Kansas City hopes World Cup is the first of many international events in Missouri
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Despite being the smallest metropolitan city selected to host games in the 2026 World Cup, Kansas City managed to catch the eyes of the world.
On Saturday, Kansas City Stadium is set to host its sixth and final World Cup match, as Argentina and Switzerland will take the pitch in quarterfinal action. In the lead-up to that final match, the city has already managed to shatter expectations, as KC has recorded record-breaking viewership numbers and a staggering amount of community support.
"I think we were that unexpected surprise," Kansas City Sports Commission President Kathy Nelson told ABC 17 Sports Director Nathalie Jones in a one-on-one interview. "We were an experience for so many people. We were the heartbeat of the entire World Cup, we were the central location, we were a base camp mecca, so for us putting again that exclamation point on what our city can do, what our region is capable of doing...I think people were really impressed with our culture, our cuisine, our arts and our music. Like, there's so much to experience in Kansas City and it allowed us to open a door to really showcase all that there is to do."
Over the course of the five matches that have been played, so far, officials said that nearly 350,000 spectators have attended games at Kansas City Stadium, in addition to the more than 310,000 guests that have flooded into FIFA Fan Fest over the course of the last month.
Kansas City welcomed fans from all over the globe during its World Cup run, hosting fans from the Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Ecuador, Curaçao, Austria, Colombia, Ghana and - after Saturday - Switzerland, as each team played a match in Missouri.
"We have discussed the pageantry of what sports can do for a city and you have seen that here in the colors and the dances and the music and the fandom of the different groups." Nelson said. "Whether you're in the stadium at a match or you're at FanFest or you're walking down Main Street, you see it, you see it and feel it in the hotel lobbies. You see the colors and the energy and the excitement. I think we have not always understood as Americans the importance of an international sport like soccer and the power of this sport. How many people every four years take a month off to go travel with and follow their team? We see and feel that now, and I think that's pretty special."
Hosting a global event like the World Cup did come with a few learning curves for the city, but Nelson said she is proud of the community and the region came together to successfully and safely host the tournament.
When asked what her biggest lesson through planning for and executing this year's World Cup was, Nelson hammered home the importance of communication.
"The importance of no surprises," the Kansas City Sports Commission President said. The one thing I've learned is that you cannot over-communicate enough. You cannot. You've got to pick up the phone and let somebody know, make them aware. Whether it's an elected official, you know, the KC 2026 staff, people at Fan Fest, whatever, police, fire, everyone needs to be in the know of what's happening."
Nelson and other state leaders hope that successfully hosting their first-ever World Cup games, and the lessons they've learned along the way, will help lead to more opportunities of this magnitude in the future.
"It's proving to ourselves that we can do big things, that we can do complicated things. So, you've got the right people around the table with the right energy and the right attitude, we can overcome obstacles. There were hard things about this project for a decade, very difficult conversations were had a lot of people discussing, what do we really want to do this should we not? Now, to see it and everyone's like, yeah, we did it. I think now for the future is still going to be hard. There will still be difficult decisions and discussions and different people around the table probably in the future...But, you know, now we're continuing to talk about a women's FIFA World Cup, the World Cup Rugby we're talking about, you know, what else could we potentially host on an international level," Nelson said. "I already have three emails saying, hey, will you come over to these countries? We want to show you what we do because we have an interesting Kansas City. That's a legacy already that we've opened the door for conversations about the future of sports in our city."
The final World Cup game in Kansas City, between Argentina and Switzerland, will kick off at 8 p.m. CT.
