Amid World Cup panic in KC, can’t we all just calm down and see what happens?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pam Kramer began counting down days to KC2026 before her CEO appointment in July 2024.
- Kramer opened nearly every KC2026 presentation and meeting with a nod to days remaining.
- Kramer said she’s 'not so sure' the countdown mantra still seems like a great idea.
Even before Pam Kramer’s appointment as chief executive officer of KC2026 became public in July 2024, she embraced the mantra of “every day matters” with such conviction that she literally has counted down each day toward the first 2026 FIFA World Cup game in Kansas City on June 16.
To the point where about every presentation and every meeting related to the monumental endeavor has started with a nod to the days remaining.
“It seemed like a great idea when we had 700-whatever days to go,” she said with a laugh in a Friday morning virtual meeting with reporters. “Now, I’m not so sure.”
Kramer was joking ... though maybe she’ll somehow become even more of a perpetual-motion machine in these final 40 days and beyond.
To the contrary, this was a fine time for Kramer to provide some reassuring perspective in the wake of the American Hotel and Lodging Association’s report. Released Monday, the report said bookings in the 11. U.S. host cities are tracking below forecasts.
In Kansas City, the report said, “85-90% of respondents report booking pace below expectations.”
And justlikethat, this has been the prevailing headline in local news reports ever since as paranoia surges across social media.
To some, the most ambitious event in Kansas City history might as well be over before it even starts, as it now seems likely we’ll see fewer than the originally projected 650,000 visitors.
That’s not an ideal prospect, of course, and skepticism always is healthy.
Reasonable minds can disagree, though, and cynicism seems hasty.
Because there’s a lot to still be understood and there will be plenty of time to critique whatever goes awry if and when it happens. And chances are we won’t even understand this event’s legacy in real time.
In the meantime ...
“Can we just see what happens?” said Kathy Nelson, a driving force in securing the World Cup and the leader of both Visit KC and the Kansas City Sports Commission.
Let’s do.
And let’s reiterate a few things for the moment.
Nearly a decade ago, when this movement started, Kansas City hoped just to host a game or two and/or maybe a base camp.
Instead, we ended up with four base camps in the region, including the metro area luring in three of the world’s most high-profile and rabidly followed national teams: defending World Cup champion Argentina, England and The Netherlands.
Instead, Kansas City was granted six games — including a quarterfinal and round of 32 game.
That speaks to the sort of currency Kansas City earned through its wealth of soccer resources, its central location and a bid that belied its status as the smallest U.S. host city.
But it also connects to another key point about all we just don’t know yet — including how to predict behavior of fan bases that are largely understood to wait until late to book — as we prepare to face a unique set of obstacles in this World Cup.
Those two elimination games will be of intense and immense interest. But Kramer said that FIFA won’t award many of those tickets until the opponents are known, and no doubt many fans are waiting for that clarity, too.
So the hotel report was “one data point,” Kramer said, and not insignificant. Just the same, she quite reasonably added, “I think it’s really important to look at all the data points we have.”
Among other salient ones made by Kramer and Nelson over the last few days:
• According to FIFA Fan Festival data, visitors have registered from 112 nations and all 50 states.
• Per FIFA, Kramer said, every match at Arrowhead is trending to be sold out. The majority of tickets have been purchased from outside the Kansas City metro area.
• As Nelson noted in an interview in her office and elaborated on during a tourism outlook event Thursday at Municipal Auditorium, exorbitant local hotel prices are an issue — but one she continues to try to address. “I think hotels need to understand what the market can bear. And it’s time to probably level (off) …” she said at the event, per The Star’s Eric Adler. “One or two of them need to say, ‘OK, this is our rate,’ and the others will follow soon. … They’re talking about it. I know they talk about it on a daily basis.”
• In her remarks Thursday, Nelson cited the travel data platform Sojern as reporting 31% growth in confirmed flight bookings to Kansas City from this time a year ago. The leading markets, she added, were Argentina, Ecuador and Canada.
• Nine nations, including Canada and others not playing in Kansas City, plan to have embassy presences here. “I think the headline is ‘the World Cup sort of transcends a few things,’ ” Kramer said.
Now, it’s also true that if you torture the numbers long enough you can get them to confess to anything, as accountants might say. No doubt there are things to fret over, data points that suggest formidable and dynamic issues looming over travel.
Other than the hotels gouging, though, it’s mostly stuff that no one here can control.
Like outrageous FIFA ticket pricing, compounded by its confounding system.
Also an obvious factor in any reluctance to come here are the immigration policies of the Trump administration underscored by the chilling specter of ICE. Its cruel and even lawless excesses have reverberated around the globe.
As Nelson noted, research from MMGY’s new Portrait of the European Traveler said that 55% of European travelers find the United States less appealing for leisure travel because of its domestic and foreign policy.
Punctuating that message is a financially tangible issue with direct ripples here:
Among the nations whose visitors now must pay U.S. entry bonds of up to $15,000 a person are Tunisia and Algeria, each of which will be playing in Kansas City. Algeria will have its base camp in Lawrence. Challenging enough for one person to front that money, but how many families possibly could pay for that … to say nothing of the other costs?
Local officials like Nelson and Kramer and her team of teams are trying to do all they can to address any and all such issues.
But at some level their focus will have to be on controlling the controllables in an operation of an unprecedented scale that will put Kansas City in the spotlight all over the world as never before. And that’s saying something, considering the worldwide audiences the Chiefs gained by playing in five of the last seven Super Bowls.
Not to mention the immeasurable opportunity to connect directly with people from everywhere.
Nothing assures success, of course, including that it remains to be seen whether the execution of the security and transportation systems reflect the sophistication of the planning models.
And there are valid questions about what lasting impact there may be for the Kansas City area, particularly in terms of future regional transportation concepts that KC2026 hopes will take root.
Maybe it won’t work out so well. No doubt there will be some issues. Perhaps, alas, even quite significant ones.
All the same, this still figures to be an incredible time for the region ... whether or not the initial 650,000 estimate holds up.
Meanwhile ... let’s see what happens.