And the Crowd Roared!

By RANDY MASON

Championship trophies and huge parades downtown. Twice in recent years, Kansas City has celebrated big wins for the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals!

But that’s only part of the picture.

Sporting Kansas City draws raucous crowds to its Major League Soccer games. And now the Kansas City National Women’s Soccer League (a.k.a., KC WoSo) has begun its own exhilarating brand of play.

Each year, T-Mobile Center welcomes the annual Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournament, and the NAIA Basketball Championships tip off at Municipal Auditorium.

Those stadiums get loud, but nowhere near as noisy as the Kansas Speedway, which hosts two NASCAR events a year – as well as being home to the American Royal World Series of Barbeque.

Golf brings the same excitement (without the noise) at courses like The National, designed by Tom Watson. The AdventHealth Championship at the Blue Hills Country Club is a PGA TOURsanctioned event along the Korn Ferry Tour.

There’s also action on ice, courtesy of the Kansas City Mavericks from the ECHL professional ice hockey league.

Photo courtesy of Molly Kaiser (Kaiser Visual Creations)

Our minor league baseball team, the Kansas City Monarchs, renamed itself in 2021 to honor the city’s Negro Leagues history.

Hy-Vee Arena in the West Bottoms is the nation’s first multi-level, multi-functional sports complex, with courts lined for basketball, volleyball, futsal and pickleball.

For those who enjoy participating in recreational sports like rugby, tennis and disc golf, facilities and leagues can be found throughout the region.

And in 2023, this sports-crazy town takes center stage when the NFL Draft stops in for three days of fun and fandom.