Ingram's June 2026

since they assume every stadium visitor rep resents spending that wouldn’t otherwise have occurred locally. Academic research on past tournaments—including a Clemson analysis of the 1994 U.S. World Cup—has found host cities sometimes lose money relative to projections rather than gain it. None of that necessarily makes the investment a mistake. The harder-to-quan tify return—global broadcast exposure and a credential for future bids—is increasingly what KC2026 leaders lean on when the hard-dollar figures are questioned. Jorgenson frames it in terms of institutional learning. “I think we’ve started to create an institu tional memory about how to put on big events,” he said. “We’re in the running for the 2031 Women’s World Cup, the rugby World Cup, and no doubt once the new Chiefs sta dium is complete, we will host a Super Bowl. Then we’re talking about the Final Four.” Sharma, characteristically, reaches fur ther: “This proves that KC can come togeth er and do not just big things, but hard things. There’s nothing we can’t accomplish.” The ledger on ROI for this region’s investments won’t be closed until after the final Kansas City matches in July, but there’s a long list of business owners watch ing their registers as closely as the bracket. The verdict won’t come from a news re lease—it will come from the independent accounting KC2026 has promised its fund ers, the hotel data that accumulates over the tournament’s full run, and the street level evidence from the neighborhoods that were supposed to be this event’s second act. The spectacle has arrived on schedule. Whether the economics follow is a question this city will be answering well into 2027.

One Crossroads boutique owner called that week one of the slowest of the year despite doubled advertising and full staff ing. Mayor Quinton Lucas pushed back at the time, noting his own rounds of shop ping and eating had turned up plenty of business—a split verdict that has informed how KC2026 and city economic-develop ment officials pitched the World Cup to a more skeptical small-business community three years later. That pitch has been more hands-on this time. The city ended outdoor dining permit fees, distributed $300,000 in grants for patio buildouts, and launched a storefront revitalization pilot that placed pop-up ven dors in vacant Downtown space. More than 100 local vendors set up a five-week marketplace at Union Station to catch foot traffic from the Fan Festival—Kansas City’s most direct attempt to route World Cup tourists toward Main Street rather than let them stay contained inside stadium perim eters, as draft weekend crowds largely did. KC2026 has also introduced some thing no other host city launched: KC House, a venue designed to bring leading figures from guest nations into dialogue with their Kansas City counterparts. “The concept is fairly simple,” Jorgenson said. “We wanted heads of state, civic and business leaders from visiting countries and here to meet and establish long term relationships. I think we’re seeing that happen.” Whether those handshakes become contracts, investment or conven tion bookings is a transaction that will take longer than six weeks to measure.

What organizers can point to now is momentum building toward the knock out rounds. Sharma describes the energy in terms KC2026 didn’t initially have language for. “The overwhelming cre scendo to the quarter-final match feels now very visceral, very real,” he said. He acknowledged Game One exposed operational gaps—traffic and ingress problems that required collaboration with FIFA to address—but characterized the response as quick. “The stat I heard was that 98 percent of fans were in their seats at kickoff, which is good,” Sharma said, “but not good enough for any of us.” Independent economists would urge caution before reconciling that street-lev el energy with the $653 million figure. College of the Holy Cross economist Victor Matheson, who has studied mega-event economics for two decades, has called stan dard host-city projections wildly unlikely,

An estimated 36,000 marched down Grand Street in Kansas City on June 25 preceding The Netherlands and Tunisia game at Kansas City Stadium.

22

I ngr am ’ s

June 2026

Ingrams.com