World Cup shows ‘it’s increasingly difficult to doubt Kansas City.’ Here’s why
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The Royal Dutch Football Association estimated the Oranje Fanwalk drew 22,000.
- Pam Kramer said skepticism is healthy but perceptions are shifting.
- Kramer said the events shifted views from 'how could we' to 'why can’t we?
Near 18th and Grand on the second double-decker Orange Bus during the mind-boggling Oranje Fanwalk on Thursday, KC2026 CEO Pam Kramer gazed back — and realized there somehow were as many people behind them as before them.
Amid the jubilant march estimated by the Royal Dutch Football Association to have drawn 22,000 participants, Kramer enjoyed what might be considered a revelation.
“From a personal standpoint, I think skepticism is healthy,” she said at a news briefing Friday morning, smiling and adding, “and we’ve heard a fair amount of skepticism for the last few years.”
Chances are you know the refrain. As she posed it: Is this thing really this big? Will people actually care? Can we do it?
“More than anything,” she said, “is Kansas City ready?”
Quite literally in the middle of it all, in that moment and halfway now through the World Cup schedule here, she felt affirmation of what she’d believed all along.
“Yes, it’s real. Yes, it’s big. Yes, we can,” she said. “All the things. I think it’s increasingly difficult to doubt Kansas City.”
Not just because of that energizing spectacle, which Kramer said drew some 36,000 people to the geo-fenced area, per data from EB Systems, and nimbly correcting first-match traffic issues.
And not merely because of Fan Fest on the grounds of the National World War I Museum and Memorial, where nearly 150,000 had been scanned in over the last few weeks.
(Alas, inclement weather forced it to shut down early on Thursday — the only day that was to feature watch parties for both Kansas City and Team USA matches.)
Not only because “Kansas City Stadium” (Arrowhead) was essentially full for the first three matches with 68,000-plus each time in a 69,045 soccer capacity … and included a lifetime highlight for many of Lionel Messi’s hat trick for defending World Cup champion Argentina and an uncanny performance by Curacao goalkeeper Eloy Room.
And not even just because of having three of the world’s top seven-ranked teams conducting base camps in the metro area and developments like the KC Streetcar constantly full and volunteers and many others seeking every chance to be ambassadors for the area.
It’s all of that: Everything, everywhere all at once — including in Lawrence, where the warmhearted reception for Algeria’s base camp will be an indelible part of not just our local story but of the 2026 World Cup itself.
Take it from Elizabeth Moore Aubin, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Algeria from 2022 until early 2026 and this week came to see for herself what this was all about in advance of Algeria’s game with Austria on Saturday at Arrowhead.
For all the obvious work that went into preparing for that, she said, there also has been something reassuringly organic about it all.
“Something that nobody could replicate: It’s authentic. It is honest. It is real,” she said. “And it’s love.”
With ripples, by way of just this one example, when it comes to the largest nation in Africa by land area and populated with 48 million people.
As Aubin put it, every Algerian influencer creating a video from here is getting millions of views she believes could contribute to “a deeper, more abiding relationship with the United States.”
More traditionally, the connection also reverberates through two of its group matches held here:
“Everybody in Algeria is watching this,” she said. “Everybody in Algeria: From the presidential palace, to the little towns along the Mediterranean. And in the agricultural fields, and in the mountain towns, and in the Sahara. Everybody’s watching this.”
Within that it is a sort of fusion that epitomizes the power of the broader culture-to-culture engagement.
Beyond the University of Kansas band learning to play the Algerian national anthem, Algerian flags all over Lawrence and the area and restaurants providing halal-friendly menus and environments, it’s about what that set in motion.
“That’s what’s been so amazing about this,” Aubin said. “It can’t just be one side, right? It can’t just be the population of Lawrence. It’s also been the team, the Algerian team, and then it’s been Algerians.
“And you just see it sort of building on each other and producing this dynamic that nobody could have created. This could not have been orchestrated. Which is what makes it so special and beautiful.”
She later added, “I think Algeria would like more of the United States, and the United States certainly would benefit from more of Algeria.”
With Algeria facing the prospect of elimination on Saturday or possibly decamping elsewhere, all of a sudden this may well be its “farewell weekend” here.
With that realization, an event years in the making for the smallest of the 16 2026 World Cup hosts suddenly feels fleeting.
Part of the legacy will be what these relationships come to mean going forward in terms of measurable impact such as business developments between Kansas City institutions, the four nations and all those who will have played here by the time we host a round of 32 match and a quarterfinal.
Part of it will be reflected in how Kansas City is viewed when it comes to the United States-Mexico-Jamaica-Costa Rica joint bid to host the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup — a bid that includes the prospect of Kansas City hosting games both at Arrowhead and the Kansas City Current’s CPKC Stadium. Kansas City also is seeking to host the 2031 Men’s Rugby World Cup and 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Much of the legacy, though, will be less tangible but significant in its own way: in how others view us and how we view ourselves.
Something that’s shifting from how could we possibly do something like this … to why can’t we?
Because it really has become increasingly difficult to doubt Kansas City.