Ted Lasso features Kansas City Current

Apple TV+ used a real NWSL club, not a fictional stand-in, to launch the new season of “Ted Lasso.” ESPN reported on Wednesday that the season-four premiere centers on the Kansas City Current and was filmed over several weeks in Kansas City, including scenes at CPKC Stadium. In the episode, AFC Richmond officials travel to Kansas City to tell Ted Lasso they are starting a women’s team and want him to coach it. That setup makes the Current part of the show’s opening plot rather than a background cameo. ### How exactly does Kansas City Current appear in the show? The season-four premiere uses a Kansas City Current match at CPKC Stadium as the scene that sets up the rest of the season, ESPN reported. The episode shows Richmond staff making their pitch to Ted in Kansas City, tying the fictional club’s next chapter to a real NWSL environment. (espn.com) USA Today also reported that CPKC Stadium takes center stage in the opener, after earlier references to Kansas City and the Current in the series. Just Women’s Sports said the real team and its home venue anchor the first episode. ### Why the Kansas City Current and not a made-up team? (espn.com) Jason Sudeikis has long ties to Kansas City, and ESPN described him as a regular around the club. Angie Long, a Kansas City Current co-owner, told ESPN he is “more like a friend of the team” and has attended multiple Current matches. (usatoday.com) Kansas City also fit the show’s broader return strategy. Apple said in July that season four would premiere globally on Aug. 5 and that it staged fan events in Kansas City ahead of the launch, including appearances by Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Juno Temple and Abbie Hern at CPKC Stadium. (espn.com) ### What is special about CPKC Stadium in this story? CPKC Stadium gave the production a real women’s soccer setting with an identity viewers can recognize. Forbes described the venue as the first stadium built for a women’s professional club, and said season four filmed there as part of a push that put women’s sports at the center of the comeback season. (apple.com) The Wrap likewise said the stadium is the first in the world designed and built specifically for women’s sports. That made it a concrete location for a storyline about Ted moving into the women’s game. ### Was this just a cameo, or part of a bigger promotion? Apple and the Current turned the crossover into a public event before the premiere. (forbes.com) CPKC Stadium’s event page advertised “Ted Lasso Night” on July 11, with special appearances, giveaways and a watch party tied to the Aug. 5 streaming debut. Marketing Brew reported that Apple teamed up with the Kansas City Current as part of the season-four rollout. (thewrap.com) The outlet said the new season sends Ted back to London to manage AFC Richmond’s newly formed women’s side, matching the plot described by ESPN. ### What happens next for viewers and for the club? (cpkcstadium.com) Season four began streaming on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, Aug. 5, Apple said. ESPN’s Kansas City Current fixture list shows the club’s next league game is away to the Houston Dash on Saturday, Aug. 8, followed by Gotham FC on Aug. 14 and a home match against Seattle Reign FC on Aug. 22. (marketingbrew.com) The next episodes will show how AFC Richmond’s women’s team develops after the Kansas City setup in episode one. For now, the immediate public-facing follow-through is split between Apple’s weekly release schedule and the Current’s live NWSL calendar at CPKC Stadium and on the road. (espn.com) (apple.com)