photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark addresses the media during the NCAA college Big 12 women's basketball media day Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo.

When Nate Lie first got introduced as the Kansas soccer coach in December, he expressed not only an admiration for Kansas City’s role in the current soccer landscape but an optimism for its future prospects.

“We are in the soccer capital of America, or maybe 45 minutes down the road from it,” he said then. “And I don’t think that that is changing any time soon. If anything, it’s going to be more cemented as such.”

The city got another boost to its status Tuesday when Big 12 Conference Commissioner Brett Yormark announced that the league’s postseason soccer tournament will for the next two seasons be played at CPKC Stadium, the new home of the Kansas City Current in Missouri that touts itself as the first soccer stadium specifically built for a women’s sports team.

“It’s not just about men’s and women’s basketball, it will be about women’s soccer, and we’re so thrilled that we’ll be a part of this community and that our relationship is growing,” Yormark said of the league’s ties to Kansas City, “and I look forward to being at the KC Current opener this weekend and experiencing that incredible venue that this community has helped to build.”

That means that the conference’s best will be back playing close to Lawrence. On X, KU athletic director Travis Goff called it “A big-league partnership with a big-league franchise in a big-league city.”

“It’s only fitting that one of the first major events outside of KC Current regular season matches at CPKC Stadium is the Big 12 women’s soccer championship,” said Raven Jemison, the Current’s president, in a press release. “As we empower the next generation of soccer talent, we can’t wait for them to experience our elevated purpose-built facilities.”

The tournament previously took place in Round Rock, Texas, each of the last three years after a seven-season stint at Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, Missouri. With the new 16-team Big 12 taking effect next year, the tournament will feature 12 squads battling it out in late October and early November.

Lie has said he hopes his Jayhawks will be able to “​​compete for Big 12 championships sooner than later.”

The presence of those competitions just a little ways away on Interstate 70 could provide another selling point as the coach looks to build inroads in the Kansas City area, which upon his introduction he called “an incredibly rich and fertile recruiting ground to start as ground zero” for him and assistant Tyler Smaha.

By the time Lie appeared on the Jayhawker Podcast in February, he and his staff were already doing work in Kansas City.

“I told some of those coaches, ‘Tell me when you’re sick of us, because we’re going to be around and we’re going to try to recruit your best players,'” he said on the podcast. “The ones that have been leaving town, it’s our job to try to keep them home.”

In the meantime, Lie’s current players begin their spring slate at Creighton on March 24. Their lone home exhibition this spring is against Washburn on April 21.