The Kansas City Current officially broke ground on more real estate expansion on Thursday, bringing their total investment to date in soccer facilities to somewhere between $225 million and $250 million, co-owner Chris Long confirmed to ESPN.
The Current's NWSL-leading investment in facilities, including a new performance center, will serve both its senior team and its reserve team in the long term. It also sweetens the pot for 2026 men's World Cup teams who are considering the Current's grounds as a training base for next year's tournament.
"We've hosted so many tours of countries and federations and it's been really exciting for the team just to honestly get exposure to a lot of different people and approaches," Long told ESPN.
Long said he expects to have an agreement in place with a federation in the coming months to serve as their 2026 men's World Cup base camp host.
Long spoke from his office -- which he shares with his wife and co-owner, Angie -- at the team's facility. The team's existing building overlooks its current training fields.
The new performance center, four new grass fields, and 2,000-seat stadium will be built adjacent to the existing Current facility. A new hotel just down the road, which is another project by the Longs, should be operational by next summer's World Cup.
"People love the fact that we have our front office space and our team location in a seamless fashion," Long said. "A lot of places have their training facility and their front office is elsewhere. So, the ability to have everyone from XYZ country in the same spot."
Kansas City is one of four NWSL markets whose training centers could be used by a 2026 men's World Cup team as a base camp, but the Current are the only team among that group that does not share space with a men's team. The other facilities are already divided between men's and women's teams in some way.
The Current have been one of the NWSL teams leading the charge for more development pathways. Kansas City already has a second team, and it is expected to play in the NWSL's forthcoming second division, which the league previously said would launch in 2026. The 2,000-seat stadium will be the reserve team's home.
The Current's senior team, which currently sits eight points clear atop the table during the NWSL's summer break, will use the new performance center during the 2026 men's World Cup. As per FIFA's requirements for base camps, the sites will be completely separated by physical boundaries, allowing the Current to train uninterrupted.
The NWSL recently announced that it will not play regular season games next June as the men's World Cup kicks off in seven of the league's 16 markets. But teams will still need to practice during that time, and the NWSL is expected to resume play in July during the men's World Cup, as commissioner Jessica Berman previously indicated to ESPN.
The Current play at CPKC Stadium on the Kansas City riverfront. The 11,500-seat stadium cost $143 million, and the Longs are in the middle of their second phase of a $1 billion development of the surrounding area that will be anchored by the stadium.
Long said that the impending 2,000-seat stadium in Riverside has already attracted attention from non-soccer entities like flag football and lacrosse.
The Longs are reserving part of the land they own in Riverside for a future WNBA training facility. They helped lead an effort alongside Chiefs quarterback (and Current co-owner) Patrick Mahomes to bring a WNBA expansion team to the city, but the league recently announced it would expand to Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia in the coming years.
"We think that will happen at some point," Long said.