World Cup games will be played at Arrowhead. But Fan Festival will show heart of KC
As one of the most monumental events in Kansas City history suddenly is just weeks away, the very nucleus of the event, Arrowhead Stadium, is being scrubbed to conform to FIFA World Cup standards consistent with the other 15 North American venues hosting the tournament beginning next month.
Sure, Arrowhead’s architecture, acoustics and identity no doubt will resonate even beneath that veil and under its temporarily assumed name of Kansas City Stadium. But much of what distinguishes it as the home of the Chiefs, from the GEHA Field sponsorship and other customary advertising to iconography including the Ring of Honor, will be muted.
That’s an ironic bummer considering the stadium itself was a key reason Kansas City was awarded six games in the 48-nation competition.
Then again, KC2026 Pam Kramer reminded on Tuesday that only 10% of seats in the stadium for what FIFA says will be sold-out games are expected to be filled by spectators from the Kansas City area.
Meaning that Arrowhead might be the epicenter at a global glance … but that the real engagement and impressions to make and be had are going to be just about everywhere else.
Like in restaurants and hotels and coffee shops, from the airport to the streets to stores, in exchanges with some 3,500 volunteers and through our world-class institutions such as the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
And most of all on the grounds of the National World War I Museum and Memorial — which will be at the heart of the matter in more ways than one.
That’s where the FIFA Fan Festival entrance will be through a 65-foot heart structure, which at once signals a welcoming message to visitors from 125 countries registered to attend and harkens to the city’s self-image as the Heart of America.
The term has been invoked here for more than a century and became embellished all the more by the late, great Buck O’Neil:
“I knew I was coming to the Heart of America,” O’Neil liked to say about his adoptive hometown. “I didn’t know I was coming to the center of the universe.”
Kansas City in the weeks to come is going to feel more like that than ever with hundreds of thousands of people visiting. They’ll come from all over the USA and the nations playing here — most notably defending World Cup champion Argentina and the Netherlands and whatever teams are to meet in the quarterfinal game here on July 11.
Fans historically also have been drawn to their nation’s base camps, four of which will be in the region: In addition to Argentina and the Netherlands, England will have its base camp in Kansas City and Algeria will be in Lawrence.
Many of those Fan Festival registrants from around the world likely never even had heard of Kansas City before this, Kramer guessed.
And even if an early impression for some was that this was a place where local hotels were looking to gouge them, presumably a good measure of those are now part of a broader correction ... and fans who come here will be open-minded and curious about what we’re about.
As we should be about them.
Because those dynamics figure to be the most memorable part of this for most people.
In fact, it’s what actually makes this meaningful.
To begin with, no doubt the world would be a better place if more people saw more of it and were more exposed to other cultures and ways of life. Experiencing that typically demystifies fear of the unknown and shows us both how much more we have in common than we realize and that our differences often are to be appreciated.
You can experience a lot of that, it turns out, even when it’s people coming to you.
And, of course, vice versa.
That’s why Kramer says to create an authentic Kansas City experience, well, we need Kansas Citians to take part.
And the cultural connectivity that makes this event what it is likely will be best-found at Fan Festival, which requires registration but is free and will be highlighted by numerous local vendors and music acts — not to mention Missouri’s own Sheryl Crow — and soccer clinics and other activations.
That also includes working with visiting fan groups to be able to “show off their culture and how they celebrate,” said Mallory Cage, KC2026 director of Fan Festival and Events. “We want some folks to walk away maybe learning a new chant or new cheer and embracing the teams that are coming.”
Overall, she added, “I would say we’ve really tried to blend that perfect balance of showing a little bit of the world to Kansas City, but also Kansas City to the world.”
Indeed, the 25,000-capacity events there will be another way to help Kansas Citians “feel like they own this moment,” Kramer said.
And that this moment doesn’t feel like it could just be anywhere … as FIFA is trying to make Arrowhead.
The experience here, Kramer said, should feel “distinctly Kansas City” and not something you can get anywhere else.
The scene at Fan Fest, which includes delay towers decorated to evoke our so-called City of Fountains, was conjured in conjunction with Kansas City architectural firm Populous.
“This is a moment in time (in Kansas City)” said Bobby Sloan, the Populous principal leading the project. “And we design for those moments in time.”
With a certain spirit in mind featuring some whimsical elements to come on fence graphics.
During a tour of the ongoing construction on Wednesday, Sloan thought back a couple years to the first discussions of what this should entail.
“Our brand team really equated it very, very much as we want it to feel like ‘Ted Lasso,’” he said, referring to the Apple TV sensation starring Kansas City’s own Jason Sudeikis.
Meaning lighthearted, like the nuanced fountain imagery he called fun, “but not leaning too heavily into it.”
“We could have just stuck a screen on (the towers) and called them good, but we really wanted to highlight the fact Kansas City (has) over 200 fountains …” Cage said. “Because I bet most people (around the globe) don’t know that we have over 200 fountains.”
As she reflected on those early meetings, Cage remembered an emphasis, too, on “how do we bring those pieces of Kansas City, the things that folks are really proud of, to life?”
Nothing really speaks to that more than the people.
We’re one of few cities, Cage said with a smile, that dresses like we’re tourists elsewhere — often showing off Kansas City gear even while here in town.
That pride tends to be part of a welcoming mentality that’s already on display at Kansas City International with overwhelming visuals that Kramer reckons eclipse anything being done at any other World Cup host airports.
And it’s part of one of the most pivotal factors of how this will go over and what its legacy will be.
Even if you don’t love soccer or sports, Cage said, this is “an opportunity to come and be a part of something that’s bigger than just that.”
And help Kansas City make good on leading with its heart.
This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "World Cup games will be played at Arrowhead. But Fan Festival will show heart of KC."