“Support your local women’s sports,” one fan’s shirt read at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo., on Monday, April 27 when the arena hosted the Lynx and Team Nigeria in a preseason exhibition game. Even though the Lynx traveled over six hours to make it to Monday night’s destination, the Kansas City crowd wanted them to feel at home as if they were a “local” team. K.C. is home to various professional sports teams, including women’s teams—like the NWSL’s Current or the Glory women’s football team—but the city still doesn’t have its own WNBA team. For one night at least, Kansas City adopted Minnesota as its own, and showed the city worthy of having its own W team one day.
This matchup marked the first WNBA game to be played in Kansas City since 2005 when the Lynx previously played in a preseason game there. Ever since, the city’s been craving to have women’s professional basketball more permanently.
Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve loved watching her team, which won 88–79, play in K.C. She’s ready for a WNBA team to arrive there, too.
“I’m giddy about it, all right, because I like being here, and I hope that this is a sports town that gets professional sports if they want it,” Reeve said after Monday’s game. “Hopefully they support it the way they’ve supported the Current.”
Kansas City came extremely close to winning an expansion bid just last year after Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany made a pitch to bring a W team to Missouri.
“We want to get basketball to Kansas City in general and then WNBA. The success that [the league’s] had this last season and these last few seasons, it’s kind of a no-brainer,” Mahomes said back in October 2024. “To try to get a WNBA team in Kansas City to this fan base ... the city of Kansas City is going to come out and they’re going to fill the stadium.”
impressed by @thekccurrent’s basketball skills 🤣
— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) April 26, 2026
see y’all tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/3pVufjBS8s
Instead, though, the league selected Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia for expansion over other cities like K.C. Those teams will begin playing in 2028, ’29 and ’30, respectively. On Monday, Kansas City fans expressed how disheartened they were when the city lost the expansion bid.
“It was very disappointing when [the WNBA] expanded and we got knocked out,” Cassie from K.C. says. “I thought for sure with Brittany and Patrick and all the stuff they would support that we’d have a chance. So, it was disappointing.”
The Mahomes family already helped bring the NWSL to K.C. in 2020. The sports power couple aided in building the first stadium built solely for women’s sports in the United States as CPKC Stadium was erected. During the stadium’s first season in 2024, the team sold out every home game. It’s clear the Kansas City community supports its women’s sports teams well.
“It was cool that we were able to get this women’s soccer team here in the Current ... So let’s try to get a WNBA team in here as well [with] that same ownership group,” Mahomes said in ’24. “They’ve done the Current the right way, and I want to continue to work with them to take that next step and get a WNBA team here.”
I spoke with one fan, Jennifer from Kansas City, who brought her dad to the Lynx vs. Nigeria game. She still holds onto the hope that will successfully introduce a W team to the community one day.
“Patrick and Brittany have done a huge service to this city bringing recognition to women’s sports, especially Brittany with the Kansas City Current,” Jennifer says. “I think they will help bring recognition to women’s basketball here. And this [game] just helps add to that. I would absolutely love it if we could get women’s basketball here. I don’t care if I have to sit in the nosebleeds, I’m getting season tickets.”
Kansas City is very sports-focused, and the fans are passionate, to say the least. Everywhere you turn in the city, someone’s sporting a Chiefs, Royals, Current, etc., shirt or jersey. If Mahomes were to get involved in a W team, that would also help bring in loads of fans to sell out arenas—we already saw it happen with the Current. Anything Mahomes touches in K.C. turns to gold.
The city already has an arena ready for a professional basketball team at T-Mobile Center. The arena hosts plenty of concerts and events as well as the Big 12 basketball tournaments. In Mahomes’s original pitch to bring a WNBA team to Missouri, he also noted that they would build a practice facility if a team came there. And, based on how the city built a stadium and practice facilities for the Current in just a couple years, such a structure for a W team is likely to come to fruition.
The T-Mobile Center will be getting a stadium neighbor in a few years after the Royals announced their move to the Crown Center area in downtown K.C. Adding a WNBA team as well would bring even more sports fans to the city to drive in more revenue and tourists.
The only problem is, the WNBA would need to announce another expansion. With two new teams (Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire) joining the league this year to grow the league to 15 teams, and with three more on the way in the ensuing seasons, K.C. and other cities interested in getting a W team may have to wait a few more years at this rate. It’s unlikely another WNBA team will be established before the 2030 season, which is when Philadelphia is slated to tip things off.
If anything, Monday night’s exhibition game in Kansas City showed the league and the K.C. community that the city would be ready to welcome expansion when the time is right. Coach Reeve might take some credit, though, if that dream does come true.
“We have a pretty good track record. It seems like if we come to your city, you’re going to become a professional team,” Reeve said. “Hold onto this date, and when it happens, let’s talk again.”
More WNBA from Sports Illustrated
- How Angel Reese Is Already Adjusting to the Dream Ahead of 2026 WNBA Season
- Paige Bueckers Addresses Her ‘Personal Relationship’ With Azzi Fudd at Wings’ Media Day
- Fever vs. Liberty Preseason Opener: How Caitlin Clark Fared in First WNBA Game After Months-Long Absence
- With Eyes on the Future, the Mystics Are Launching a Youth Movement
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Kansas City Proves to Be a Prime WNBA Destination After Hosting Lynx Preseason Game.
