By Iain Axon
KANSAS CITY, Missouri, July 11 (Reuters) – As Kansas City prepared to bring the curtain down on its World Cup on Saturday, local organisers were already reflecting on a month that put the Midwestern city on the global stage.
Kansas City has been host to six games including a round-of-16 match and Saturday’s quarter-final between Argentina and Switzerland at Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs.
But the tournament’s legacy will be measured as much by the supporters who adopted the city as their temporary home.
The city welcomed large followings from several nations, including Algeria, whose fans spilled across neighbouring Lawrence, Kansas, where the North African team made their base camp.
A sea of Netherlands orange marched through downtown streets before turning parts of the city centre into a Dutch carnival.
Supporters from Argentina, Switzerland, Colombia and others packed fan zones, bars and public squares over the past month, transforming the self-styled “Soccer Capital of America” into a meeting place for the world and giving residents a rare chance to experience the World Cup’s unique blend of sport, culture and community on their own doorstep.
“The last month has been very special for Kansas City to have a chance to be on the international stage,” Clark Hunt, honorary co-chair of the KC 2026 board and chairman and CEO of the Chiefs, told reporters.
“Getting to see fans from all around the world coming to Kansas City to cheer on their teams … has been amazing.”
Hunt said he hoped the city would have the chance to welcome the tournament back one day.
“If we have the opportunity to bid, we’ll do it,” he said.
For KC 2026 Chief Executive Pam Kramer, the tournament’s legacy will extend beyond football.
“We’ve proven we can handle the biggest sporting competition in the world,” she said, adding that the World Cup had showcased Kansas City as a destination for business, investment and new residents.
SPIRIT OF KANSAS CITY’S WORLD CUP
Asked what she would remember most, Kramer recalled a chance conversation with an elderly gentleman that captured the spirit of Kansas City’s World Cup.
“(He) said, ‘You know, I didn’t know much about soccer before and, I have to tell you, I thought it was maybe going to be overblown, it seemed like much to do about nothing,'” Kramer said.
“But what seems to have happened is that people put aside their differences and cheered for the teams for a couple of weeks, and I thought that was so insightful to what has happened here … that will stick with me,” Kramer added.
Author and longtime soccer commentator Nate Bukaty said he will remember the spirit of connection.
“Everything I loved about what the game of soccer does has been here for the past month,” he said of Kansas City. “And that’s the part, I think, more than the soccer itself, that I will cherish. I’m already kind of nostalgic about it and a little sad that it’s almost over.”
For years, Kansas City wondered how the world would view the city. After a month of packed stadiums, Bukaty believes it got its emphatic answer.
“The question I heard over and over was, ‘What’s the world going to think of us when they get here?'” he said. “My response was, ‘Is the world ready for Kansas City?’ … I feel like everybody’s been pleasantly surprised with this place. And I think we’ve acquitted ourselves very well.”
Argentina, England, the Netherlands and Algeria held their base camps in Kansas City.
Kramer said more than 310,000 fans, from more than 150 nations, had attended the city’s FIFA Fan Fest Kansas City, with thousands more expected for Saturday’s quarter-final.
The 36,000 supporters who participated in the Netherlands’ “Oranje Fanwalk” were the largest Dutch turnout in the U.S.
(Writing by Lori Ewing, reporting by Iain Axon; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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