The KC Current – the NWSL team part-owned by Patrick and Brittany Mahomes – has announced plans for an $800million development including apartments and a new town square next to the team’s CPKC Stadium. According to the team’s website, the mixed-use district will also feature a riverfront promenade, with construction set to begin at the end of this year for a targeted end date of 2026.
The team, in collaboration with Palmer Square Capital Management, Marquee Development, and the Port Authority of Kansas City, shared impressive new renderings of the proposed project on Monday, including two pictures with an aerial view of the scenic Missouri riverfront. With CPKC Stadium the first stadium specifically built for a professional women’s sports team, the adjacent project will draw more than $200million in private funding, the team said. The Current’s press release also noted that the future public space will be set up with movie nights, food festivals, live music and more throughout the year.
Patrick Mahomes and wife Brittany are investors into the KC Current, and attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for CPKC Stadium
CPKC Stadium only opened its doors last month, with Patrick and Brittany on hand for the opening match in the newly-constructed stadium. The Current won that game 5-4 over the Portland Thorns. The expansion plans around CPKC Stadium come as the city looks to solve its venue issues with its NFL and MLB franchises.
The future of the Chiefs and Royals in Kansas City was thrown into question earlier this month when residents of Jackson County, Missouri , resoundingly voted down a sales tax measure that would have helped fund major renovations to Arrowhead Stadium and a new downtown ballpark. Royals owner John Sherman and Chiefs president Mark Donovan acknowledged long before the final tally that the initiative would fail.
More than 58 percent of voters ultimately rejected the plan, which would have replaced an existing three-eighths of a cent sales tax that has been paying for the upkeep of Truman Sports Complex – the home for more than 50 years to Kauffman and Arrowhead Stadiums – with a similar tax that would have been in place for the next 40 years.
The Royals, who had pledged at least $1billion from ownership for their project, wanted to use their share of the tax revenue to help fund a $2bn-plus ballpark district. The Super Bowl champion Chiefs, who had committed $300m in private money, would have used their share as part of an $800m overhaul of Arrowhead Stadium. Donovan said the Chiefs would do ‘what is in the best interest of our fans and our organization as we move forward.’
That could mean many things: The Chiefs could try again with a reworked plan more agreeable to voters, change their entire funding approach to include more private investment, or they could even listen to offers from competing cities and states – such as Kansas, just across the state line to the west – that would provide the public funding they desire.
