The Longs are trying to stay on their feet.
The husband and wife duo, co-owners of the National Women's Soccer League club Kansas City Current along with Brittany Mahomes, are taking a tour of the team's training facility that is set to be unveiled later this month. Most construction projects are completed at the last minute. There is a lot of dust, exposed wiring and buckets of paint. They are looking through the debris as they show off the various rooms.
Chris was asked if this will happen in time.
"Well, I think there will be, and we're moving in on June 13th," he said.
The 17,000 square foot training facility is an apt metaphor for all that is happening with the NWSL There is a lot of work to be done and the league is still looking into allegations of improper conduct. One can see the league's promise, one that by becoming more professional has the ability to maximize both revenues and its players' potential.
One of the crown jewels of the NWSL will be the new training grounds and the 11,500-seat stadium the team is building in Kansas City. In order to accommodate future growth, the venue is going to be expanded to 20,500.
This is what happens when a team gets a lot of money. The stadium's price tag is expected to be over 120 million dollars. It will cost another fifteen million dollars to build the training facility. While other organizations invested in the women's game, they piggybacked on companion teams in MLS. Thousands of season tickets have been sold for Angel City FC. The approach of some other NWSL organizations has been more expense-limitation
The NWSL has seen what the Longs are doing before, but what they are doing is much different. They are part of a new group of owners who want to treat their ownership like a business.
This isn't a profit center. This is definitely an investment. You won't get a return if you don't invest. I think there is a problem of non-investment, either because people were in it because it felt like a nice thing to do, or because they were in it for the purpose of developing players for a national team.
Memorial Day at the Match!! @thekccurrent family....let's go! pic.twitter.com/IWFNxkcXLF
— Chris Long (@cdlong97) May 30, 2022
The ability to control more revenue through naming rights, ticketing, concessions and the way partnerships are done is one aspect of the NWSL that has been underestimated.
He says that a higher level of internal rate of return is created by more revenue levers.
The Longs are not soccer players. They began working for J.P. Morgan Chase after graduating from college. Chris began investing in private equity and credit investing. Chris is the CEO at Palmer Square Capital Management. The total assets of the company are more than $22 billion.
The Longs were able to catch the soccer bug. Chris was a basketball player in high school and was an All-American rugby player in college. The previous NWSL team in town, FC Kansas City, was a founding member of the league. It was a trip to the World Cup in France with Mary, where she played in youth matches, that made her realize the power of the sport. The level of support back in Kansas City made a big impression on the fans. Fans were watching the World Cup in the Power & Light District.
"'Oh my God,' we were saying." There needs to be a team here. "We have to do it." Chris says.
One of the founding investors in Angel City FC was a friend of the Longs'. When the Utah Royals came on the market, the Longs stepped in to buy the team and bring it back to Kansas City.
For women's soccer, not just in the U.S., but globally, and everything that was happening in Europe and their investment in teams, we just felt, 'Now's the time.'
The Current has had a hard time in the early part of the season. The Current are in 11th place in the 12-team league because of the injuries to Lynn Williams and Sam Mewis. On the eve of the tour of the new training facility with the Longs, the Current sustained a gut punch. Kansas City played one of its best games of the young season, and carried a 2-0 lead into the final minute against the San Diego Wave, only to give up a goal to Alex Morgan.
The San Diego Wave and the Kansas City Current played to a 2-2 tie.
One might think that the team captain and holding player would still be upset about the outcome after the game. Scott is happy when the topic is about the changes the Longs have made. She knows a lot about the NWSL.
She has played in the NWSL for the past three years. When the league took over the club for failing to meet minimum standards and moved it to Salt Lake City, it was the second time that Elam Baer had been the owner. It's almost too good to be true for Scott.
She says that the game is changing in Kansas City. The team used to play on high school fields without a locker room. The game is taking leaps and bounds forward with the addition of our own stadium and training facility in the future. The investment from the club to be a part of the growth is incredible.
The fact that Scott and her teammates will have a training site of their own will greatly improve their day to day existence. Since May 2, they've been training on the fields near the new construction, and they've seen the building slowly take shape. It is obvious that the anticipation is high.
Scott says that it's a place for him and his family to go and feel comfortable. They're ready for you to leave, so you can just focus on training and getting better, and not worry about where you're going. We're just going to be here. I agree with you on that.
It's going to be fun to see the gym and how it's going to be set up.
"Kansas City Current" and the team's logo can be seen on the side of the building.
Its layout is similar to other training sites around the country. There is an efficient way for players to move from the cafeteria to the locker room, the gym, the medical treatment area and the practice field. A turf field is going to be installed on one of the grass fields. The front-office staff will be able to see the various fields from the upstairs location.
The Longs got feedback on what the facility should be able to hold. When they consulted with MLS teams, like Austin FC, they always asked what didn't work.
Chris said that the boot room was too close to the locker room and that it smelled crazy. All of that was absorbed by us. We spent lots of time with the players. There was a lot of time spent with the medical team. We had experts like the contractor and the architect who were involved in the project, so it wasn't done in isolation.
Cross-laminated timber is a type of wood used in the construction of the training facility. Chris says that the construction using such materials has been more carbon efficient than using steel.
It's incredible." Construction began in September of 2021. He says it has been a very fast project.
The question is how many other teams will do the same. The building of the stadium is helping with recruitment.
She says that they can call any player in the world and they know who Kansas City is because of everything they're doing.
The West Coast teams are going to build their own training facilities. NWSL teams that share facilities with men's teams will have their space upgraded.
If you want to compete, you need to do it.
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