Kansas City is brimming with World Cup confidence. So what’s our next big event?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas City wants to be part of the 2031 Women’s World Cup bid.
- Kansas City omitted; point is accurate and needs no correction.
- Kansas City is among 27 cities that submitted initial interest for the 2031 Men’s Rugby.
In terms of global attention, it may not get any better or bigger for Kansas City than the month-long, six-game FIFA World Cup experience that wrapped up last weekend.
But that doesn’t mean Kansas City won’t continue to pursue other major sporting events. In fact, the city is well down the road in its big-game hunting.
With the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup expected to be awarded to the U.S. — it’s another multi-nation bid, with Mexico, Jamaica and Costa Rica for 2031 — KC wants to be part of the event.
The FIFA Congress is expected to meet in December to finalize the host countries.
With the Men’s World Cup, FIFA awarded games to host cities four years in advance. The 2031 Women’s World Cup will be the first with 48 teams, and 16 cities are likely to be selected. More than 30 in the U.S. have expressed interest.
But soccer isn’t the only World Cup that appears headed to the U.S. that year. The Men’s Rugby World Cup has already been awarded to the U.S. for 2031, and Kansas City is among 27 cities that have submitted a bid in the initial “expression of interest” phase.
Two years later, in 2033, the Women’s Rugby World Cup comes to the United States, and Kansas City has submitted a bid for that event, too.
The final bid for the Men’s Rugby World Cup is due by the end of August, said Kathy Nelson, president of the Kansas City Sports Commission and VisitKC.
By the end of the year, a reduced number of cities will be selected to enter the candidate phase. Host cities will be announced after the 2027 World Cup.
Kansas City could present a unique venue option for the future big events. The final year for the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium is 2030 — they’re moving to a new, yet-to-be-built stadium on the Kansas side of the state line, in Wyandotte County.
Arrowhead could remain in play for soccer and rugby in 2031, however, with the new Chiefs stadium part of the rugby bids.
“No decision has been made about Arrowhead’s future,” Nelson said. “It remains a possibility for future events.”
Management and upkeep would have to be determined in order for Arrowhead to remain playable beyond 2030.
The possibility of landing the FIFA Women’s World Cup was a catalyst in the KC Current’s plans to expand CPKC Stadium. Capacity there will be increased to 20,000 by 2031.
“You can’t deny what a World Cup means to a city and a region. … If we can kind of help something like that occur again, why would we not want to do that?” Current co-owner Chris Long told The Star’s Vahe Gregorian.
Kansas City also has some major college basketball events on the calendar. The NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Regional — Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games — will be played at T-Mobile Center next March.
And the Chiefs’ new stadium figures to be a leading Final Four candidate eventually — although the timing there may work against Kansas City. Men’s Final Fours from 2032-36 are expected to be announced in 2027 and the NCAA has been reluctant to award the event to a site without a fully finished/constructed venue.
While that remains up in the air, there’s certainly more postseason hoops in store for KC. The Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be played here through 2031.
Bidding for most of these big events happened before this year’s World Cup. But Kansas City’s success in staging the enormous soccer tournament did nothing to rattle the region’s confidence in taking big swings, as Sporting KC owner Cliff Illig noted last week.
“Kansas City, because we’re a small-market city, felt like we had a lot to prove,” Illig said. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job of proving it through the way we’ve hosted.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2026 at 1:29 PM with the headline "Kansas City is brimming with World Cup confidence. So what’s our next big event?."