Weeks before the 2026 World Cup, here is where KC’s spirit is on full display
Only weeks remain before hundreds of thousands of soccer fans are expected to start descending on Kansas City for the first game, on June 16, of the month-long 2026 FIFA World Cup competition.
But, so far, no banners have been hung at the Country Club Plaza. They say they’re coming in mid-May.
Union Station is not lit, but it will be eventually, as will the luminescent, LED-enveloped front of the Kansas City Marriott Downtown Hotel at 200 W. 12th Street.
One lone streetcar wrapped in World Cup imagery (two others are on the way, plus three wrapped streetcar stops) could easily leave the impression that Kansas City’s World Cup ardor is slow to runneth over.
But then there is the airport: Kansas City International — the city’s “front door” for visitors flying in from across the nation or abroad — and where, starting earlier in April, Kansas City’s World Cup spirit has been on full display.
Bathroom and baggage signs
Case in point: In the baggage claim area, the female and male stick figures that mark the bathroom entrances are now wearing FIFA soccer jerseys. Each figure has a soccer ball at its side.
“The last two weeks has changed a lot of this,” Jackson Overstreet, a spokesperson for the Kansas City Aviation Department, said Wednesday, touring through the terminal. “We’re pretty proud of it. It will just continue to get busier and busier as we get closer.”
Countdown to the World Cup
In November, the airport was on the forefront of World Cup promotion when it installed a KC2026 FIFA World Cup countdown clock at the center of the terminal, just beyond the security gates. The digital clock, which counts down the days, hours, minutes and second to the official June 11 beginning of the tournament, was first unveiled at the Union Station on June 11, 2025, before making its way around the Kansas City area.
“The clock represents the region’s confidence and excitement as we prepare to showcase our people, places, and promise to the world,” Pam Kramer, the chief executive officer of the non-profit planning organization KC2026, said at the time.
The clock, since the start of April, has been joined by dozens of banners, wraps and other signs. On the floor in front of the clock, lies a large, a blue circular Kansas City 25 logo of a soccer field outlined by flags of the seven nations known to be either to playing in Kansas City or staying in Kansas City area as its base camp. They include Argentina, Austria, Algeria, England, Ecuador, Curaçao, the Netherlands and Tunisia.
‘We want people to know we’re excited’
Two kiosks, one in the main terminal and the other in baggage claim area, are selling FIFA World Cup T-shirts, caps, cups, lanyards and other merchandise. Blue banners across the ceiling throughout the terminal read “Welcome Soccer Fans” underscored by the word “welcome” spelled in Dutch, French, Arabic, German and Spanish.
“We Are Kansas City,” and “Heart of the Game” reads a wall display surrounding the exit elevators. The baggage carousels are wrapped in World Cup messages. A wall for Instagram photos declares “We are 26 Kansas City” as the center of a blue heart. A “KansasCity26” sign displayed at the baggage claim area tells visitors, “We Believe in Good Matches, Good Food & Good People.”
Overstreet said most of the banners were put in place at night over two weeks starting in mid-April, and including last week. The messages, he said, were designed in collaboration with KC2026 and the architectural and design firm Populous.
“I’ve been saying often, during this whole process, that we are the front door for a lot of people,” Overstreet said. “We’re going to be a lot of people’s first impression of Kansas City. And so putting up the banners now, putting up the signage now, it’s really a chance for us to start that excitement, start to let people know, ‘Hey, we’re a big player in this.’ We’re going to be welcoming a lot of fans here, and we want people to know that we’re excited to have the World Cup.”
And all that jazz
The aviation department anticipates June and July will be historically busy months at the airport. Argentina, Overstreet said, is scheduled to send chartered fan flights to KCI from Buenos Aires. Curaçao is also sending chartered fan flights.
World Cup entertainment is also planned, he said. On the days surrounding matches, live jazz and other music will be played in the concourses. Vantage, which handles the terminal’s food service, is planning pop-up food experiences.
“There’ll be food activations,” Overstreet said. “We plan to have this place, especially before and after match days, to be very active with events, because that’s going to be when we’re at our busiest, when people are leaving or coming here for a game”
Signs throughout the terminal were also designed to be helpful, providing QR codes to point visitors to ConnectKC26, the service providing transportation to the FIFA Fan Festival, and also to the four, park-and-ride locations at Arrowhead Stadium and between KCI and downtown Kansas City.
“The physical transformation of our city is now well underway,” a KC2026 spokesperson wrote to The Star.
Besides decorations at the airport, two more streetcars are to be wrapped by early May. Union Station banners will rise by late May or early June. Three streetcar stops will tout the World Cup in early June, as well.
“These elements are more than just decorations,” the statement said, “they are a visual representation of the world-class hospitality visitors can expect in our region. The signage is a clear expression of our collective readiness to welcome the world.”
As visitors exit KCI by car or bus, they will see one more sign displayed over the arrival lane: “See You at Fan Festival.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
