Northland cities are banding together to make the most out of the World Cup in KC
When they heard the announcement that Kansas City would be a site for the FIFA World Cup, Megan Sahlfeld and Jennifer Goering knew they had to get to work as soon as possible.
The two women have similar roles in the metro: Sahlfeld is the tourism and marketing manager for Clay County, and Goering is the director for the visitors bureau in Platte County. And in anticipation of an event bigger than any they’d seen yet around Kansas City, they decided to band together and embrace the regional unity of the Northland to tackle it.
“This is bigger than us,” said Sahlfeld. ”We have to pull together for the most success for our cities, our towns, our businesses, our locals, our residents, but also from the visitors. We have to team together and get on the same page, and, you know, pull in these wonderful creative ideas and get this team built.”
Cities and other stakeholders in the Northland have joined together under the name Go North KC to work together to welcome the hundreds of thousands of visitors expected in the Kansas City area for the World Cup next summer.
Representatives from major cities in both Platte and Clay counties have been meeting for the past year to discuss how they can best prepare for and benefit from the influx of people coming for the tournament.
They anticipate that the KC Current facility in Riverside will serve as a team’s base camp, but details are still coming together.
In addition to Clay and Platte counties, the cities involved in Go North KC are:
Weston
Smithville
Riverside
Platte City
Liberty
Kearney
Gladstone
Parkville
Excelsior Springs
North Kansas City
The team also includes the Northland Chamber of Commerce, public schools and universities such as Liberty Schools, Park University and William Jewell College.
The group had largely been working behind the scenes out of view while so many questions about the World Cup remain.
Then last week, the North Kansas City Council discussed Go North KC in its meeting when it voted to host an official watch party for the quarter final game.
“(Go North KC) hasn’t been public-facing and that’s been the intention,” said Sahlfeld. “There’s a lot of murkiness on the watch party, the licensing to broadcast it. So, we’re just working with the necessary teams to find out those details.”
The group has submitted formal questions to FIFA about some of the “murkiness” but hasn’t gotten a response yet.
The two said more cities will be voting on hosting watch parties soon. They called this a “soft launch” of Go North KC.
The group is working on getting a website up and running, they said. Each city will have a landing page with their events and details on World Cup watch parties.
“When visitors get here, I think it’s gonna be very easy for them to navigate, you know, the ‘Northland,’” said Goering.
This story was originally published July 8, 2025 at 6:00 AM.