Sporting Park will host a FC
Kansas City regular season game (possibly more) and any home playoff
matches as well. The two teams are working out the details of playing FC
Kansas City's home opener at Sporting park but has not been announced
yet. The rest of the Blues games would be played on the grass field of
the Championship stadium at Swope Soccer Village. The Championship
Stadium is currently capable of holding approximately 2000 fans but FC
Kansas City will be bringing additional bleachers that they purchased
for use at UMKC and can add more as needed.
Another plus is that they will be able to sell alcohol at the stadium for fans to enjoy, a first for FC Kansas City games.
The relationship will allow FC
Kansas City and Sporting KC to do cross promotions and marketing
opportunities in the future as well.
"What Sporting has done on and
off the field is unbelievable, a fantastic job," FC Kansas City Director
of Soccer Operations Huw Williams said. "The way they represent Kansas
City is incredible. They are a role model for us. We hope FC Kansas City
is a good franchise and on the upswing as well and having a
relationship with Sporting KC can only help."
The FC Kansas City technical
staff and players are excited; they are looking forward to the
opportunity to use the World Class facilities at Swope. The Blues will
be able to use the new locker rooms, class rooms, training room and
fields. It is expected that they will train on a mix of fields including
Sporting KC fields, the Championship Field and the turf fields as
needed.
FC Kansas City previously
played on turf fields and this is a major upgrade in quality of surface.
The Blues first season they played at the Shawnee Mission District
Stadium that was a good size for fans but the turf was not conducive to
good soccer. The Blues then moved to the soccer stadium at the
University of Missouri-Kansas City where the turf was much better.
Quality attracts quality
This Championship Stadium grass
surface is maintained by Sporting Kansas City and will be one of if not
the best surface in the NWSL. Sporting KC already finds that the
quality of facilities has helped attract interest from players and FC
Kansas City will as well. Heather O'Reilly asked if it was possible to
play and train there when the Blues were working on a trade for her from
Boston.
O'Reilly had seen Swope Soccer
Village first hand when she was in Kansas City for the U.S. Women's team
match to qualify for the World Cup
and was not alone in wanting to play there. Many of the national team
players fell in love with the field while training there and inquired
why the NWSL was not playing there instead.
Leaving UMKC was not easy
"This is not a negative on
UMKC," Williams made clear. "They were great hosts and we never lost a
game at UMKC. Leaving UMKC is not easy for us but developing that
relationship with Sporting KC is huge."
"Chris Cissell was
unbelievable, " Williams continued. "He went out of his way to make us
feel comfortable and make sure we had all the amenities we needed but we
weren't training there. We trained on the grass field at Johnson County
Community College but often had to use turf fields at Overland Park
Soccer Complex."