Children’s Mercy Park, home to MLS club Sporting Kansas City will be transformed into a temporary home for Big12 team Kansas for two of their home games this season. As renovations continue at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, Kansas Football needed a place to play 6 home games for the 2024 season. They took the two options they had, Children’s Mercy Park and GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Sporting Kansas City will kickoff the U.S. Open Cup semifinal match against Indy XI at 7pm Tuesday night, exactly 48 hours from the kickoff to Kansas’ first game of the season against Lindenwood. That gives Children’s Mercy Park crews less than 40 hours to transform the stadium from a soccer-specific stadium to a functional football venue. “It takes us about 6 hours in total to paint the football field, including all the logos, patches, and numbers,” said Josh Blackford, general manager for Children’s Mercy Park in an interview with The Kansas City Star. Blackford says that KU wants the field to be as recognizable to fans. This will include logos of the team and conference.
Kansas took a trip in early August to Children’s Mercy Park to get a feel for the stadium. Blackford told The Star that having the team practice at the stadium helped them to better understand what the grounds crew needed to do prior to the game.
A very quick turnaround for stadium crews starting around 9pm Tuesday night and lasting for the vast majority of Wednesday and the final touches early Thursday.
