People all around the Kansas City metro have been asking themselves the same question as we approach the 2026 World Cup: Is the city ready for hundreds of thousands of visitors? And will those visitors actually show up?
Last year, while going through public interviews for his current job, Kansas City Manager Mario Vasquez said our city was “somewhat unprepared” for the World Cup.
Now, a year later, Vasquez says he feels “pretty good” about where things stand ahead of the festivities. Kansas City's first game will be held on June 16.
“We’ve gone from thinking of broad issues like transportation and accommodations, logistics and public safety, and now, we’re getting into the details. Now we’re getting into the road closures and which states that we’re going to, and how many people do we need there, and how many barricades do we need for this? I mean, now we’re getting into the details,” Vasquez told KCUR’s Up To Date on Wednesday.
“Throughout the year, I’ve heard from many people that, you know, Kansas City has been further ahead than other communities in being prepared for the World Cup. And that continues to hold true, so I feel pretty good about where we are.”
The official estimate for World Cup visitors to Kansas City, repeated by officials for years, is 650,000. However, recent tourism numbers are not stacking up to those estimates, making some Kansas Citians worried that the predicted economic boom will turn out to be a bust.
Vasquez said it's still too early to make predictions for the five-week tournament.
“There are a lot of things that have happened that were not in our deck of cards for the year," Vasquez said. "I mean, having a war, having a spike in gas prices, having so much uncertainty about travel to the United States. Those are not things that we were thinking about when we put in the bid back in 2018 or 2019.”
