KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.

Women’s sports are having a moment and Kansas City is at the epicenter.

That includes the NWSL Championship Game, which will be played at 7 p.m. on Saturday at CPKC Stadium at the Berkley Riverfront.

The Dub Kansas City, a women’s sports bar that plans to open in March at 105 W. Ninth Street downtown, is among the local businesses hoping to capitalize on the title-game hubbub.

“It’s the culmination of what brought The Dub to life in a lot of ways,” Owner and Co-Founder Monica Brady said. “I’ve had the dream for a long time to somehow combine sports and a bar into my career. But then putting it in Kansas City, where we have the first purpose-built stadium (for women’s professional sports), we have a team that has just crushed all expectations this season and then we culminate in a championship here in the city.

“It adds to the fever pitch of women’s sports in Kansas City, it adds to the movement of women’s sports across the nation, and it’s just a really beautiful thing to see how much the city is supporting the event regardless of the Current being in it.”

The Kansas City Current reached the NWSL semifinals, losing 3-2 at the Orlando Pride last week. Now, the Pride, who won the NWSL Shield this season, will face the runner-up Washington Spirit for the 2024 NWSL crown.

The Dub will host a pop-up event, which begins at 5 p.m. on Saturday at Cinder Block Brewery in North Kansas City.

“We’ve been doing pop-ups throughout the city for the last couple months, just trying to get to different areas of the city and really wanting to pour into some other local businesses,” The Dub Co-Founder Rachel Glenn said. “We reached out to see what they had available and they offered up their Reclamation Room to us, which we were really grateful for.”

John Batten/KSHB

It will be a place for soccer fans — or beer fans, or food fans — to gather in celebration of the NWSL Championship Game and women’s sports.

“We’re going to have Saul’s Beef food truck there, we’re going to have a DJ (Morgan Stanton) there, we’re going to have a silent auction going on, we’re going to have a couple raffles going on, so it’s going to be a big party,” Glenn said. “We’re going to start a couple hours before the game, go all the way through the game, and then kind of keep it going through the night.”

It’s an event Glenn never could have conceived of growing up, even though she played basketball and ran track in high school.

“It’s unfortunate, but no,” she said. “Socially, it just became normal that you saw men; you didn’t see women. So, back in high school, I don’t think I ever could have imagined this.”

Brady, who played soccer in high school, and Glenn are awaiting the final go-ahead on city permits before contractors bring The Dub KC to life, which they hope will happen before the NWSL returns in 2025.

“We want to be open for the new NWSL season, we want to be open for March Madness,” Brady said. “There’s just so much energy in the city in March and we want to celebrate that, so we are barreling towards March full steam ahead as fast as we can.”

They hope women’s sports’ momentum continues full steam ahead next year as well.

“We’re going to keep putting those women on TV,” Glenn said. “The more exposure they get, the more the talent’s going to be recognized. The more the talent’s recognized, the more that they are given what they deserved all along.”

With the success of the Current and CPKC Stadium and ongoing conversations about trying to attract a WNBA team, Kansas City is positioned at the forefront of the women’s sports movement.

“Epicenter’s a good word,” Brady said. “It’s so amazing to see the excitement around women’s sports fans, women’s sports athletes, the organizations themselves seeing Kansas City as an epicenter.”

The Current fell a game short of reaching the final, but the NWSL championship will still be decided Saturday in Kansas City, so what does Brady hope to see from the game: “Oh, man — I want a good game. We’ve got (Spirit forward) Trinity Rodman coming in. (Pride forward) Marta, her final game of her career. (Fellow Pride forward) Barbara Banda, who just crushed it against us last week. It’s going to be a good game, and I think that’s what NWSL fans want is just the excitement to really carry through to the 90th minute.”

Brady said she has scrapped plans for a sprawling back-of-the-house kitchen at The Dub in favor of a themed private room, which can also accommodate overflow crowds when not rented out.

The Dub will be able to host roughly 100 fans, with seating for 70 inside and 25 on the patio plus some standing room.

“We’ll make it work for those big events,” Brady said, “but we are excited for a close-knit community that will gather to watch games here.”

The KC Blue Crew, the official supporters group for the Current, is also hosting NWSL Championship Game gatherings across Kansas City.

There will be a celebration at 7 p.m. Friday at Johnny’s P&L, 1310 Grand Blvd., with “Teal Splash” and Boulevard drink specials.

On game day, the KC Blue Crew is sponsoring Brunch at Bar K, 501 Berkley Parkway. It costs $17 for an all-you-can-eat brunch with the option for bottomless mimosa and bloody Marys. An RSVP is requested and fans are asked to complete a Bar K entry form before arriving.

Finally, there’s the Blue Crew’s pre- and post-game Tealgate at Block 15!, 311 Delaware St., Suite 102A.

There will be free drinks on the patio beginning at 2:30 p.m. before the game and drink specials, a DJ and the Deez Nachos food truck after the game.

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