KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Soccer fans in the Kansas City area can take the first step Tuesday towards getting tickets in the new stadium for the KC Current once it opens in 2024.
The team is taking what it calls “Membership Deposits” this week to reserve a spot in line to buy season tickets once they become available.
“We want to make sure we got our name on the list right away,” said Ray Remijio, who is already a KC Current member and plans to buy into the new stadium too.
He and his family were at the team’s training facility in Riverside Tuesday as one of the many events Current Team President Allison Howard said is intended to build a community around professional women’s soccer in the metro.
“It just helps them really understand this is real and that’s why we invite so many people to the training center,” said Howard.
What’s also real are the deposits fans can start putting down, reserving their spots in the 11,500-seat stadium.
Howard said after reserving tickets for Current players, visiting teams, the NWSL League, groups, and single-game ticket fans, there is a limited supply left over for fans who want to buy season tickets.
It’s why they’re having fans put down deposits but also building a large sense of community.
“A member really makes you feel like you’re building this with us, which they absolutely are,” said Howard. “The farthest seat in the place is only 100 feet from the pitch. You are seeing the sweat on these athletes.”
UMKC Law Professor Kenneth Ferguson said drives like these are common for pro sports teams in the process of building a stadium.
“You get the dollars in the door by having people reserve the right to purchase those tickets when they’re available,” said Ferguson.
The difference is that for most teams, the money is used to pay for the construction of stadiums that are massively expensive. Many NFL teams have built massive stadiums using the Personal Seating License model, where fans often pay a few thousand dollars just for the right to buy season tickets, whose prices can still fluctuate.
Kansas State University Marketing Associate Professor Doug Walker says it does go a long way building a buzz around what’s coming next.
“The genius of it to me is having this membership idea and having this deposit idea, because they have a deposit a year and a half out, you and I are talking about it today and so are a lot of people in the Kansas City media and beyond,” said Walker.
The Current plans on breaking ground on the new stadium on October 6 along Berkley Riverfront.
