Argentina could be close to selecting Kansas City as World Cup base camp: report
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Argentina favors Kansas City for its 2026 World Cup base camp, per TyC report.
- Kansas City offers Sporting KC, KC Current and Rock Chalk Park training sites.
- City’s lower traffic and smaller size could sway Argentina to choose KC over Dallas.
Argentina will play its first game as the defending FIFA World Cup champion in Kansas City during the group-stage portion of this summer’s international soccer tournament.
But the Argentinians’ stay in KC could last much longer than a couple of days.
According to TyC Sports, a Buenos Aries-based sports channel, Kansas City “is emerging as the leading candidate” to become Argentina’s base camp during the 2026 World Cup.
The Kansas City area has offered the training facilities of Sporting Kansas City and the KC Current, as well as Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, for base camp practice locations. Argentina considers the Sporting KC and KC Current sites its top two options, the TyC Sports report said.
Argentina plays one group-stage game in Kansas City — June 16 against Algeria — and its next two in Dallas. But Kansas City could be a preferred base camp site over a site in the Dallas area because of KC’s reduced traffic and smaller population, according to the report.
Argentina, led by international star Lionel Messi, is working on scheduling “friendly” matches that would be played in Las Vegas and Miami in early June. The team could establish its base camp by June 1.
Fans follow their teams closely during the World Cup. According to Al Jazeera, some 35,000 fans from Argentina followed their team to Qatar to watch a World Cup championship in 2022.
Contingents from Argentina and Algeria visited KC and Lawrence after last month’s World Cup draw, and reps from England, Germany, Colombia and South Korea also have visited Lawrence.
Earlier this week, KC2026 CEO Pam Kramer said she was confident Kansas City would land two or three teams’ base camps, including two among the world’s top squads. She didn’t identify the nations that were looking at Kansas City.
But interest has certainly accelerated since the draw and match schedule were announced in early December.
“It’s been a terrific response from countries that have been here before and countries that haven’t been here before, post draw, they’ve visited,” Kramer said. “We’ve even had some virtual visits. I can’t tell you what countries, they’ve asked us not to disclose that, but I can tell you they’ve been Pot 1 teams.”
Pot 1 teams are the top teams in each of the 12 groups. Besides the host countries — the U.S., Mexico and Canada — the other Pot 1 teams are Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Belgium.
The Netherlands is also scheduled to play a group-stage game in Kansas City.
As for what the various countries seeking base camp locations are looking for in a potential host, Kramer elaborated to say “each team has a different perspective on what they’re looking for.
“Some teams want to be off the beaten path and out of visibility,” Kramer said. “Some teams want to be closer to off-day activities that their players and staff can be part of.
“Their goal is to put their team in a position to perform at peak operating level. So the facilities, the travel that’s associated with where they’re playing, all of that factors in.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 1:01 PM.