KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Virtually anywhere anyone turned on Saturday’s match at CPKC Stadium, an unprecedented, indelible and moving image awaited as the Kansas City Current commenced the way to a bold — albeit absurdly overdue — new frontier in women’s sports.

You could sense it in the wonder of the little girls gazing out into an atmosphere unlike anything that ever had existed before as they walked alongside Current players being introduced before the euphoric 5-4 victory over the Portland Thorns in their National Women’s Soccer League opener.

You could feel it in the spirit of three generations of women together at the game — including Barb Bohon, who played softball at the University of Kansas in the mid-1970s, and Becca Dixon: “I get emotional,” she said, smiling, “hence the (sun)glasses.”

You could appreciate it in the words from the landmark Title IX legislation inscribed on the wall of the players’ entry to the field, an image that was the most stirring part of NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman’s arrival into the stadium.

And you could hear it in the pregame testimonial of Michelle Akers, one of the dozen-plus members of the 1985 inaugural U.S. women’s national soccer team honored at halftime by the franchise whose iconic logo features the K above the C to symbolize standing on the shoulders of those who came before.

On the pitch of what is believed to be the first stadium or arena “on the planet” purpose-built explicitly by and for a women’s professional team, Akers said, “I never felt like we had a home for women’s soccer.”

And now there is — and, from that, an epicenter for all that will follow from the approximately $120 million, 11,500-seat stadium project that was almost entirely privately funded.

So if all of this wasn’t exactly like landing on the moon, well, this one small step for women certainly was one giant leap for womankind — and yes, mankind — with Kansas City serving as the launch point to another galaxy.

And that’s what really made this a day to savor and a day that will reverberate forever here:

This was at once a distinctly Kansas City enterprise, from the surging Missouri River to the north and the downtown skyline to the southwest to the local flavor within and the co-ownership of Angie and Chris Long and Brittany and Patrick Mahomes (and their “KC Baby” chant), and a barrier-shattering experience with global implications.

That’s why Kansas City Sports Commission and Visit KC president Kathy Nelson found herself tearing up at the sight of the players taking the field for the first time, knowing this was built for them.

And knowing all it took regionally to get this done — not to mention become part of the landscape that makes us so appealing for hosting six 2026 FIFA World Cup games and hosting and accompanying international base camps and training centers.

And thinking about that via the game nationally televised on ABC, she said, “millions of people around the world heard about Kansas City today through a different lens. A lens of leadership and support and breaking barriers.”

A lens that’s been zooming in closer and closer about ever since the Longs announced in 2019 that they would be bringing women’s soccer back to Kansas City, set about building an $18 million training facility in Riverside and making this reality of what not long ago seemed a far-fetched dream.

“Kansas City is on the map, not just in this country but, really, across the world,” Berman said. “People are talking about this everywhere. And I think it’s really honed in on the thing that we describe as our superpower, which is our independence.

“Independence from men’s teams and leagues. Independence from a federation. …”

That helps explain why Berman was so struck by seeing the Title IX wording on the wall.

Always and forever until now, she said, “We are guests in men’s facilities. And you do feel like a guest. You feel like it’s not your home.”

Suddenly, she thought about how other teams, including men’s teams in a variety of sports, that ultimately will have occasion to play in this stadium will see reminders everywhere that it was purpose-built for women.

“And that (the men) are a guest here …” she said. “They’re welcome, and that’s great. But it’s the equity of the fact.”

Celebrating that on Saturday was why Tech N9ne called it a “monumental moment” in an on-field interview before he performed his “KCMO Anthem,” and it was why Eric Stonestreet was right when he proclaimed “we get to be on the front row to history right here.”

And it’s why coach Vlatko Andonovski, the former USWNT coach who has traveled the world for the game, stepped off the bus and was slammed by the realization, “Oh my gosh, this is happening” — and soon found himself having to calm the “the atmosphere a little bit” pregame lest his team burn out before the game even started.

Then it all really did happen.

And somehow it felt bigger and better and more everlasting than Berman, surely among others, could even have imagined.

It was one thing to be saying at the NWSL office, “If you build it, they will come.”

It was quite another to be here to see the living, breathing impact of what “it means to actually invest in brick and mortar and physical infrastructure” that she reckons will “change the footprint of this city forever” and have a “greater impact than anyone can imagine.”

Because this already is a game-changer that has shifted the very dynamics of what is to be in the NWSL, where the impact on financial commitments has altered radically in the wake of the Current’s actions. For that matter, Berman said, the Longs have personally taken the ownership of every other team in the league through every phase of the building process.

“I know they’re excited about having been a pioneer in this space,” Berman said, “but their legacy will actually be that they won’t be the last.”

She later added, “It’s very cool to see the origin story … and that’s something that will live forever.”

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