Swope Soccer Village is a

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

complex located within Swope Park in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the List of United States cities by populat ...

, 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 department and

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and the team clubhouse and ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

, with field reservations managed by Sporting Fields + Athletics, the premier sports and facilities management company in the Midwest. Children's Mercy Training Center is home to Sporting Kansas City II and Sporting Kansas City's six youth academy teams.

Overview

The complex features nine fields in total: a natural-grass stadium field, two natural-grass practice fields for Sporting Kansas City and six artificial turf fields for local youth soccer clubs. The facility also served as the venue for the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

women's soccer tournament from 2013 to 2019, and has hosted the NCAA Division II Men's and

Women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardle ...

soccer championships, as well as the men's and

women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardle ...

Division III championships. In addition, the Missouri high school girls state finals will be played at Swope Soccer Village from 2016–2020.

Background and planning

The current Swope Soccer Village is the result of an expansion that completed in 2014 and cost $13.4 million in city funds. The soccer complex is located on land that was the practice field for the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The t ...

before

Arrowhead Stadium Arrowhead Stadium is an American football stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. It primarily serves as the home venue of the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). The stadium has been officially named GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stad ...

opened in 1972. Sporting Kansas City, then known as the Kansas City Wizards, broke ground and dedicated their training facility in Swope Park in 2007, with a second phase of construction completed in 2008. The completed Swope Soccer Village opened in September 2015, with Sporting handing the responsibility of managing the facilities to Heartland Soccer Association prior to Sporting Fields + Athletics handling management duties. The main stadium had opened earlier, in November 2013, to host the Big 12 women's soccer tournament.

Tenants

In January 2015,

FC Kansas City FC Kansas City was an American professional women's soccer club based in Kansas City, Missouri. The team was one of the eight founding clubs of the National Women's Soccer League in 2012, and began play in 2013. They were two-time NWSL champion ...

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 Federati ...

had reached an agreement with Sporting to play its home games at the main stadium in Swope and use the training fields. The stadium's capacity was increased to 3,557 using bleachers the team had purchased for use at

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 ...

, its previous home. FC Kansas City folded after the 2017 season.

References

External links

Swope Soccer Village
at Sporting Kansas City
Swope Soccer Village
at Kansas City Parks Sports venues in Kansas City, Missouri Sporting Kansas City FC Kansas City Soccer venues in Missouri Swope Former National Women's Soccer League stadiums USL Championship stadiums Sports venues completed in 2014 2014 establishments in Missouri Sports complexes in the United States Sports venues in Missouri {{Missouri-sports-venue-stub