{"id":477335,"date":"2026-02-19T06:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477335\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T06:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:45:13","slug":"kcmo-set-to-host-first-wnba-game-since-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477335\/","title":{"rendered":"KCMO set to host first WNBA game since 2005"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 Visit KC shared Wednesday that the Minnesota Lynx will take on the Nigerian women\u2019s national basketball team in a WNBA preseason matchup this April in Kansas City, Missouri.<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771483513_514_.png\" alt=\"T Mobile Center.png\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"850\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Courtesy T-Mobile Center<\/p>\n<p>        T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri<\/p>\n<p>The game, hosted by ProHoops Sports &amp; Events, is set to tipoff at 7 p.m. on April 27 at the T-Mobile Center. <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.t-mobilecenter.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tickets go on sale<\/a> at 10 a.m. Friday, per a press release from Visit KC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are thrilled to be bringing the Minnesota Lynx and the WNBA to Kansas City,\u201d Linda Hargrove, president of ProHoops Sports &amp; Events, said in a press release. \u201cKansas City is an amazing sports town and has always been extremely supportive of Women\u2019s Sports.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771483513_354_.jpeg\" alt=\"Mercury Lynx Basketball\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"854\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Abbie Parr\/AP<\/p>\n<p>        Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve and forward Karlie Samuelson (44) stand on the court during the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Phoenix Mercury, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo\/Abbie Parr)<\/p>\n<p>The Minnesota Lynx were founded ahead of the 1999 season and have since won four WNBA Championships (2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017). The Lynx ended the 2025 season with the best league record at 34-10.<\/p>\n<p>The Nigerian women\u2019s national basketball team, the D\u2019Tigress, is currently ranked No. 8 in the FIBA World Rankings. <\/p>\n<p>In the 2024 Olympics, the team beat Australia and Canada to go to the quarterfinals, becoming the first African basketball team to make it to the quarterfinals at the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n<p>This upcoming game marks the first WNBA game played in Kansas City since 2005, when the Detroit Shock topped the Minnesota Lynx in the preseason Kansas City Southern Shoot-Out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKansas City is a top destination for women\u2019s sports, and we\u2019re ready to prove that once again this spring,\u201d Kathy Nelson, president and CEO of the Kansas City Sports Commission and Visit KC, said in a press release. \u201cWe know this will be another incredible opportunity to elevate Kansas City, the league and the power of women\u2019s athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, Kansas City fell short in its <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kshb.com\/sports\/wnba-commissioner-kansas-city-missouri-falls-short-in-expansion-bid-but-remains-in-the-mix\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">bid for a WNBA franchise<\/a>, with Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia being selected to join the league by 2030.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 Visit KC shared Wednesday that the Minnesota Lynx will take on the Nigerian women\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[220741,6946,6947,1077,220742,99,434,2088],"class_list":["post-477335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-dtigress","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-news","tag-minnesota-lynx","tag-nigeria-womens-national-basketball-team","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-womens-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}