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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City area is tentatively slated to serve as the home base camp for three national teams participating in in the FIFA 2026 World Cup.
FIFA released a preliminary list of base camp cities on Wednesday.
Kathy Nelson, CEO of the KC Sports Commission and Visit KC, said the announcement is another opportunity for Kansas City to be showcased to the world.
“Kansas City will have three venues inside of that 30 venue base camp, so super excited today,” Nelson said. “So that’s probably our next big ‘what’s next,’ is that brochure drops today for the world to see how great Kansas City is and those different base camp opportunities.”
The list of cities that will host teams includes some cities — like Kansas City — that are also hosting World Cup matches.
The list also includes some cities that, while they aren’t scheduled to host matches, will serve as base camps for national teams.
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The three locations in the Kansas City area to serve as base camps include the KC Current’s Training Facility in Riverside, Sporting KC’s Training Center in Kansas City, Kansas, and the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
Each location would be connected to a specific hotel for the teams: Hotel Kansas City – The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, the Sheraton Overland Park Hotel at the Convention Center and the Stonehill Lawrence, Trademark Collection by Wyndham, respectively.
“Along with welcoming players and fans to the metropolitan area, we are thrilled that Overland Park will host players and teams during the FIFA World Cup 2026,” Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog said in a news release Wednesday. “We will have a ball showing Overland Park off on an international stage and helping people worldwide learn what a wonderful place Overland Park is to live, work, raise a family and of course, play soccer.”
A total of 48 base camps — for the number of nations participating in the FIFA 2026 World Cup — will be needed.
The base camps will be where the teams stay and train when not participating in a match.
Wednesday’s announcement covers 24 – or half – of the base camp assignments. Additional locations will be announced.
Specific teams have not yet been assigned to specific base camps.
Nine cities that aren’t hosting matches but have been selected as base camp locations were part of Wednesday’s announcement: Chattanooga, Cincinnati, Green Bay, Irvine (CA), Louisville, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and Westfield (Indiana).
Kansas City and GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium is slated to host six FIFA 2026 World Cup matches, including a quarterfinal match on July 9, 2026.
Other matches include four group stage matches, and a Round of 32 match on Friday, July 3, 2026.
More information about Kansas City’s hosting of the FIFA 2026 World Cup is available online.
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