Blue Notes: Peter Vermes Interview, Salloi Returns Early, KC Current Stadium, 2026 World Cup

Lots happening around Kansas City soccer (and the world), let’s get right to it.

PV Interview

Sporting Kansas City’s Peter Vermes sat down for an interview with MLSsoccer.com’s Charles Boehm that I encourage you to go read in it’s entirety. However, there are a few things I wanted to point out:

• Vermes points out that no team in league history has been without two Designated Players for the entirety of a season with zero minutes played. I’m not sure how to fact check that, but it puts an emphasis on how big it is with the way the MLS’ salary budget works.
• On Homegrowns:

“... we don’t have a fertile Homegrown territory,” began Vermes. “And so the fact that we’re really landlocked by first, our territory, and then we’re unable to go into the most fertile territories, which are the East and West coasts, pretty much. It doesn’t allow us to get to a larger pool of players. I’m a big believer that it needs to change. If it was up to me, I would say just open up the territories completely, and let everybody fend for themselves, like most everybody does around the rest of the world.”

“It’s probably half the teams in the league would say, ‘hey, let’s open everything up.’ And another half would say, ‘I don’t want anybody to come into my area, because I got all these kids now,’” Vermes continued.

“There’s a plethora of kids in those East and West coasts. There’s more than enough for everybody to participate. And I think the objective is [to] get the best kids in MLS academies, and let’s go from there. And I am here to say that I don’t necessarily think that we’re doing that all over the place,” concluded Vermes.

• Boehm: “...while he declined to delve into details about their plans for the MLS Secondary Transfer Window (runs July 7 to Aug. 4), he is hopeful of swinging some new acquisitions soon.”

Acquisitions. Plural. That aligns with the rumor from Taylor Twellman yesterday.

Salloi Headed Back to United States

Daniel Salloi was called up for the most recent international window to represent Hungary. However, through three games, he’s gotten exactly zero minutes on the pitch (outside of training). The good news for Sporting KC fans is that he’s on his way back to the States. That should make him available for this weekends game against Nashville SC, though, it’s possible he would have been available anyways. Shame they couldn’t send him home before the game against the New England Revolution.

KC Current Stadium & Training Facility Update

The price has nearly doubled since we first heard about the Kansas City Current bringing the first purpose built women’s stadium to the NWSL. Originally estimated at around $70 million, the cost is now climbed to $120 million. That doesn’t even include another $15 million for the new training facility in Riverside, Missouri, of which the team is set to move into today.

A new report from ESPN had Jeff Carlise touring the new training facility while talking with co-owners Angie and Chris Long. The training facility is 17,000 square feet and include all the things a training facility should have, including two grass fields and incoming turf one, plus offices for the entire KC Current staff.

The stadium has climbed from 11,000 to 11,500, with the ability to expand to 20,500. Carlise spoke with the Longs as well as team captain Desiree Scott. I recommend giving the deep dive a read.

Plus, if you haven’t seen it, things are coming along nicely in the last update from the team of the training facility.

2026 World Cup in Kansas City

We won’t officially know until Thursday, June 16th if KC are getting the World Cup in 2026, but one guy is confident.

“My feeling is I think we are getting it,” said Vermes. “That’s just my feeling. I don’t have any inside knowledge. If you are going off what we have to offer: infrastructure, city, community, people... there is no way we shouldn’t get it. I don’t want to speak on not getting it because I think we are getting it.”

Nothing official yet, but the committee is hosting a party on Thursday in Power and Light from 3:30 to 5:30. You wouldn’t have a party if you aren’t getting it, right?!?

Further good news is that Canada are only have two host cities — Toronto and Vancouver — leaving open a potential 11th city for the United States. Let’s choose to ignore these arbitrary power rankings that have KC in 12th.

Quick Links

• SKC II beat Houston Dynamo 2 over the weekend. Sad news is the broadcasts are still awful.
• Giorgio Chellini signed with LAFC
• Chelsea may be getting Gaga Slonina
• USMNT center back Cameron Carter-Vickers was transferred from Tottenham to Celtic
• And let’s end on another one of these delightful videos: