The Netherlands men's national team just moved into a women's soccer facility — and that says everything about what the Kansas City Current has built.
As of Monday, the KNVB has taken over the Current's training complex as its official World Cup base camp, running through a quarterfinal at Arrowhead (rebranded Kansas City Stadium for FIFA purposes) on July 11. The Dutch chose a facility purpose-built for a women's professional team over every other option available to them in a major American metro. That's not a feel-good footnote. That's a statement about the standard the Current has set.
"Their actions speak so loudly when you have this top men's team select a women's facility that's leading the way globally in sports for its investment," said co-owner Chris Long. He's right. You can talk up a training ground all you want — having a World Cup contender actually train there makes the argument for you.
What the Current actually built
Co-founders Angie and Chris Long trace the whole thing back to watching the 2019 Women's World Cup in France, seeing Kansas City's Power & Light District packed on television screens, and deciding to act. Within a few years, they had secured an NWSL franchise, built the world's first stadium purpose-built for a women's professional team — currently at 11,500 seats, with expansion to 18,000 planned by 2031 — and partnered with Port KC to redevelop the long-dormant Berkley Riverfront as part of a projected $1 billion-plus private investment over ten years.
Phase one alone is $200 million. A 40-foot wide videoboard at the new Current Landing plaza will host World Cup watch parties starting June 6. Defending champion Argentina — who trained at Sporting KC's facility but stayed at the Origin Hotel at Current Landing — arrived with a Lionel Messi mural looming over the whole scene. That image wasn't planned as a marketing stunt. It just fits.
Also basing operations in the area: Algeria (in Lawrence) and England.
The longer game
The riverfront development won't be complete by the time the tournament ends, but the infrastructure — a plaza, promenade, around 430 new apartment units, nearly 50,000 square feet of retail, and a streetcar extension now connecting the waterfront to the stadium — is already reshaping what Kansas City looks and feels like. Palmer Square Real Estate partner Mukul Sharma, a Kansas City native who lived in New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C. before returning, put it plainly: those cities have activated waterfronts. Kansas City didn't. Now it's getting one.
For the Current specifically, the World Cup moment carries a secondary significance. Every coaching staff, federation official, and journalist who walks through that training center will see what a properly resourced women's sports facility looks like. "They can't unsee that," Angie Long said. She means it about the Dutch — but the ripple effect is broader than one nation's World Cup prep.
The Current was formed after Kansas City's World Cup bid was already underway, so it didn't land the tournament. But it became, as Chris Long put it, "another piece of the puzzle" — and arguably the most visible one in terms of what visitors will actually experience and remember. Kansas City is hosting six matches between June 16 and July 11. The infrastructure built around a women's soccer club is now the backdrop for the biggest men's sporting event on the planet.
"Today is like that official welcome date of the world," Long said Monday. One Teal Rising Way is temporarily One Oranje Rising Way. For a club that's been operating for five years, that's a long way from France in 2019.
