Meet The Woman Making Significant Contributions in Professional Women's Soccer
3.31.2024
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LISC Stories
As soccer season is underway, LISC Greater Kansas City sheds light on the phenomenal woman making significant contributions to the Kansas City Current (KC Current) professional women’s soccer team and breaking barriers in all of women’s sports, Jocelyn Monroe. Monroe is the vice president of marketing for KC Current, covering retail, brand, content, creative and field marketing.
Since Monroe earned her title, KC Current has opened CPKC Stadium, the first women’s professional sports stadium in the world. As part of the stadium, Monroe coordinated the opening of the first brick-and-mortar store in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). The goal behind the branding initiatives is to create a holistic experience for fans while also initiating community efforts by providing new jobs opportunities and experiences for Kansas City residents.
“The new stadium and team store is a way for fans, including those who don’t live in Kansas City, to represent connectivity and show support,” Monroe said. “It creates a sense of community, culture and identity.”
Visibility and viewership of women’s sports are on the rise as of late, and Monroe is taking advantage of the opportunity. During the grand opening of the CPKC Stadium, the team received more than 8 billion impressions of earned media in both social and news media, which is unheard of in the women’s sports industry.
“CPKC Stadium is a first-class, first-in-class, best-in-class facility. Women's teams deserve the same opportunity to play in a space that's built for them,” Monroe said. “A stadium that's built with their needs and considerations in mind while reminding sports fans that women's athletics is exciting.”
The new experience is one-of-a-kind. Monroe anticipates that there will be a trend of more investments in stadiums and arenas specifically built for women’s sports teams.
“It's not just women's sports and men's sports,” Monroe said. “It's watching amazing athletes, who happen to be women, play an amazing game and having an amazing experience.”
Perhaps another amazing aspect to all of this is the fact that it is breaking barriers for women in the sports industry. There has been a shift with more women breaking gender stereotypes in this field, and as a result, there has been increased support for women in sports. The sports industry is a male-dominated field. While the road to true gender equity in this industry is far from over, there have certainly been strides in the right direction. As a top leader in sports marketing, Monroe advises that women bet on themselves and understand the core skills and traits that they bring to a role. She also advises that women should have a point of view and be willing to speak up and be part of big table discussions.
There are still places where women are barred from playing sports presently or in the recent past. We encourage more girls and women to pursue careers in sports. There are many invaluable life skills and business skills that come from participating in the industry as well as learning healthy self-esteem, teamwork, leadership skills.
“All those are life skills that are going to help no matter what you do, whether you become a professional athlete or you become a sports executive. It is important for women to feel seen and heard because that translates into how they perform and operate.”
Monroe envisions the future of sports marketing to have more female athletes receive the opportunity to have the resources and the investments in their teams and facilities on par with men's sports. She also anticipates more women’s sports organizations receiving philanthropic and community dollars from top brands.
“There was a moment that it hit me thinking about little girls in the stadium right now who will never know a world where women's teams did not have their own stadium,” Monroe said.
“That's the moment. That's the thing that makes this so important.”