Argentina chose Sporting KC facilities as base camp. How that helps team & city
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Argentina announced Sporting KC as its 2026 World Cup base camp.
- Selection highlights Sporting KC’s facilities and Kansas City’s central location.
- City and club spent about two years on outreach and hospitality to secure Argentina.
A number of teams in the 2026 FIFA World Cup wanted to have their base camps in Kansas City, specifically in order to train at Sporting Kansas City’s practice facilities.
Defending World Cup champion Argentina, ranked second in the world, got first dibs and announced that its national team will indeed make its camp at Sporting KC’s Compass Minerals National Performance Center.
Argentina plays its first group-stage match in Kansas City and the next two in Dallas. A tournament quarterfinal that could include Argentina will be contested in Kansas City.
Argentina Football Association (AFA) officials admired Sporting KC’s facilities and Kansas City’s geography in the center of the nation. KC offered the prime location.
“The Kansas City metropolitan area is the largest, most influential and most important economy in its region, historically alongside Chicago and Cincinnati,” the AFA said on its website.
Sporting KC president/CEO Jake Reid said the process took approximately two years. It included public officials and the team rolling out a red carpet for the football organization currently led by Lionel Messi, one of the best players to touch a soccer ball.
“I think the hospitality in the city,” Reid said Friday, “the way they were welcomed in when they came here on visits both from both sides of the state line, the (Sporting KC) side, World Cup side, I think all those played a factor.
“We were passionate about getting the right teams here, and I think we obviously did that with Argentina.”
Messi, Major League Soccer’s defending two-time MVP with Inter Miami, has played in Kansas City twice in the past two years, both at Arrowhead Stadium and Sporting Park. His comfort with local facilities and the city helped, Reid said.
Why hosting a World Cup base camp matters
Sporting KC wanted at least three teams to choose Kansas City as a base camp — for several reasons.
England, the Netherlands and Algeria are also expected to base in the Kansas City-area during the global soccer tourney.
Showing off Sporting KC’s training facilities, which are also official training grounds for U.S. Soccer, is a good way to recruit players and improve an MLS club’s international, Reid said. Base camps also bring each national team’s fervent, passionate fans, providing a boost to the local economy.
“You can have what will ultimately be, in my opinion, tens of thousands fans from Argentina that will be in and around Kansas City for a significant amount of time,” Reid said. “So that’s where the economic impact piece really comes into play.
“The team literally base-camps here, but the fans, the players, wives, their family, the media — all those people are coming to KC, as well.”
England, the world’s fourth-ranked team, will reportedly train at another Sporting KC facility, Swope Park, in KC’s southern region. Reid wouldn’t confirm any such reports but assured that Sporting KC would be able to help guide both teams.
“(Sporting KC’s) first team (is) training here on a given day, and the same day you’ve got the second team and the academy training at Swope, so we have staff at both to support that,” Reid said. “It’s something we’re already doing. Now, obviously, the scale of an Argentina or another country is a little bit different, but we’re prepared.”
FIFA is expected to announce the base camps for all World Cup teams by April.
MLS is pausing its season for the World Cup. Sporting KC is still working on where its club will train when it returns from the World Cup break. Sporting’s first match after the pause is against state-rival St. Louis City SC on July 16.
With a completely new regime under general manager David Lee and head coach Raphael Wicky, Reid said Sporting KC is excited to absorb tips from Argentina — one of the best teams in the world.
“I think people always worry about, ‘Oh gosh, is the current Sporting staff going to be displaced?’ And I think we don’t look at it as that,” Reid explained. “What an amazing opportunity to host one of the top countries in the world and what can we learn from how they do things and just watch how they go about their business.”
