KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Construction crews began installing grandstands Tuesday at the Kansas City Current's new stadium at the Berkley Riverfront Park.
The stadium, which is the first purpose-built for a women's professional sports team, is on track to open next spring in time for the 2024 National Women’s Soccer League season.
The grandstand installation is what the team calls its latest “major milestone” in the $117-million project, which broke ground in the fall of 2022.
The grandstands will cover the east, west and south sides of the stadium. Builders said there is room to add more seats in the corners of the station.
The north side will remain open and offer views of the Missouri River along which crews are building the stadium.
The grandstands are large pieces of aluminum on which fans will stand and crews will attach seats, but builders said the aluminum is much different than the kind used in most high school bleachers.
“These have way more sound absorption rather than that clinging that you’d hear from a high school stadium,” Courtney Kounkel, the owner of Monarch Build, said. “There’s also a coating on it, a slip-resistant coating, so it has a different feel to it than just aluminum.”
Don’t worry, the sound-dampening material inside the aluminum won't prevent fans from giving the Current a home-field advantage.
“There’s nothing that will keep it from being loud and awesome,” Kounkel said.
