Kansas City snubbed in WNBA expansion
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I mean, come on. There's an interactive basketball museum right there. Photo: Nick Tre. Smith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Kansas City won't be getting a WNBA team as a part of the league's recently announced expansion, but local sports leaders believe the city is ready for one.
The big picture: With the growth of women's sports, the success of the KC Current, strong local commitments and a "top-tier" basketball arena, another KC women's team seemed like a slam dunk.
Driving the news: Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, a Missouri native and Mizzou grad, expressed skepticism about how exciting it would be to play in the selected cities while providing pros for the places that were left out.
- "Kansas City, amazing opportunity," Cunningham said. "There's a huge arena downtown that no one's using, and I think that the women's soccer league is showing that [draw for people]."
Zoom in: KC Current owners Chris and Angie Long were the primary advocates for a WNBA team, KSHB reported, along with Patrick and Brittany Mahomes, who also own shares of the Current.
What they're saying: "Kansas City has so much to offer the WNBA," Chris Long stated while expressing disappointment in the decision. "We have an incredibly engaged fanbase, a thriving sports culture, and a proven commitment to elevating women's sports."
- The WBNA said each city was chosen in part based on market viability, long-term owners and existing facilities.
- Long said he had committed to building "another world-class training facility" for the team, as he and Angie, his wife, did for the Current. He also called the T-Mobile Center downtown a "top-tier venue."
Zoom out: Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia all have NBA teams. The owners of those teams will also own the WNBA expansion teams in their respective cities.
- Detroit and Cleveland also have had WNBA teams in the past but lost them due to declining revenue and fan bases.
Context: It's been 40 years since KC had its own major league basketball team, the Kansas City Kings, which played at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) until moving to Sacramento in 1985.
What's next: Kathy Nelson, president and CEO of the Kansas City Sports Commission, said the commission will "continue to showcase Kansas City as a premier destination for women's sports" through events like NCAA Division 1 championships this winter and the Big 12 basketball tournament in March.
Dig deeper: KC positions itself as a softball powerhouse