The Kansas City Current have made an incredible run, going from a last-place finish in 2021 to playing in the NWSL championship game in 2022.
Not surprisingly, there’s a long list of causes: new tactics, new players, the idea of having fun becoming such a part of team culture. Top of the list, though? If you ask Current players, it might just be investment from ownership.
Last year, Kansas City began the season with a 13-game winless run, condemning them to the bottom of the table. They toiled away at Legends Field, a baseball field that was converted to a substandard soccer pitch. Players, under the placeholder name “Kansas City NWSL” after hastily relocating following Dell Loy Hansen’s fall from grace as owner of the Utah Royals and MLS’s Real Salt Lake, changed in temporary trailers. The trappings of the kind of professionalism generally associated with a sustainable winner simply were not in place.
One year later, the Current are playing at one of MLS’s top stadiums in Children’s Mercy Park, and for much of the year trained at a brand-new facility built for them and no one else. A 13-game midseason unbeaten run helped them into the playoffs, where they’ve gone on the road to beat the Houston Dash and OL Reign. They look like a whole new club.
Speaking to reporters two days before their NWSL Championship match against the Portland Thorns, no one from the Current blamed their tough results in 2021 entirely to poor conditions on gameday or at training. However, the topic of new investment boosting them towards being the best version of themselves came up in seemingly every conversation.
“I think this year kind of proves that when you do invest, and our ownership group investing in a new stadium, and new practice facility, and a whole new staff, just brought a whole new vibe,” explained midfielder Addie McCain. “It definitely allowed us to develop and be better than last year, obviously. So definitely investing in women’s sports (helped the team). Off-the-field stuff matters just as much as on the field.”
Kansas City majority owners Angie and Chris Long funded the construction of that aforementioned state-of-the-art training facility. A first-of-its-kind stadium for the club is under construction in downtown Kansas City, with team targeting 2024 as its move-in date.
Making history… again.
We’ve officially broke ground on the world’s first stadium purpose-built for a women’s professional team. pic.twitter.com/kFk08RCj6x
— KC Current (@thekccurrent) October 7, 2022
The enthusiasm for that upgraded infrastructure is palpable among the squad, but players noted that another form of investment was making a difference as well.
“Obviously, just from looking at the standings, you can kind of tell we had a bit of a rough season last year,” said veteran defender Kristen Edmonds. “I think bringing in a fresh staff, a lot of fresh faces this season, combined with the core group that we had from last year. I think that coaching staff did a really good job — especially when we got to Florida (for preseason) — of creating a good culture, a good locker room for us. It kind of started with that started in Florida, and it just took us through our whole season.”
That staff included hiring bringing in former U.S. Under-23 head coach Matt Potter as their new manager. Kansas City added former NWSL player Camille Levin Ashton as the club’s new General Manager. The club hired longtime NWSL goalkeeper coach Lloyd Yaxley, who had been with the Orlando Pride for several years, and as Edmonds mentioned, paid for a lengthy preseason camp in Florida.
The investments started last season, before the club even shifted to its new moniker. Kansas City put up $150,000 in allocation money — in NWSL, team owners have to put up the cash to actually use their allotment of allocation money — as part of a deal to bring AD Franch in from the Thorns.
In January, they funded another $200,000 to acquire U.S. women’s national team forward Lynn Williams. Williams picked up a season-ending injury just after the start of the Challenge Cup, leaving the Current one attacker short of their ideal set-up. Ownership was willing to spend yet again, signing off on a package deal to acquire Cece Kizer from Racing Louisville that included $150,000 more in allocation money spending.
In other words, the team is investing in infrastructure, but they’re also pushing things forward on the soccer side. For Edmonds, that investment provides a new sort of motivation.
“You don’t get complacent with things,” said the veteran of nine NWSL seasons on how she reacts when the club repeatedly backs their ambitions with action. “I’ve said this many times: one of our ways to be able to give back for the way they’ve invested in us, is to perform on the field, which we’ve done this season. So, it’s like our little way of saying thank you.”
Desiree Scott can speak from similar experiences, having played for this team when they were FC Kansas City, moving with the club to Utah, and then sticking around for the return under their new guise as the Current. That means she’s played for a team that had two of NWSL’s unfortunately common stumbling blocks: a team run on too tight of a budget, and allegations of poor conduct from ownership. In Utah, the investment was there, but the proper respect to players and staff under Hansen was not.
With the Current, it’s all finally coming together. That’s allowing the players to, in Scott’s words, “rewrite last season.”
“I think just a fresh slate with new ownership, new training facility, there was a lot to look forward to, and a lot of hype and buzz that we could kind of rally behind,” said Scott. “I think that was something that really connected the group. We weren’t going to be that team that we were last year, and with all the fresh and new-ness, a new coach, new facility, I think that allowed us to really succeed.”
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