing fields.
“We have all of our toys that we can use,” Assistant Groundskeeper Mira Emma said. “We're extremely grateful to have heating underneath our pitch, these (LED grow) lights that we have out every single day. We have our grow tarps that are blankets that keep the heat in to increase recovery to the turf to have these events so close.”
The SGL LED grow lights, in particular, are unique to CPKC Stadium in the U.S.
“We were the first stadium to have LED SGL lights here,” Emma said.
The system is common in Europe, where soccer culture and infrastructure has more than a century’s head start.
“That this is the technology that is used in some of the preeminent stadiums in Europe,” Tomlin said. “When we were doing our research on what to get, this just made the most sense to us.”
That’s because the goal is a perfect playing surface for every match.
“Our No. 1 priority is the safety of any athlete that steps foot on this field,’ Emma, a Chicago native who played soccer for five years at Iowa State, said. “We've been extremely proactive in our maintenance and culture practices to ensure the durability and the strength of our turf so it can uphold all of these matches, all of these events and upcoming events as well.”
The Big 12 tourney is the first big test unrelated to the Current’s NWSL season, but it won't be the last.
CPKC Stadium will host the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship next year and will host the NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Soccer Championships in 2026 as part of the 2026 D-II Fall Festival.
Expect even more events — and different kinds of sporting events — to be announced for the coming years at CPKC Stadium, which uses a Bermuda grass base during warm months that transitions to rye grass for colder months.
“We've got some big plans for 2025 and what I can say is it will be at the international level, across different sports verticals, in terms of our programming,’ Tomlin said.
But the focus this weekend will be soccer and, while most the grounds crew’s names aren’t as familiar as NWSL Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga, it’s impossible not to notice Emma and her colleagues’ work.
“There's obviously pressure that comes into it,” Emma said, “but honestly, our team takes pressure as a privilege.”
That effort goes much deeper than watering, fertilizing and mowing the grass.
“Making sure that the height cut is proper, making sure the firmness and the playing surface is elite as possible, making it level — these athletes coming here, they're professionals,” Emma said. “We want to make sure that they can perform at their highest level, so providing a pitch that's pristine for them is our top priority.”
It’s also exciting for Emma, a former midfielder who wrapped up her college career in 2023 among the Cyclones’ all-time top seven for goals (16) and assists (13).
“It's pretty cool,” she said of getting to prep the field for the Big 12 tourney. “That's what you live for, these collegiate athletes coming into our stadium like this.”
CPKC Stadium has to be ready for the pros and the college kids Saturday. The Current will play the North Carolina Courtage at 11 a.m. in the NWSL quarterfinals with No. 1 seed TCU taking on No. 6 seed Kansas at 7 p.m. in the Big 12 Championship Game.
“We love a challenge,” Tomlin said. “We already are history making, culture shaking, ground breaking — that's who we are. So you meet us with the challenge, we're going to meet and exceed expectations every time.”
CPKC Stadium will host the 2024 NWSL Championship Game in two weeks. The Current, of course, hope they’ll be one of the teams playing for a title at 7 p.m. on Nov. 23.
“Something about it feels correct and right and incredible that this first and only swing that we have at opening the stadium that our team is meeting and exceeding expectations,” Tomlin said. “You can feel that they feel that this is theirs. This is a great case study in why it's so important to invest in women's sports. There's a great business case for it. We're doing extremely well. The city's behind us. From a financial standpoint, (co-owners) Chris and Angie (Long) hit it out of the park, so I'm really excited.”
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KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
