National Women's Soccer League commissioner announces CPKC Stadium will be site of 2024 championship
CPKC Stadium, the first soccer stadium built for a women's professional team, will be the site of the 2024 National Women's Soccer League championship game.
NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman joined "CBS Mornings" to discuss why the historic stadium — which opened earlier this year and is the home of the Kansas City Current — was chosen for this year's championship game. Berman said for the first time, there is a facility built specifically for women, and the details within the 11,500 seat stadium were designed to remind people of that.
"When you walk into the building, Title IX is displayed on the wall. It's a constant reminder. The artists that are displayed around the building are female artists, female chefs. But even more tactically, the bathrooms are all unisex," Berman said. "This was just built with a different level of care and attention to the fact that it is the home of a women's team."
Berman also discussed how the sport is growing. Regular season attendance for NWSL games surpassed 1 million fans for the third consecutive season, breaking the milestone "earlier in the season than ever before," according to the NWSL.
"It is a movement, and the investment that's coming into this league is unlike anything in history. So you look at it from an ownership perspective, from a sponsorship perspective, from a media standpoint, having partners like you at CBS and our other partners who broadcast our games in live television and primetime for the biggest audience to see. We have to ask ourselves and believe that this is a sustainable movement."
National broadcast viewership to date is up 95% from the 2023 season, according to the NWSL. Berman attributes that to legendary players like Alex Morgan, who was left off the roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics team, but who Berman said has helped build the sport, along with others.
"I think everything we're doing today is built on the shoulders of the players who got us to this point. Alex is one of them, but even before Alex, we have icons of this game in the 80s and the 90s who really built the foundation to create the perception that when we think of greatness and soccer in this country, we actually think of women," Berman said.
Berman said the focus is now on youth participating in soccer.
"We were actually the first league to let under 18 players into our league, and when I think of that I think of my own child who's 16 and imagine him competing on the field and it's hard to imagine, but it's an incredible moment."
The NWSL championship game airs live on CBS and streams on Paramount+ on Nov. 23.