World Cup matches in Kansas City could come with a hidden disadvantage: Heat.
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Climate Central found 97 of 104 World Cup matches have likely performance-impairing heat.
- All six Kansas City Stadium matches carry a likelihood of performance-impairing heat.
- Climate change raised odds of heat for Kansas City matches by up to 13 percentage points.
With the World Cup kickoff just over a week away, climate scientists are warning that heat could be an invisible opponent, slowing play at open-air venues like Kansas City Stadium (Arrowhead Stadium), sapping players’ legs and testing fans in sweltering conditions.
In a report released Wednesday, Climate Central found climate change has boosted the likelihood of “performance-impairing heat” for 97 of the tournament’s 104 scheduled matches, conditions that can slow players and raise risks for fans and workers in and around stadiums.
“Extreme heat really impacts our health, especially players, but also people who attend the matches, people who are working the matches,” said Kaitlyn Trudeau, an applied climate scientist at Climate Central, a nonprofit climate research group.
Hot, humid heat can overwhelm the body and make it harder to cool down, she said, which can lead to health impacts.
“This kind of heat doesn’t just affect health, it also changes match strategy and the style of play,” Trudeau said. She added that as carbon pollution continues, “it’s going to get harder to safely hold events like this when they’re outdoors” during times of extreme heat.”
The heat may become a bigger issue for fans. FIFA changed its fan code of conduct banning reusable water bottles from the FIFA World Cup 2026 stadiums, according to a story in the Athletic.
Kansas City’s risk snapshot
Climate Central said research suggests that temperatures above 82.4 degrees can measurably affect soccer players’ performance, especially how fast, how far, and how frequently they run, according to its “Off Your Game: How Climate Change Could Slow Down the 2026 World Cup” analysis.
They published the results in an interactive World Cup hub that lets readers look up heat risk by team, match date, and stadium, including Kansas City’s.
For Kansas City Stadium, all six matches have a likelihood of performance-impairing heat.
For the June 16 match between Argentina and Algeria and the June 20 match between Ecuador and Curaçao, there is a 68% chance of performance-impairing heat. Climate change increased those odds by 13 percentage points.
The remaining four matches have an 83% chance of performance-impairing heat. Climate change increased those odds by 8 percentage points for three of the matches and by 4 percentage points for the fourth.
Asked how the heat-risk data matters for matches in climate-controlled stadiums like in Dallas, Climate Central’s media director and meteorologist Tom Di Liberto said the concern goes well beyond the pitch.
“We have the player performance . . . but there’s also the fan experience,” Di Liberto said.
Many fans will spend hours outside in pregame lines and nearby events, so heat exposure isn’t limited to time inside the stadium.
Fatigue, heat affects compound game to game
During the webinar unveiling Climate Central’s World Cup heat hub, two professional soccer players, Jasmyne Spencer, a 12-year National Women’s Soccer League veteran, and Alex Jacobs, who recently played in Jamaica’s Premier League, described how extreme heat can change the way they play.
Jacobs described playing in New York around noon, during what he called “probably the hottest part of the day,” when he said he could “barely think” and “barely run.”
“I just remember feeling like every time I thought, ‘I need to make this run, I need to sprint, I need to track this player,’ I really didn’t want to,” Jacobs said. “And even if I pushed myself to, I knew I was not running as quickly as I could. I felt like I was running through thick air, so it just made it very onerous and difficult physically and mentally.”
The heat’s impact isn’t limited to one match, Spencer said; it can build over the tournament.
“The deeper they go into the tournament, the more that fatigue and the compounding effects of the heat are going to affect them,” Spencer said.
Spencer said expectations only rise as teams advance, but she urged fans to remember what it feels like to step into oppressive heat and then do it again a few days later before judging mistakes on the field.
“Have that moment of grace for your favorite player when they miss a pass or a shot on goal or a tackle,” Spencer said. “It compounds game after, game after game.”
