Walking in the woods, 2-hour bus trip: How KC fans got to first World Cup game
Two highlights stood out among the rest following Argentina’s 3-0 victory over Algeria in the team’s opening group stage match for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Tuesday, June 16: Lionel Messi’s hat trick and the parking and traffic issues at Arrowhead Stadium.
Hundreds of thousands of fans traveled to Arrowhead Stadium through the ConnectKC26 bus service at its six stops around the Kansas City area, and thousands were delayed in getting in and out of the stadium for the first of six matches played in Kansas City during the global soccer tournament.
Gordon Wilson was doing rideshare at Arrowhead on Tuesday, calling it an “Arrowhead nightmare.” In an email, he said he took two riders to the stadium, both taking multiple hours to drop them off due to traffic and eventually leaving his car before making it the dropoff site.
Stadium-goers shared with The Star similar traffic delay stories, highlight visitors getting out cars and buses to make it to the stadium on time or taking a trip through nature to get there before kickoff. Others noted the bus drivers took alternate routes to try and beat the gridlocked traffic that plagued other buses on I-70.
Here’s what they experienced, and what you should know if you’re going to or thinking about going to one of the next matches happening at Arrowhead Stadium.
ConnectKC 26 bus service
Dani Toubia’s World Cup journey started with her group paying over $6,000 total for tickets through a resale website. She arrived to the Country Club Plaza pickup site at 4:45, got on the bus at 5:20 p.m. and arrived at Arrowhead at 7 p.m., taking her over 2 1/2 hours to get to her seats.
She said the bus driver took her bus on a route totally out of the way and that no one really knew where she was going. There was also a lack of “aggression” on the highway, meaning the bus driver was letting all the cars slipping in front of them while they inched their way to Arrowhead for the last hour.
An improvement she’d like to see implemented is where police and traffic officers were located. She said there were a lot of police around the stadium and would’ve liked to see more of them on the highway helping traffic. She said it felt like a free-for-all in the mile before the Arrowhead exit, where 435 and 70 highways meet.
She said paying $15 for the bus pass is worth it in theory, but to get its full worth, she wants to see organizers fix the traffic issues with dedicated bus lanes and letting bus drivers radio back to their headquarters to let them know how bad the situation is and request assistance.
“We feel KC could do way better and were pretty disappointed in the transportation,” she said.
Jennifer Hoffmann also believes the bus pass was worth it, but would also like to see dedicated bus lanes on the highways leading to Arrowhead.
She drove to Graceway Church where she had purchased a dedicated parking spot for $15. When she was arrived, she was told it would take one hour for a bus holding up to 45 fans to drive to Arrowhead and return to the Graceway Church parking lot, which is only 4 miles away from the stadium.
Eventually, it got to a point where she decided to walk, joining a crowd. It took her 45 minutes to get to the stadium, which she said luckily got her in with an hour to go before kickoff.
Some of Hoffmann’s suggestions on how to improve the traffic for the next game include:
- Keeping pedestrians off of the lanes of traffic, as they end up blocking a lane.
- Closing down roads and nearby businesses for two hours before game time.
- Halting construction on game day.
Parking inside Arrowhead (Kansas City) Stadium
It was a last-minute decision to buy both tickets to the game and a $150 parking pass at Arrowhead Stadium for Stephani Jamar. He left his house in west Lenexa a little before 5 p.m. and was in a parking spot at 6:20 p.m., hitting traffic when he was 2 miles away from the gate six entrance
Traffic in and out of the stadium for him was no different than a Chiefs game, and he’s said he’s had worse experiences getting out of the Arrowhead parking lot after concerts for Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift. Once he got in the parking lot, he said there weren’t a lot of people directing traffic like there typically is for Chiefs and Royals games.
“Plan out your route prior to getting there,” Jamar said. “Some people had difficulties getting to gate six because Google Maps did not take them to the correct gate. If you make a wrong turn or go to the wrong gate, you likely will be driving around the stadium and to the back of traffic causing it to take much longer.”
Before getting in, the directions were coming from local police, who led traffic toward the highway, and military police, who directed traffic at the parking lot gates. The line he was in was shared with rideshare vehicles, so he had to wait at one point to allow them to exit.
The main issue that was spotted near the stadium parking lots were the mass amounts of people walking to the stadium. There are no sidewalks, so people were walking in the street and in between cars, making it a dangerous trek. Jamar said that on his way out, he saw thousands walking in the streets leaving the stadium, noting it was hard to see due to the dark.
Into the woods
Megan Kimzey and her 11-year-old daughter had the experience of a lifetime.
She was also dropped off at the Plaza pickup and got on a bus at the same time as Toubia. Her bus got within 2 miles of the stadium after 25 minutes, and then sat motionless for 30 minutes at Raytown Road and Ozark Road intersection.
They decided to get off the bus and walk the 1 1/2 miles to the stadium from where it was stuck, following a few other passengers. The plans shifted when officials sent them farther down Raytown Road instead of walking onto Blue Ridge Cutoff, but she had other plans.
“We then made the decision to go off grid through the woods, saving us an hour of walk time,” Kimzey said. “Quite the adventure, but well worth it to see Messi’s hat trick.”
This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 8:27 AM.
