KCRag Forum

I recently heard something along the lines of "economic impact on host cities is in the billions". Is this true?

ldai_phs wrote:I recently heard something along the lines of "economic impact on host cities is in the billions". Is this true?

Probably for all host cities in aggregate. Certainly not for a single host city. It isn't a local team (unless the USA draws your city), so you could potentially have 40 to 60k or more people from all over the country and world staying in KC. The global travelers are likely to make it more of a vacation than a there-and-back visit and are also likely to be of the wealthier variety of vacationer.

I have seen the impact for Brazil estimates anywhere from $3B-$30B. Brazil did build many new stadiums and probably other infrastructure. I think that higher number includes a lot of the construction work.

However, in 2026, the field will be expanded with more teams and more games, the impact could be greater.

The Super Bowl economic impact is said to be around $700M. Since World Cup host cities will have multiple games, I could see the impact approaching $1B per city (as far as the estimates go, which seem like they are always inflated).

bobbyhawks wrote:

ldai_phs wrote:I recently heard something along the lines of "economic impact on host cities is in the billions". Is this true?

Probably for all host cities in aggregate. Certainly not for a single host city. It isn't a local team (unless the USA draws your city), so you could potentially have 40 to 60k or more people from all over the country and world staying in KC. The global travelers are likely to make it more of a vacation than a there-and-back visit and are also likely to be of the wealthier variety of vacationer.

If the USA team qualifies.

shinatoo wrote:

bobbyhawks wrote:

ldai_phs wrote:I recently heard something along the lines of "economic impact on host cities is in the billions". Is this true?

Probably for all host cities in aggregate. Certainly not for a single host city. It isn't a local team (unless the USA draws your city), so you could potentially have 40 to 60k or more people from all over the country and world staying in KC. The global travelers are likely to make it more of a vacation than a there-and-back visit and are also likely to be of the wealthier variety of vacationer.

If the USA team qualifies.

If you are the host you automatically qualify.

gfisch95 wrote:

shinatoo wrote:

bobbyhawks wrote: Probably for all host cities in aggregate. Certainly not for a single host city. It isn't a local team (unless the USA draws your city), so you could potentially have 40 to 60k or more people from all over the country and world staying in KC. The global travelers are likely to make it more of a vacation than a there-and-back visit and are also likely to be of the wealthier variety of vacationer.

If the USA team qualifies.

If you are the host you automatically qualify.

Damn, no wonder they bid so much.

Some good news and some bad news on the World Cup front:

The bad news is that the bid from Morocco seems to be gaining momentum. The North American bid was once the prohibitive favorite, but it seems like a close race at this point.

The good news is that the list of potential host cities in the North American bid has been cut to 23 (17 of those in the US) and KC is still in consideration. The biggest omission is Chicago who pulled themselves out (as some other cities did, apparently). I think Chicago would have been a near lock and would have diminished our chances. The only other Midwest city remaining is Cincinnati. I'm not sure how much regional distribution would be a priority, but if they want a city in the Midwest, I like our chances. I guess Denver could be our main regional rival.

I think it will come down to how many US cities they want to host. If they go with the higher estimated number of 12 host cities in the US, I think we have a fairly good shot - maybe 50/50 or a little better.

This is the final list of teams, they have to submit the bid tomorrow. So if they get the WC, KC would get a game(s). Reminder that the World Cup will have 48 teams by then so easier to spread it out.

We got a pretty average score from FIFA. Good on stadium, awful on transportation, pretty bad on hotel stuff.

Hopefully better by 2026, but I guess you bid with what you have. Nothing looks like it would rule us out. Someone will use Kansas City as a training place no matter what.

Here is a link to the full report (all 224 pages), if you want to read:

https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload ... ingsmnlvzf

One detail I noticed in the report that I don't remembering seeing definitively expressed before is that the number of host cities will be 16. I'm guessing that probably means 12 in the US, so 5 US cities in the current bid would be eliminated.

If the North American bid is selected, I'm not sure how much say FIFA has is selecting the host cities, or if that is more left up to USSF. I wonder how much emphasis will be put on the stadium vs the city. I do think Arrowhead has some advantages over other stadiums - especially being natural grass.


Temporary grass surfaces can be put in, but there have been problems with those in that past. Maybe for World Cup, more time and money could be spent and those playing surfaces would turn out better.

Sporting president Jake Reid said that if the US wins the bid, he is fairly confident KC will be one of the host cities. He said he was more concerned about the US actually winning the bid because of FIFA’s politics (and corruption)

The World Cup was officially awarded to North America in 2026 this morning. It will be several more months until they select host city sites.

Chicago is not going to host in 2026 and neither is Minneapolis. Wouldn't KC be the top Midwest location after those 2 cities?
I don't understand why Florida gets picked for sporting events, nobody down there cares about sports. They can't even sell out playoff games, i think the Miami Hurrican outdraw the Dolphins and the Marlins average 10k per year in a new stadium

https://sports.yahoo.com/potential-u-s- ... 47995.html

Wouldn't they have to modify Arrowhead to fit a regulation field? Has to be 70 yards wide at minimum.

Yes; the Chiefs are already planning for that contingency.

Arrowhead Stadium would likely need to be trimmed to a rectangle shape rather than the existing curvature along the corners, requiring the temporary removal of some of the football stadium’s seats.

“That’s absolutely in consideration,” Chiefs president Mark Donovan said. “This isn’t about changing the stadium for a match. It’s about changing the stadium and then changing it back. Clearly, in 2026, we’re going to have some preparation discussions with our season-ticket members who are in those seats that may be affected by it. There are a lot of discussions about stadium renovations as a whole. So all that will factor into it.”

Donovan referred to the potential for Arrowhead Stadium to house a World Cup match a “legacy of Lamar Hunt.”

We will definitely have a new airport, 1000s of new downtown hotel rooms including a new convention hotel, and potentially we’ll have streetcar extended to the plaza by then connecting even more hotel rooms. If we can demonstrate how express buses with dedicated lanes/routes from both the plaza and DT will over come our otherwise disconnected stadium situation, I don’t think we have any problem competing with other potential host cities.

Plus training facilities for all four pool teams in one location.

I think the only additional thing I would like is some rail train service to TSC. Probably a pipe dream, but drunk soccer fans traveling from the stadium to hotels would be dangerous.

So what are the chances KC can be a host city and who is KC's real competition?

beautyfromashes wrote:I think the only additional thing I would like is some rail train service to TSC. Probably a pipe dream, but drunk soccer fans traveling from the stadium to hotels would be dangerous.

There will be free shuttle service between downtown and TSC. I think they should add shuttle service directly to the plaza also, but there will be a fan fest at liberty memorial north lawn that they want to funnel people to.

There will also be free shuttle service to airport.