The world’s first stadium built for a professional women’s sports team is coming to downtown Kansas City and will be home to KC NWSL.

On Tuesday morning, co-owners Angie and Chris Long will formally announce the construction of an 11,000-seat, $70 million stadium for their National Women’s Soccer League team, which concludes its inaugural season on Saturday.

It will be built along the Berkeley Park riverfront, designed by Primary Design of San Diego with construction partners that include Kansas City-based Generator Studio, JE Dunn and Monarch Build.

The Longs said they expect ground will be broken on the project sometime next summer or early fall.

“It’s so exciting, but it’s about time, right?” Angie Long told The Star.

The Longs said they will provide more details during a news conference Tuesday afternoon, but this much is known: The privately funded stadium will be U-shaped, open to the river and situated within an easy walk from the existing streetcar line.

After finishing its 2021 season Saturday night at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kan., the team will play its next two seasons at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kan., with the expectation that the new stadium will be ready for the 2024 season.

The announcement comes a month after the Longs announced that they’re building a privately funded $15 million KC NWSL training facility in Riverside — the first such facility built specifically for an American women’s pro-soccer team.

KC NWSL’s status as the new stadium’s primary tenant provides the franchise control over scheduling and the experience of fans and players. It also allows the team to manage other events at the stadium, which the Longs expect will include college sports championships, international soccer matches and concerts.

“Player-first and fan experience,” Chris Long said. “This is an iconic site, right on the riverfront, in an area we can help revitalize. It’s part of the heart of our city, and connecting downtown to the suburbs and all the things this can do from an economic development and community feel.

“It’s pretty awesome. We’re really pumped to have the opportunity to do something that’s such a game-changer like this.”

The Royals’ announcement that they’re exploring construction of a downtown ballpark of their own has gained a lot of attention in recent weeks, but KC NWSL is now set to be the first pro team in a sport’s highest level to play in downtown KC since the NBA’s Kansas City Kings left Kemper Arena in 1985.

This signifies so much — the increasing appeal of Kansas City’s downtown, a growing general investment in women’s sports and the most convincing example possible of the Longs’ commitment to Kansas City and the National Women’s Soccer League.

“Those things almost go unsaid,” Angie Long said. “That’s not the purpose of what we’re doing. I think it’s a real rational investment decision on why we’re building a stadium. We’ve heard others say in other leagues that things really changed in the economics of the league and team when you make the investment in facilities.

“I just think that’s a critical business and investment decision. This is for the players and this is for fans and the experience and, I think, what’s going to build real, lasting, franchise value.”

Kansas City had a different NWSL team from 2013-17. FC Kansas City was successful on the field — league champions in 2014 and 2015 — but a mess everywhere else. The comparison of how that team was managed and how this one has been conceived and operated is like comparing a rickshaw to a semi truck.

The Longs have emphasized “player first” in every public comment they’ve made about the team and their ownership philosophy. It’s hard to imagine how they could have backed that up more thoroughly, or more quickly.

All of this comes at a critical point. The NWSL halted games for a weekend after a report by The Athletic detailed years of abusive behavior by coaches and executives. North Carolina Courage coach Paul Riley was fired and is now the focus of investigations by both FIFA and U.S. Soccer.

NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird stepped down in the wake of the scandal. OL Reign coach Farid Benstiti resigned.

The Longs’ investment represents support and confidence in the future of not just soccer in Kansas City, but in women’s soccer more broadly.

There is an increasingly convincing stack of evidence, including investment and TV viewership, that shows women’s sports are rapidly growing in both interest and profitability.

The Longs are putting KC NWSL at the forefront of that push.

“It lays the framework for us to be able to say the best players in the world deserve to play in the best facilities in the world,” Angie Long said.