Seventeen months. That’s how long it took from the groundbreaking to the grand opening of CPKC Stadium, home of the Kansas City Current and the world’s first stadium purpose-built for a professional women’s soccer team. It’s an enviable timeline in sports venue design and construction, where just acquiring a site for a new facility can often take longer. The pace called for an experienced development team to see the $140 million, 11,500 capacity project through on time and on budget, and a high level of checks and balances to ensure the building runs smoothly as intended.
“Since stadiums mix entertainment, hospitality, and retail all in one, they’re some of the most complex facilities to get right from a functionality and maintainability standpoint,” explains Commissioning Project Manager Grant Metsker from Henderson Building Solutions, the national design-build firm tasked with providing commissioning services for CPKC Stadium. Metsker’s team was responsible for reviewing designs before construction began and assessing building systems to ensure they were functional and could be maintained long term once the stadium was up and running.
Amplifying the significance of the task was the project’s stature on the world stage. In addition to being charged with providing a stellar gameday experience, CPKC Stadium would forever stand as a pioneering symbol for women’s sports globally, adding to the pressure to get it right.
Read the full article from ISSUE 42 below: