Argentina soccer officials were wowed by this Kansas City barbecue restaurant
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A group of Argentina soccer officials enjoyed Jack Stack, sampled full platters, sides.
- Argentina liked Sporting KC's facilities and also enjoyed Kansas City barbecue.
- Argentina will train in Wyandotte County and stay at a nearby Missouri hotel.
It’s been a heck of a week for the future of the World Cup in Kansas City.
Unprecedented, actually.
Three FIFA top-10 teams announced they will make Kansas City their home for the World Cup this summer — Argentina, England and the Netherlands.
How did Kansas City become the only metropolitan area in the country with base camps for three top-10 teams? I dug into that in a column earlier this week — how Kansas City transformed from a long-shot World Cup host city into what FIFA officials are referring to as the base capital of the tournament.
This story? It’s more simply for the entertainment.
I shared a brief version of this anecdote in Friday’s column, but Argentina capped their only visit to Kansas City in the most Kansas City fashion.
With barbecue.
At the conclusion of their half-week trip, former Sporting KC chief operating officer Alan Dietrich, the lead tour guide for the base camp visits, asked Argentina representatives if they were interested in Latin food or authentic Kansas City barbecue.
They all wanted the barbecue.
Five of them — Dietrich plus four Argentina officials — went to Jack Stack, its downtown Freight House location.
On the Argentina group’s request, they ordered five two-meat platters of food. The Kansas City Combo, Jack Stack calls it.
Along with the platters, they ordered every side item Jack Stack has on the menu — the fries, beans, cheesy corn, potato salad and coleslaw. All of it.
“I thought, you know, this seems like a good amount of food,” Dietrich said, before a pause. “They killed it.”
They weren’t done.
When offered dessert, they each ordered the carrot cake and triple chocolate brownie.
Killed that, too.
“They kept saying, ‘This is really good,’” Dietrich said.
It’s not why Argentina settled on Kansas City.
But it sure didn’t hurt the experience.
“It was cool, because definitely part of the heart of Kansas City is the barbecue,” Dietrich said. “And they just really enjoyed it.”
Argentina didn’t visit KC until after the draw was unveiled. Even though the star-driven team will open the defense of its 2022 title with a match at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, the soccer world still anticipated it would base camp in Miami, the MLS home to their star, Lionel Messi. The beach city is less than a 3-hour plane ride to each of Argentina’s group-stage matches.
But when Argentina sent a half-dozen officials on the trip to Kansas City, the KC2026 group began to think maybe they could persuade them.
Argentina fell in love with Sporting’s training facility in Wyandotte County, where they will hold their practices.
Their hotel location on the Missouri side? It’s about a 10-minute drive to Jack Stack.