Former sports director Dani Welniak touched by response from viewers after leaving KCTV

In the hours and days after announcing on June 19 that she was stepping down as KCTV-5’s sports director, Dani Welniak spent a lot of time on social media.

Welniak wasn’t idly passing the days before joining the Kansas City Current women’s soccer team Monday as its executive director of communications. She was responding to an outpouring of support from viewers.

“I could not believe how positive and how encouraging and how excited all of the responses that I got were,” Welniak said. “I got so many responses on Facebook and Twitter and I tried so hard to respond to every single one of them because each of those people who had said something positively impacted me and changed my life, for the better. And for them to reach out and say that I impacted them, I don’t think there are words that can describe that, because I never expect that kind of response.

“And I hope that I’m a person who’s leaving a legacy, who’s leaving sports media and the sports world in general better than I found it. It was just a couple hours after I posted it and I looked back at my Twitter and my Facebook and I just lost it, I cried.”

There were a lot of tears last week as Welniak also bade farewell to her colleagues at KCTV.

As difficult as it was to say goodbye to the station where Welniak had worked for the previous six years, it was an easy decision to join the Current.

“I am so excited and I am so incredibly blessed to be able to be a part of this organization,” Welniak said. “I go back to my faith and I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. And everything along my journey has fallen into place or God has opened a door and kind of kicked me through it.

“And even if you would have asked me if I would have done this even a year ago, I’m not sure the answer would have been yes because I still do very much love the media side of things and I love television broadcasting and journalism.”

But Welniak saw big things happening with the Current and she jumped at the chance to be a part of it.

The Current’s $19 million training facility opened the last month, and the team announced plans to build a downtown stadium near the Missouri River.

“I couldn’t pass up having the opportunity not only to help change Kansas City, but also help change the world,” Welniak said. “I don’t think I’m speaking too big because that’s the mindset here is that everyone wants to change the world. With the training facility just being built, it’s believed to be the first purpose-specific built training facility for a women’s professional soccer team in the world.

“And so from that to the stadium that will be built here in the next couple of years, and that being the first of its kind, then with the World Cup announcement, and just the way that soccer in Kansas City is exploding. I mean, it’s just too good of an opportunity to pass up and I am so, so pumped up for this to be my next chapter. Yes, it’s out of the TV world, yes it’s out of the media industry, but I think bringing that kind of mindset and a different kind of mindset to it, I think will certainly help.”