‘It’s go time.’ KC2026 organizers provide update on World Cup preparations
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- KC2026 added Sheryl Crow to the Fan Festival lineup for a July 10 performance.
- The Kansas City Fan Festival opens June 11 and the first stadium match is June 16.
- KC2026 reports 3,500 trained volunteers and plans for buses and multilingual support.
The Fan Festival for the 2026 World Cup in Kansas City on Tuesday added a nine-time Grammy Award winner to the lineup.
Singer Sheryl Crow will join the Chainsmokers, Tech N9ne and The All-American Rejects in performing at the World War I Museum and Memorial during the World Cup. Crow’s show will be on July 10.
“Sheryl Crow, who grew up in Kennett, Missouri, in the Bootheel, I think she loves this place, loves Kansas City, a Mizzou alum, so we’re really excited about that,” Pam Kramer, CEO of KC2026, said Tuesday at a news conference. “In addition to Sheryl Crow ... we’ll have more than 60 local (food) suppliers and performers.”
The Kansas City Fan Festival will open June 11 and the first World Cup match at Kansas City Stadium (née Arrowhead Stadium) will be held June 16.
With the soccer showcase starting in a matter of weeks, Kramer provided an update on how things stand in Kansas City.
Kramer said fans from 125 nations and all 50 states have registered for the Fan Festival. Demand has been particularly strong from Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Denver, she said.
Cranes are visible above the Kansas City Fan Festival site and the KC2026 committee has been working full-time as it has shifted from preparation to operational mode. Joint exercises with FIFA, the world’s soccer governing body, have been held at Arrowhead Stadium and the Fan Festival site.
“If you’ve driven by the World War I Museum and Memorial, you see that it’s a massive footprint, and so making sure that we’re ready to go June 11 at Fan Fest,” Kramer said. “Last week, those exercises, really testing all of those plans, making sure we’ve got all the procedures in place, the operational elements. We’ve been planning for two years, and now putting those plans into motion, it’s go time.
“So we’re excited.”
There are 3,500 volunteers, many of whom speak a foreign language, and they have gone through training ahead of the World Cup. More than 200 buses will be arriving soon, along with drivers, Kramer added.
Few KC fans at games
Argentina vs. Algeria is the first of six matches at Kansas City Stadium, and it’s only a few weeks away.
Large numbers of fans are expected in Kansas City from Argentina and Ecuador, with each playing a group-stage game here. Hotel and Airbnb numbers might not show it yet, but there is reason to believe visitors are coming.
Kramer said FIFA has indicated that all six matches in Kansas City will be sold out or nearly so.
“We know that we are going to have significant fan bases from Argentina and Ecuador, but that’s really showing up in the numbers,” Kramer said. “No surprise there, I think, and we’re hearing from the federations with the Netherlands, that they expect thousands of their fans to be here. So I think the mix of inside Kansas City is probably under 10% of the seats at the stadium, and the rest will be from outside of the metro.”
