The Kansas City Current’s marketing coach is ‘Ted Lasso’

Ted Lasso is headed back to London and bringing the power of “Believe” to women’s soccer—or, sorry, football. But first, the beloved fictional coach made his support for women’s sports known back in Kansas City.

Season 4 of Ted Lasso, which premieres August 5 on Apple TV, sends the endlessly optimistic Ted back to London to manage AFC Richmond’s newly formed second-division women’s football team—and as part of the show’s promotion, Apple teamed up with the NWSL’s Kansas City Current. In July, the streamer and the soccer team cohosted a World Cup watch party at CPKC Stadium, featuring branded photo ops, a product giveaway, and cobranded Current and Ted Lasso merch, along with appearances from cast members Jason Sudeikis, Juno Temple, Jeremy Swift, Brendan Hunt, and Abbie Hern.

The combination of excitement about the show and the international sporting match made for a night to remember, according to Missy Jenkins, SVP of commercial at the Current, and served as yet another way the show and its characters have shown up around major soccer tentpoles to further boost fandom stateside.

“What better way to start a watch party than to highlight this awesome television show about community and soccer and can-do attitude, [and] to highlight a soccer team in Kansas City who has really great fans and stands for innovation and excitement in a different way?” Jenkins told us.

No place like home

The Current have had a longstanding relationship with Apple and the team behind Ted Lasso, due in part to Sudeikis’s personal ties to the Kansas City area: Sudeikis grew up in Overland Park, a suburb south of Kansas City, and started his comedy career in the city. The connection has continued—several scenes of the new season were filmed in Kansas City, some at CPKC Stadium itself—and Jenkins said Apple reached out to figure out a way to integrate fandoms behind the show and the women’s soccer team together. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

“To do [the show] here was just absolutely thrilling,” showrunner and actor Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard in the series, recently said during a press conference reported on by the Kansas City Star. “The World Cup now being here as well, that’s just luck of the draw. Now, [with] the actual show about to come out right after the World Cup, I think someone manipulated that.”

The event hosted at CPKC Stadium, aptly called Ted Lasso Night, involved Ted-themed programming like trivia, singalongs, and video highlights of Kansas City standouts, including messages from Current players and Chiefs Flag (the Kansas City Chiefs’ flag football org), Jenkins said; it eventually led into a watch party for the Argentina-Switzerland quarterfinal game later that evening. The watch party structure was one of several ideas she said the team considered, with the format ultimately winning out due to its natural fit with the World Cup and the ability to draw on lessons from other watch parties KC Current had hosted in prior weeks.

“Everyone can watch a match from their living room, and that’s fun and exciting, and it brings different benefits,” Jenkins said. “But when you’re all together in one place and you’re all having the collective ‘Oohs! Ahs! Almost!’ type of environment, I think it really is a fun place to be.”

Attendees also had the opportunity to pose with a giant “Believe” sign on the concourse, and Jenkins said the first 1,000 fans received scarves that also boasted the “Believe” slogan, a merch choice that came from the long-held tradition of scarves being worn by soccer fans to display their team allegiance. The event also featured a short teaser from the show, which cast members introduced before the World Cup match commenced. While the Current declined to share attendance numbers, Jenkins said the team was “really happy with how the event went.”

In the arena

Despite the relationship with Apple TV and Ted Lasso, Jenkins said this type of partnership is still new to the team and stadium. Still, she said the team remains open to future entertainment-based opportunities, “as long as they make sense and are authentic”; overall, themed events are on the rise across other leagues and sports.

The Current’s oversight of CPKC Stadium played a large role in making partnerships like the Ted Lasso one possible, Jenkins told us. In 2021, KC Current owners Angie Long, Chris Long, and Brittany Mahomes announced plans for the first soccer stadium specifically built for an NWSL team; CPKC claimed naming rights in 2023.

“The benefit to investing in and having our own facility not only means that our athletes get the best experience on a day-to-day basis with an intimate environment that was built for them, it [also] means we can do a lot of other events because we control our calendar,” Jenkins said.

As the World Cup excitement has come to a close and Ted Lasso’s premiere looms, Jenkins said she hopes to continue to leverage CPKC Stadium in a variety of ways to continue building excitement for soccer and the Current.

“Whether that’s friendlies, whether that’s USA Rugby, whether that’s lacrosse, college athletics, or one-day concerts, we feel very privileged that we can open our calendar and we can do fun and exciting and new events such as this one…[especially] as we continue to grow and get better and understand what works in our building and what doesn’t,” Jenkins said.