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Kansas City sure knows how to greet ‘em.
The Argentinian national team arrived in Kansas City over the weekend to start their quest to defend their title. Dozens of fans waited at the Origin Hotel on the Berkley Riverfront, where the team is staying, hoping for a sighting — and maybe a signature.
Then, the very next morning, Lionel Messi and his team got a rude awakening with massive thunder crashes and tornado sirens — which certainly woke me up in the middle of the night. It also made a mess of their hotel’s nice signage. Whoops!
Hopefully the storm didn’t make things too difficult for the trio of Argentinian cyclists who biked all the way from Gualeguaychu, Argentina, to Kansas City in order to support their team (don’t look too closely at their map, which puts KC somewhere in Canada).
The triumvirate arrived, triumphant, on Tuesday morning after 300 days and more than 10,000 miles. My legs are tired just thinking about it!
But what really warmed my heart is that local cyclists gave Miguel, Vicente y Yamandu a very Midwest welcome, joining on two wheels for the final few miles of their journey. Their route took them from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art up through the Gillham cycle track to the riverfront. Meeting them in their own language, so to speak.
Because while we can’t control the weather, we can control how we show up for each other. Hopefully this trend continues as the other base camp teams arrive in the coming days.
Over at KCUR’s Adventure! newsletter, which is all about finding new ways to explore the Kansas City region, we’ve been publishing a special series on our World Cup teams.
I hope it’ll help locals and visitors alike get to know these diverse squads and soccer traditions, and offer a road to engage with new foods and cultures around town. Not to mention the other opportunities to get a sneak peek at practices, join parades and more.
We’ve traveled through Algeria and England so far — with Argentina and the Netherlands up next. And we’ve got even more World Cup-themed guides coming through the end of the tournament, so make sure you’re signed up for Adventure!
In my opinion, the most fun, and most human, parts of the World Cup happen off of the pitch.
How will we know how many visitors actually came to Kansas City?
Mikel Ruder, general manager of the Crossroads Hotel in downtown Kansas City, has been planning for the World Cup for two years.
The hotel is on track to nearly sell out on match days, but Ruder says it’ll have many rooms available in between. Most visitors will stay for two nights, and the average room cost is up $150 from last year.
His customers will represent a tiny fraction of the 650,000 tourists that Visit KC expects to pour into Kansas City in June and July. Now, how did Visit KC get that number? It comes from a projection of 2.1 million total “visitor days” over the course of the tournament — each “visitor day” represents a single out-of-towner who spends one day and night in the city.
Although many economists remain deeply skeptical about the economic impact of the World Cup on host cities, some of the numbers have started improving as we get closer to the tournament’s start.
Andrea O’Hara, executive director of the Hotel & Lodging Association of Greater Kansas City, said bookings are on the rise. With weeks to go, many hotels report 50% occupancy or more surrounding match days.
KCUR’s Halle Jackson reports on the latest tourism numbers for Kansas City.
Airbnb hosts hoped for a World Cup windfall, but for some it’s a ‘bust’ instead
Maureen Hosty is still waiting for takers. The Kansas City resident became a first-time short-term rental host in February in hopes of benefiting from the tourism promised for this summer.
She’s attempting to rent out a portion of her River Market home that includes two bedrooms and two bathrooms for guests. Still, less than two weeks from kickoff, she told KCUR, “I have not gotten anything — not a single bite.”
Kansas City officials moved to make the short-term rental process cheaper and easier for the World Cup, and about 400 residents took advantage of the program.
According to data from short-term rental analytics website AirDNA, Kansas City, the smallest host city, saw the largest increase of Airbnb listings since June 2025 among all host cities.
But many ended up in a similar boat as Hosty — reducing their prices and minimum stay requirements, waiting for visitors who just aren’t showing up.
KCUR’s Celisa Calacal looked into the issue.
Cocaine seizures spike in Kansas City ahead of World Cup matches
The Kansas City Police Department is prepared for cocaine. A lot of cocaine.
“One of the things we were told was that you're going to see an influx of a lot of narcotics you hadn’t traditionally seen in this area for a while,” Major Jim Buck, who runs the KCPD Special Investigations unit, said of the World Cup. “The biggest one being cocaine.”
Buck told the Jackson County Legislature that last year KCPD saw a 200% spike in cocaine seizures. As the first World Cup match approaches later this month, interdictions have ramped up. “We've even had a seizure in the last three months of almost 400 pounds of cocaine that was heading to the Kansas City area,” he said.
A study in England found that drug use, especially cocaine and ketamine, “significantly increases” during World Cup games and during the Eurovision song contest.
KCUR’s Sam Zeff went sniffing around this story (not literally).
Lawrence High School welcomes Team Algeria for the World Cup
What’s a student to do when you’re trying to welcome a soccer team to your city, and you have only a day to put together a video?
Do as the Lawrence High School video production team did May 14. They got the students outside on the football field, took a drone shot and welcomed the Algerian National Team to Lawrence for the FIFA World Cup in Kansas City next month.
“Typically, with something like this, you do expect to have at least a day. We kind of had to edit all of it in, like, less than a school day,” said Liam Melendez, video director. “We have to turn in our laptops tomorrow.”
Naomi Sui Pang brings us this story. And check out her video on KCUR’s TikTok.
Kickin’ the ball around Kansas City
- Worst World Cup city? There are a lot of reasons to be skeptical of a much-publicized “study” from a sports betting network calling Kansas City the worst World Cup host for fan experience. But the criticisms around Arrowhead’s walkability and a lack of stadium lodging options are worth paying attention to. (The Kansas City Star)
- Journey to JoCo: From Shawnee Mission Park to Prairiefire and beyond, Johnson County cities are offering their own World Cup watch parties and festivities for those who don’t want the Fan Festival crowds. Here’s where to find them. (Johnson County Post)
- Passport backup: International visitors to KC who lose their passports or need travel support can get help at a new consular center at the Overland Park Convention Center — something no other city in the country has done. (Johnson County Post)
- Cone break: State roadwork projects around Kansas City will pause during the World Cup, and Westport’s streets will reopen as KC Water takes a break from its stormwater infrastructure fixes. (Fox4)
- Trafficking alert: Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced a partnership with the app Simply Report to help identify possible instances of human trafficking around the World Cup. Missouri has one of the highest rates of human trafficking in the U.S. (KBIA)
- Who goes there? Residents near the Truman Sports Complex will need to get a permit to drive in and out of their own neighborhood during World Cup match days. (Fox4)
- See Team Netherlands: Oranje fans who live in Riverside, plus Current season ticket holders, can enter for free tickets to watch a training session of the Dutch national team next Wednesday, June 10, at their Current training base. (Riverside and Current)
Kickin’ the ball around the continent
- That’s the ticket: New York and New Jersey’s attorneys general have launched an investigation into FIFA over its ticket prices and sales tactics. (NPR)
- Scam watch: California authorities are warning customers about potential World Cup ticket “deals” that really are too good to be true. Here are some tips for identifying scams. (KQED)
- Chilly reception: Americans broadly oppose ICE agents patrolling U.S. stadiums during the World Cup, according to a new poll. Support for allowing Iran’s national team to play in the country is also high, and bipartisan. (Washington Post)
- O no, Canada: The cost of hosting its share of World Cup games will cost Canada more than $1 billion, according to the latest report, twice as much as originally promised. (Buffalo Toronto Public Media)
- Always greener? FIFA commissioned a special type of soccer pitch with both natural and synthetic grass across all 16 stadiums. (KNKX)
- Squad report: From teens to old-timers, get to know some of the 1,248 soccer players competing in the 2026 World Cup. (The Athletic)
- ‘Unavoidable’: FIFA president Gianni Infantino is remaking global soccer in his own image. But can the sport survive him? (The New Yorker)
Temperature check
Good news for people who love reading long emails: You’ll now get double the amount of Soccer City ‘26 — this newsletter is going weekly through the end of the World Cup tournament.
If you haven’t signed up yet, go ahead and hit subscribe to stay in the loop as we dive head-first into Kansas City’s tournament. Even better news: This, and the rest of KCUR’s World Cup coverage, will remain totally free to read. No paywalls, ever.
And if you have questions we haven’t answered yet, or there’s a cool thing happening in town for the World Cup that we should know about, send me an email: gabe@kcur.org
