Kansas City shines as epicenter of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Yes, again
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- Netherlands brought an Oranje Fanwalk that paraded tens of thousands down Grand.
- Netherlands packed Arrowhead Stadium for their 3-1 win against Tunisia.
- Ten different countries were represented by visitors at Union Station.
Mike Debus, a Kansas City artist, last week opened his internet browser and initiated a search for just one item.
He needed a Netherlands shirt, and maybe the brighter the orange the better.
He doesn’t know much about the Dutch national team, and certainly not its history and traditions, but a recent conversation with a friend had transpired something like this:
“You gotta come to the fanwalk,” the friend opened.
“What fanwalk?” Debus replied.
“Don’t worry about it,” the friend said. “Just be here.”
So here he was, at the corner of Grand Boulevard and Pershing Road in downtown Kansas City, decked out in the shirt he had ordered on Etsy, which he paired with a Royals baseball cap.
He’d spent the previous hour walking in the middle of a downtown street he’s visited plenty — but one he had never seen quite like this.
“Once in a lifetime,” he said. “This blows my mind.”
Netherlands brought its Oranje Fanwalk to Kansas City early Thursday afternoon, a one-of-a-kind tradition that invaded the Power & Light District before picking up steam — and numbers — as it marched south. By its conclusion, an estimated more than 20,000 paraded down Grand, a route familiar to those who call this place home but a celebration very much not.
They dressed in florescent orange and belted out chants and songs in a party that stretched several blocks and more closely resembled a takeover.
With an exception: They did not take over Kansas City.
They joined Kansas City. Or, more accurately, Kansas City joined them.
Again.
Symbolic of the flavor sprinkled throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup in this city, the locals watched from office windows, parking garages and, most notably, stood and participated in the middle of the chants.
Why not? They didn’t want to miss it — same as it’s been for a while now.
There was an Argentina obsession in KC earlier in this World Cup, an Ecuador rush inside Arrowhead Stadium a week later, a most endearing Algeria relationship that has attracted the world’s eye ... and now a Netherlands downtown shutdown.
They are distinct phases, each of them, the beauty of this tournament. But at their roots rests a commonality, a beauty of this tournament being here.
They’ve all fit neatly into Kansas City.
A Kansas City parade
Brian Hudson rummaged through his closet Thursday, in search of matching the bright shade of Netherlands colors that popped inside Arrowhead Stadium later in the evening. The best he could find was burnt orange.
He didn’t plan his trip to the walk too exhaustively, but after reading — and then Googling — about it, he figured, well, “I can’t miss that.”
Hudson, a 37-year-old born and raised in KC, has seen a parade on Grand Boulevard in the past — a couple of them, actually — having attended the Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebrations over the years.
There was a difference Thursday.
“I got to be in this one,” he said.
The Netherlands’ walk certainly drew some fanfare in Dallas and Houston earlier in the World Cup.
In Kansas City, it replicated a town’s most joyous moments.
It brought Jeff Fyfe, David Elbert and Emily Davis out of their downtown office buildings, because, as Davis put it, “I wanted to participate somehow.“
Two blocks north and 10 minutes earlier, the route had passed by PNC Bank at 19th and Grand. After learning of the march, branch manager Anthony Mondaine and his employees stocked their offices with packs of bottled water — and then passed them out along the sidewalks.
A single gesture, a single company, a few employees, but an indication of the vibe that Kansas City has provided its turnstile of guests.
The Netherlands packed Arrowhead Stadium for its 3-1 win against Tunisia. They’re staying at the County Club Plaza. They’re here for soccer.
The city has used soccer as a method for connection.
“Perhaps there are some people who don’t know all that much about Dutch football and the songs being sung,” Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman said after his team’s win Thursday night. “But they go along and play along.”
‘I wanted to experience it’
On Wednesday afternoon, The Star’s Blair Kerkhoff and I stood inside Union Station for five minutes, maybe 10.
A day before the Netherlands and Tunisia met on the field, we were interested in seeing if they already had a presence in Kansas City.
They did.
But so did Mexico. And Brazil. And Ecuador, Colombia, France, Germany, Japan and the United States. Ten different countries were represented by visitors donning their jerseys.
The world is here.
Before the Oranje Fanwalk commenced Thursday, the Netherlands packed the Power & Light for food and some beverages. Atop the second floor, Tunisia natives Moe Salhi and Hamza Salhi stood and watched. They were dressed in red and white, their colors standing out in a crowd dressed otherwise uniformly.
“I wanted to experience it,” Moe Salhi said. “I never expected it to be this good. The people here are very welcoming. The atmosphere in here, how friendly the people are, it’s so good here.”
Salhi grew up Tunisia. He lives in Miami now.
But he spoke for the setting in which he currently stood.
“I just wanted to be part of it.”
That’s how Kansas City felt five-plus years ago, before FIFA named it a World Cup host city.
It’s how its residents still feel today.