Kansas City optimistic about bid for 2026 World Cup
By: Nathan Dunn
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- “This would blow all other events out of the water,” said James Dupree, a Kansas City resident and sports fanatic. “The AFC Championships, the World Series, the Big XII Tournament, and all the soccer events we’ve hosted in the past decade, they are all like minnows compared to what the World Cup would bring to Kansas City.”
Local politicians and businesspeople are working together to bring Kansas City what would be the city’s largest ever sporting event.
That event would be the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, taking place from June 8 until July 3 2026. Kansas City is one of 17 cities across the United States bidding to host games in soccer’s most popular tournament. In addition to cities in Canada and Mexico, the U.S. will have 11 host cities selected to host any number of games from the opening group stage to the World Cup Final. With plans to finish visiting each bidding city by the end of 2021, FIFA plans to announce the host cities in early 2022.
Among Kansas City’s competition for a spot at hosting the 2026 World Cup games includes big markets, such as Los Angeles and New York, as well as smaller markets, such as Nashville and Cincinnati.
Under a committee including members from local government and sports organizations from Missouri and Kansas, KC2026 aims at bringing the World Cup to Kansas City. Kansas City’s plan is to host games at Arrowhead Stadium, the current home of the Kansas City Chiefs and former home of Sporting Kansas City, then named Kansas City Wizards.
Citing areas of expertise and efficient travel throughout the city, KC Sports Commission CEO and KC2026 committee member Kathy Nelson agreed with KC2026 Bid Director Katherine Fox that Kansas City’s strengths can be weaknesses for other bidding cities.
“The strengths of the Kansas City bid are our passion, our expertise and our regionality,” said Nelson. “That’s what we really drove home in our presentations to FIFA because that’s what we’re really good at.”
Fox added that it will be quicker and easier to travel in Kansas City because Kansas City has the lowest traffic congestion rate of all 17 cities that are currently bidding. Teams will need to travel to and from playing facilities on a daily basis during their time in each city throughout the World Cup.
Nelson believes that, in addition to propelling Kansas City’s public transportation forward, there will be legacies that haven’t even been defined yet.
They both shared that hosting games from this tournament will take many resources and investment. They echoed that the investment is well worth it in the long run.
“We as a market will do our due diligence,” said Fox. “At the end of the day, when we have looked at it, the return on investment on this market is going to be huge.”
According to Boston Consulting Group’s study, that return on investment for Kansas City could come in the form of approximately $160-$620 million in incremental economic activity and a minimum net benefit of $90-$480 million after accounting for potential public costs.
The impact World Cups have on communities is huge. Millions of people travel from across the world to see the World Cup once every four years. Many fans don’t even go to the games, but rather they visit cities and the FIFA Fan Fest in each host city. The fan fests last the duration of the tournament and serve as a watch-party for each World Cup match. FIFA said that 7.7 million fans visited these fan fests in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
KC2026 has identified three locations that could host the FIFA Fan Fest in Kansas City: Union Station, the lawn in front of the World War I Museum and the area in front of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
One investment required is going to be a renovation at Arrowhead Stadium to accommodate a FIFA-standardized field. Fox said this will be a three-year process that will include removing seats mostly near the corners of the stadium and possibly elevating the field to keep the action close to the fans.
“What we do at a World Cup, we need to provide the best facilities and playing surfaces for the teams,” said Colin Smith, FIFA Chief Tournaments and Events Officer. “So the pitch will be an area of focus.”
Smith also listed other criteria that are included in deciding the host cities for the World Cup, which includes looking at transport, sustainability, accommodation, stadium, media and broadcast facilities as well as commercial and financial aspects.
“The beauty about football is that it’s not about your size, it’s about the size of your heart,” said FIFA Vice-President Victor Montagliani. “The reality is that Kansas City obviously has a stadium, has a region that is crazy about the game. If you look at other World Cups in the past, not every venue has been a major world capital city. If you look at the last World Cup in Russia, not every game was played in Moscow. You had cities that you never heard of in your life before.”
For local residents, being able to host World Cup games as such a small market would be surreal.
“The city has so much going for it, I don’t see how they don’t get selected as a host city,” said Dupree. “Our nation has some awesome cities, but Kansas City literally has a little bit of everything. And we are as close to the center of the country as you can find. That should make it a no-brainer for FIFA.”
A lifelong Kansas City resident, Phillip Haines, started playing soccer in his childhood and has since continued following the sport at the professional level.
“Having World Cup games in my hometown would be absolutely incredible,” said Haines. “It would be such a fitting example of how far the game has come in our nation and in our city.”
Haines said he wants Kansas City to host not just because of the hometown factor, but also because it gives the world such a great taste of what America is as a nation of great diversity. He will be 65 years old in 2026 and is looking forward to taking his family to the games.
“I plan on taking my family regardless of whether Kansas City is picked as a host city,” said Haines. “It's so close to home that I have to go. Having games in KC would be insane and only make it that much more special for me.”
