Welcome to the Heart of America: How The Kansas City Star is covering the World Cup
Kansas City, the world is here.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the biggest in the history of the international soccer tournament with teams representing 48 nations competing. Four of those countries — Algeria, Argentina, England and The Netherlands — will call Kansas City their home base for the two-month-long tournament.
The World Cup is expected to be by far the largest event to take place in Kansas City in recent years. Organizers estimate 650,000 visitors will come to the metro area between June 11 and July 19. We are the smallest of the 2026 host cities.
I keep being asked by friends and neighbors: “But are we ready? Is The Star ready?”
This is a historic moment for our community. And historic moments are what The Star and our journalists do.
Kansas City is a sports town. Super Bowl victories, World Series wins, NCAA championships. The list goes on and on. At each and every major moment in Kansas City sports history, The Star was there.
The World Cup will be no different.
While we are welcoming the world to our community, our primary mission is to serve Kansas Citians. You are our friends, neighbors and family.
This is our beautiful and complex city. Part of loving a place is being willing to ask the hard questions. Last weekend’s violence in multiple locations across the metro put an all-too-common part of life in Kansas City under the microscope.
While the jury is still out on exactly how Kansas City’s World Cup experience will go, The Star is ready to tell this story, however it unfolds.
These are our commitments to you:
- We will help Kansas Citians experience the World Cup and everything that comes with it.
- We will be laser-focused on helping local residents navigate and explore.
- Our journalism will celebrate this historic moment and hold Kansas City leaders accountable to the promises they made to secure the World Cup bid.
- We’ll offer a uniquely local perspective that, through our storytelling, vertical video and more, brings the world into the heart of America that we call home.
We’ll have journalists at the six matches at Kansas City Stadium — known to locals and Chiefs Kingdom as GEHA Stadium at Arrowhead. Our reporters and visual journalists will be at FIFA Fan Fest, watch parties, bars, restaurants and more. While we can’t be at every single local event, we aim to share a representative sample of exactly how Kansas City is celebrating our roots as a soccer city.
Do you have story to tell or a news tip to share with us? Contact us using our tip form, or email us at tips@kcstar.com.
You will find all of our World Cup coverage in the FIFA World Cup section of KansasCity.com.
We are also removing the paywall on this coverage. If you’re not a subscriber and you like what you see, we hope that you’ll support our journalists with a subscription.
Want to follow all of the action? Sign up for one of The Star’s newsletters, or follow The Star on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, Threads and Bluesky.
Thank you, Kansas City, for being a welcoming community to our international visitors. Thank you for supporting The Star and making this city our home.
If you would like to reach me directly, please email me at hwise@kcstar.com.
