How Kansas City became the 2026 World Cup’s most unlikely host city

Kansas City was hardly a sure bet to be named that day as one of the host cities for the 2026 World Cup, but Kathy Nelson was confident enough to arrange for one of those big-screen watch parties in the trendy Power & Light District downtown when Fifa confirmed the choices on 16 June.

Nelson, the president of the Kansas City Sports Commission, felt that the city, even though it is the 31st-largest metropolitan area in the US, had made a strong bid. But Fifa had leaked nothing. When Kansas City was picked, the crowd roared. She cried, a little.

“Seven years of work went into 10 seconds of elation,” Nelson told the Guardian recently at her office.

Although Nelson says this was more of a bid from the Midwest US, Kansas City will be the smallest of 11 American metro areas to host the World Cup. Kansas City beat out Phoenix, Denver, Orlando, Cincinnati and Nashville among others – making this a sports upset, of sorts.

“There is a natural chip on our shoulders for the fans and sports teams in general,” Jake Reid, the president of Sporting Kansas City, the city’s Major League Soccer franchise, told the Guardian. “They’re passionate, but there’s a bit of a David v Goliath feeling here.”

Even though, as the story goes, the late Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt was responsible for renaming the NFL’s championship the Super Bowl after seeing his kids play with a bouncy toy called a Super Ball, Kansas City has never played host to the big game itself.

The Chiefs won the Super Bowl two years ago, but it was their first NFL title in 50 years. Kansas City has had an NBA team, the Kings, and an NHL team, the Scouts, but neither was good enough to play for a championship before moving elsewhere in the 1970s.

The city’s big-league