FC Kansas City was an American professional women's soccer club based in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

. The team was one of the eight founding clubs of the

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

in 2012, and began play in 2013. They were two-time NWSL champions, having won titles in 2014 and 2015. After the 2017 season, the NWSL re-acquired owner Elam Baer's membership interest and subsequently ceased the team's operations.

History

Establishment and inaugural season

In November 2012, it was confirmed that a Kansas City-based women's professional soccer team had been accepted into a new women's professional soccer league, later named

. The KC ownership group was composed of Chris Likens, his two sons Brad and Greg Likens, and Brian Budzinski, the same owners of the

Missouri Comets Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas to th ...

of the Major Indoor Soccer League. On December 12, 2012, FC Kansas City announced that

Vlatko Andonovski Vlatko Andonovski ( mk, Влатко Андоновски; born 14 September 1976) is a Macedonian-American soccer coach and former player. He is currently the head coach of the United States women's national team. Andonovski previously coach ...

, a former professional player and head coach of the Kansas City Kings of the PASL and Missouri Olympic Development Program (ODP), would be head coach of the team. On January 11, 2013, a new logo was unveiled for the team that features the team's colors: blue, white and black. According to a team-issued press release, "the new logo also represents the ever-flowing qualities that make up the game of women's professional soccer." On January 14, 2013, as part of the

NWSL Player Allocation The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) federation players were players whose salaries for playing in the NWSL were paid for by their respective national federations from 2013 to 2021. American federation players were contracted to the United Sta ...

Nicole Barnhart Nicole Renee Barnhart (born October 10, 1981) is an American soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for Washington Spirit in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She previously played for FC Gold Pride and Philadelphia Independence in Wo ...

(USA),

Lauren Cheney Lauren may be a given name or surname.The name's meaning may be "laurel tree", "sweet of honor", or "wisdom". It is derived from the French name Laurence, a feminine version of Laurent, which is in turn derived from the Roman surname Laurentius. ...

(USA), Renae Cuéllar (MEX), Marylin Diaz (MEX),

Becky Sauerbrunn Rebecca Elizabeth Sauerbrunn (born June 6, 1985) is an American professional soccer player for Portland Thorns FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the highest division of women's professional soccer in the United States. Since 2021 ...

(USA),

Desiree Scott Desiree Rose Marie Scott (born 31 July 1987) is a Canadian soccer player who plays as a midfielder for National Women's Soccer League club Kansas City Current and the Canadian national team. Nicknamed "the destroyer", she won gold at the 20 ...

(CAN), and

Lauren Sesselmann Lauren Marie Sesselmann (born August 14, 1983) is an American-born Canadian soccer player and Olympic bronze medalist who is currently playing as a defender or a forward for the Santa Clarita Blue Heat. She was also a member of the Canada na ...

(CAN) were named to the team. On January 18, the team selected

Kristie Mewis Kristen Anne Mewis (born February 25, 1991) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Gotham FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the United States national team. Early life Mewis grew up in Hans ...

Erika Tymrak Erika Leigh Tymrak (born August 7, 1991) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Orlando Pride of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She was previously a member of the United States under-17 team that was r ...

, Whitney Berry, and

Nia Williams Nia Jensen (; born September 19, 1990) is an American retired soccer defender who most recently played for FC Kansas City in the National Women's Soccer League. Early life Born in Roeland Park, Kansas to Huw Williams and Nina Leek, Williams a ...

in the

2013 NWSL College Draft The 2013 NWSL College Draft was the first annual college draft held by the National Women's Soccer League to assign the NWSL rights of college players to the eight NWSL teams. It took place on January 18, 2013 at the National Soccer Coaches Asso ...

. The team signed

Sinead Farrelly Sinead Louise Farrelly (born November 16, 1989) is an American former soccer player who played as a midfielder. She previously played for Boston Breakers of the National Women's Soccer League. In 2011, she played for the Philadelphia Independen ...

Jen Buczkowski Jennifer Rose Buczkowski (born April 4, 1985) is an American former soccer midfielder. She played for FC Kansas City in the NWSL. She previously played for the Philadelphia Independence and New Jersey Sky Blue of Women's Professional Soccer. E ...

, and

Leigh Ann Robinson Leigh Ann Brown (; born August 17, 1986) is an American former soccer defender. She previously played for FC Kansas City of the National Women's Soccer League, FC Gold Pride, Atlanta Beat, and the Philadelphia Independence of the Women's P ...

as free agents. During the February 7, 2013 NWSL Supplemental Draft, the Blues selected Courtney Jones,

Bianca Henninger Bianca Henninger Moreno (born 22 October 1990) is an American-born Mexican former professional footballer who last played as a goalkeeper for the Houston Dash and the Mexico women's national football team. Early life Henninger attended Arch ...

Merritt Mathias Merritt Elizabeth Mathias (born July 2, 1990) is an American soccer forward currently playing for Angel City FC in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She previously played for FC Kansas City and Seattle Reign FC. Early life Born in Bir ...

Casey Nogueira Casey Nicole Loyd (; born February 23, 1989) is an American professional soccer midfielder who most recently played for FC Kansas City of the NWSL in 2013. She had previously played for the Los Angeles Sol, Sky Blue FC and Chicago Red Stars i ...

Tina DiMartino Christina DiMartino (born November 6, 1986) is an American professional soccer midfielder. She previously played for the Philadelphia Independence of the WPS and was a member of the United States women's national soccer team. Early life Born i ...

, and

Casey Berrier Casey may refer to: Places Antarctica *Casey Station * Casey Range Australia * Casey, Australian Capital Territory * City of Casey, Melbourne * Division of Casey, electoral district for the House of Representatives Canada * Casey, Ontario * ...

Frances Silva Frances Andrea Silva León (born November 2, 1992) is a Venezuelan-American retired soccer forward and midfielder who played for FC Kansas City. Early life High school Frances attended Blue Valley North High School in Overland Park, KS. West ...

was drafted in the 2014 NWSL College Draft. She was the 19th overall pick. The Blues finished second during the regular season with an 11–6–5 record earning a berth to the playoffs. Post-season, the team swept the majority of the league's annual awards with

Lauren Holiday Lauren Cheney Holiday (born Lauren Nicole Cheney; September 30, 1987) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a midfielder and forward for the United States women's national football team from 2007 to 2015. She is a t ...

receiving Golden Boot and League MVP honors,

the recipient of the Rookie of the Year, and

winning Defender of the Year. Head coach

won Coach of the Year. Four players were also named to the league's Best XI:

, and

New ownership

In January 2017, it was announced that FCKC had been purchased by Elam Baer, the CEO of Minneapolis-based North Central Equity, LLC. Jean-Yves Viardin was named the new general manager and Vlatko Andonovski remained as head coach. NWSL Commissioner

Jeff Plush Jeff Plush is the former CEO of the United States Curling Association (USA Curling) and former commissioner of the National Women's Soccer League. Career Plush served as the Managing Director of the Colorado Rapids from 2006-2011, during which ...

stated, "Elam is committed to strengthening FC Kansas City’s roots throughout the entire Kansas City metropolitan area and beyond. Elam and his partners will look to build off of what has been started by the Likens family, whose support of and many contributions to the establishment and growth of the league will never be forgotten." Less than a year later, however, mismanagement and absentee ownership forced the league to re-acquire Baer's NWSL membership interest in order to cease the team's operations in November 2017. All of the team's player contracts, draft picks, and other player-related rights would be transferred to the expansion team

Utah Royals FC Utah Royals FC was an American women's professional soccer club based in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, Utah. Established on November 16, 2017, as an expansion club, the Royals played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) from 2018 ...

Players and coaches

Current squad

Head coach

(2013–2017)

Retired numbers

Year-by-year

Stadium

During the inaugural season, the Blues played at

Shawnee Mission District Stadium Shawnee Mission District Stadium is a multi-purpose sport stadium located in Overland Park, Kansas. The facility is primarily used by Shawnee Mission North High School, Shawnee Mission Northwest High School and Shawnee Mission East High School. In ...

Overland Park, Kansas Overland Park ( ) is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in Johnson County, Kansas, it is one of four principal cities in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the most populous suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. As o ...

. The stadium has a 6,150

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

. At that time, it was the third largest stadium in the league after

Jeld-Wen Field Providence Park (formerly Jeld-Wen Field; PGE Park; Civic Stadium; originally Multnomah Stadium; and from 1893 until the stadium was built, Multnomah Field) is an outdoor soccer venue located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Portland, Oregon ...

of the

Portland Thorns FC The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Uni ...

and Sahlen's Stadium of the

Western New York Flash The Western New York Flash (WNY Flash) was an American soccer club based in Elma, New York that competed in the United Women's Soccer league. They have won league championships in four different leagues: the USL W-League in 2010, Women's Profess ...

. The team announced on January 8, 2014, that they would move to the

Durwood Soccer Stadium Stanley H. Durwood Soccer Stadium and Recreational Field, commonly known as Durwood Soccer Stadium or DSSRF for short, is a soccer-specific stadium on the University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC) campus that serves as the home of the Kansas City ...

on the UMKC campus through 2015. However, for the 2015 season, FC Kansas City entered into a partnership with

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and t ...

to use their training grounds at

Swope Soccer Village Swope Soccer Village is a soccer complex located within Swope Park in Kansas City, Missouri, first dedicated in 2007 with further renovations completed in 2014. The facility is a public-private partnership between the City of Kansas City's parks d ...

for training and the complex's championship field for matches. The stadium has seating for 1500, but was expanded to 3,557 using the bleachers FC Kansas City had purchased for use at Durwood Stadium for the previous season. April 11, 2015 FC Kansas City hosted

Sky Blue FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

Sporting Park Children's Mercy Park is a soccer-specific stadium in Kansas City, Kansas, United States, and is the home of Sporting Kansas City. The stadium is located near Kansas Speedway, on the far west side of Wyandotte County, Kansas. It opened during th ...

for its inaugural home match of the season, drawing a crowd of 8,489.

Broadcasting

As of April 2017, FC Kansas City games were streamed exclusively by

Go90 go90 was an American Internet television service and mobile app owned and operated by Verizon Communications. The service was positioned as a mobile-oriented "social entertainment platform" targeted primarily towards millennials, featuring a mi ...

for American audiences and via the NWSL website for international viewers. For the 2017 season, the Blues will be featured in three nationally-televised Lifetime ''NWSL Game of the Week'' broadcasts on June 3, August 16 and September 9. Ahead of the 2013 season, it was announced that games would be broadcast on the team's website and YouTube. Eight games were broadcast locally on Time Warner Cable’s Metro Sports. During the 2014 season, nine games were broadcast on the same channel.

Supporters

FC Kansas City's official supporters group was called the KC Blue Crew.

Honors

NWSL Championship The National Women's Soccer League Playoffs (or NWSL Playoffs) are a single elimination tournament among six teams in the National Women's Soccer League of the United States, deciding the winner of the NWSL Championship. Since playoff games can ...

** Winners:

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:FC Kansas City

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

Women's soccer clubs in the United States Association football clubs established in 2012 Association football clubs disestablished in 2017 Sports in the Kansas City metropolitan area Soccer clubs in Kansas City, Missouri Soccer clubs in Kansas 2012 establishments in Missouri 2017 disestablishments in Missouri Defunct soccer clubs in Missouri