World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

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normalthings
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by normalthings »

DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 9:57 am
normalthings wrote: Thu Oct 14, 2021 7:42 pm FIFA in KC next Thursday. May attend the women's national team game that night. Hope there is a big turnout
Big press event today at the Live block. VP of Fifa, Clark Hunt, John Sherman, Mayor Lucas plus several other players will be there.
The recording is on the KMBC website. KC NWSL and County leadership, Consulate of Mexico also there.

Notes from today.....

KC Star: "KC is one of the smallest bidders"
FIFA: "KC has a stadium and a region that is crazy about the game. Looking at the past, not every World Cup is in a major city or capital. The World Cup is for everybody."

KC Star: "KC is a central location. What does that mean and is it important?
FIFA: "Match schedules for the World Cup are developed based on the geographic spread. A key area is team travel and quality of travel. By spreading games across the country, we can have clusters in different areas."

Name not Mentioned: " You told Parsons to "Be who you are"..... I missed the rest of the comment
FIFA Team: Hospitality and Football (soccer) in KC is great. Investment by the community is strong, especially grassroots efforts.

KC Star: Summarize Impact of WC on a City
FIFA: 1st its impact on the overall company. 1994 WC launched soccer in the US. City impact is based on how many people are touched and become consumers in football in the future (not just watch but coach, administer, play).
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by AlkaliAxel »

I wonder if Mayor Q would consider his signature achievement as mayor as securing the World Cup if they get it
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by AlkaliAxel »

The most important takeaway I heard from the press conference was the FIFA guy saying: "We're trying to spread it out, we want to make sure we don't overload too many cities in one area, we want balance"

If they do think that, that means Philly and Vancouver are pretty much dead, and might swing it to KC. If they really believe that, they're not going with more than NY, Boston, DC in that area there. They wouldn't add Philly too. They also wouldn't cluster Vancouver & Seattle either. So the USA probably would end up with 11 slots since Canada only has 2 viable bids with Montreal quitting. It's a horse race between Philly, Denver, KC for the last spot. If they do 11, then 2 of those 3 will be in. If Philly is out, then it'll be KC & Denver. If they truly don't want to overload in the same area...that bodes very well for KC.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by Riverite »

When do they finalize decisions?
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

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AlkaliAxel wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 2:58 pm The most important takeaway I heard from the press conference was the FIFA guy saying: "We're trying to spread it out, we want to make sure we don't overload too many cities in one area, we want balance"

If they do think that, that means Philly and Vancouver are pretty much dead, and might swing it to KC. If they really believe that, they're not going with more than NY, Boston, DC in that area there. They wouldn't add Philly too. They also wouldn't cluster Vancouver & Seattle either. So the USA probably would end up with 11 slots since Canada only has 2 viable bids with Montreal quitting. It's a horse race between Philly, Denver, KC for the last spot. If they do 11, then 2 of those 3 will be in. If Philly is out, then it'll be KC & Denver. If they truly don't want to overload in the same area...that bodes very well for KC.
Denver Vs KC has one huge factor. Altitude. Denver is not the best environment for the players and that's FIFA's #1 consideration.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by GRID »

Are they going to play in DC's Fed Ex Field? That stadium is a total piece of crap, nowhere near transit with nothing around it. The only thing it has going for it is that it's in the DC region.

I would think the Baltimore stadium would be better than Fed Ex. It's easier to get to on trains from DC than Fed Ex is.

I have heard nothing about the world cup here. It's not really something that people talk about or that makes the news much, so I have not followed it much around here.

I bet KC gets in.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

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Riverite wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 3:10 pm When do they finalize decisions?
Early 2022
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

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GRID wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 3:29 pm Are they going to play in DC's Fed Ex Field? That stadium is a total piece of crap, nowhere near transit with nothing around it. The only thing it has going for it is that it's in the DC region.

I would think the Baltimore stadium would be better than Fed Ex. It's easier to get to on trains from DC than Fed Ex is.

I have heard nothing about the world cup here. It's not really something that people talk about or that makes the news much, so I have not followed it much around here.

I bet KC gets in.
FIFA brought up local excitement for soccer multiple times during press conferences. DC has great airports and hotels, just need to be able to bus people into the games like KC but otherwise they have a regionally good transit system.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by earthling »

With streetcar Plaza extension running by then they could simply run constant buses from Union Station, which would essentially cover all hotels along the line. P&L/Live would be closer to I70, another gathering point option.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

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I'm sure they did, but I really hope they show the FIFA officials the new airport so it can be made very clear that the piece of shit they arrived won't be the 2026 airport for players.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by kcjak »

One FIFA official that was interviewed on the radio yesterday said their #1 priority in selecting sites is the stadium where the games will be played - if the stadium and field aren't top quality, it's a non-starter.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by flyingember »

DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 3:14 pm
Denver Vs KC has one huge factor. Altitude. Denver is not the best environment for the players and that's FIFA's #1 consideration.
Mexico City is 2000 feet higher
Guadalajara is 100 feet lower

It's not as big an issue as you think
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by flyingember »

AlkaliAxel wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 6:07 pm I'm sure they did, but I really hope they show the FIFA officials the new airport so it can be made very clear that the piece of shit they arrived won't be the 2026 airport for players.
The idea that they wouldn't know this well before arriving is so unlikely that it shouldn't have been on the list of things KC needed to show.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

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earthling wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:25 pm With streetcar Plaza extension running by then they could simply run constant buses from Union Station, which would essentially cover all hotels along the line. P&L/Live would be closer to I70, another gathering point option.
Again, this is a horrible idea.

The train can't possibly hold the capacity of how many shuttles will be needed, especially not thousands of additional cars. Busses should run directly from ALL hotels to the stadium without a single intermediate stop. Should run from staging areas all across the region.

Remember, there's not more than a few thousand hotel rooms in the metro area. People will be scattered across seven counties. The train is so small at this point to think that a 6 mile line will be functional on the scale of thousands of miles of roads.


P&L should be hosting a fan fest event. Adding a transfer point to it would be horribly stupid for that reason alone.
We want to keep the train available to bring people into downtown for an event there, not send them to the stadium using it.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by earthling »

^Read too much into a short statement. Of course it would address just a chunk of metro hotels. Running buses from every single hotel not ideal where possible. Gathering points for bus pickup work between venues, have seen this with large conventions over 100K. You're knocking something that is commonly shown to work effectively.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by beautyfromashes »

The traffic "problem" claim is really ridiculous. People in Kansas City are so nice a accommodating that if the city requested businesses keep their employees at home or requested people not travel at a certain time, they would do it. The same could not be said for LA or NY or most any other major city. If requested, the highways would be a ghost town with just buses and cars going to the stadium. We also have the most highway miles per capita of any US city. We might as well make it work in our favor, for once. So overblown.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by AlkaliAxel »

flyingember wrote: Fri Oct 22, 2021 8:19 am
DColeKC wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 3:14 pm
Denver Vs KC has one huge factor. Altitude. Denver is not the best environment for the players and that's FIFA's #1 consideration.
Mexico City is 2000 feet higher
Guadalajara is 100 feet lower

It's not as big an issue as you think
No I wouldn't use that as a comparison at all...FIFA is still griping about having to play in those altitudes. They HAD to pick 3 cities from Mexico, and of course you can't pass on Mexico City or even Guadalajara. Obv they're not gonna pass on the #1 and #3 metro's, no matter the altitude risk. Their hand was forced.

They however don't NEED Denver anywhere like that. They have options in USA for alternatives to Denver- they didn't for Mexico. If FIFA has a way to get around the picking of a city with altitude issues, they'll most likely try to get around it. Denver isn't a top 3 metro that's forcing their hand.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

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kcjak wrote: Fri Oct 22, 2021 6:57 am One FIFA official that was interviewed on the radio yesterday said their #1 priority in selecting sites is the stadium where the games will be played - if the stadium and field aren't top quality, it's a non-starter.
Then why is DC a lock?
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by GRID »

flyingember wrote: Fri Oct 22, 2021 8:24 am
earthling wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:25 pm With streetcar Plaza extension running by then they could simply run constant buses from Union Station, which would essentially cover all hotels along the line. P&L/Live would be closer to I70, another gathering point option.
Again, this is a horrible idea.

The train can't possibly hold the capacity of how many shuttles will be needed, especially not thousands of additional cars. Busses should run directly from ALL hotels to the stadium without a single intermediate stop. Should run from staging areas all across the region.

Remember, there's not more than a few thousand hotel rooms in the metro area. People will be scattered across seven counties. The train is so small at this point to think that a 6 mile line will be functional on the scale of thousands of miles of roads.


P&L should be hosting a fan fest event. Adding a transfer point to it would be horribly stupid for that reason alone.
We want to keep the train available to bring people into downtown for an event there, not send them to the stadium using it.
Just calling that thing a "train" sounds ridiculous to me. How is it a train? It runs on train tracks, but it's not really a train. It's a tram or streetcar.

It's great for getting people around the city if they are staying down there or visiting attractions/restaurants down there, but I just do not understand how the tram is going to be much of a factor in getting 70,000 people to a stadium. This drives me nuts lol.

KC will simply need a very comprehensive bus network from all the hotel districts of the metro to deal with actual game attendees. It will take hundreds of buses that will have to be brought in because KC has very few coach type buses in the region (public or charter) and the ATA doesn't seem to have that many full size city buses anymore.

Seriously this idea of running trams to the stadiums is so freaking stupid. Do people realize that the Chiefs Express used to run 200 city buses from various park and rides and even that barely made a dent compared to those that drove yet those buses would move WAY more people that a tram running out there ever could?

Keep the trams in the urban core. If you can't do light rail outside the core then stick with buses.

This is a general post, not directed at anybody here. I Just keep hearing this idea of running trams to the sports complex. I'm kind of a transit nerd, but maybe I'm missing something as to how in the world that would make any sense.
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Re: World Cup 2026 at Arrowhead?

Post by AlkaliAxel »

kcjak wrote: Fri Oct 22, 2021 6:57 am One FIFA official that was interviewed on the radio yesterday said their #1 priority in selecting sites is the stadium where the games will be played - if the stadium and field aren't top quality, it's a non-starter.
Arrowhead is the 4th largest stadium of the 17 host cities and already plays on natural grass. We'll see how far that stretches.
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