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KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
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When international soccer fans flock to Kansas City in 20 months for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department will face some unique challenges that go beyond increased traffic and possible language barriers.
That could mean adapting to fans used to marching as a group to games or helping visitors adapt to Midwest summers. KCPD is trying to plan for any and every contingency with tens of thousands of visitors expected as GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium hosts six matches, including a World Cup quarterfinal.
“It’s so important for us to have events go off without a hitch and be safe and secure, where people are able to celebrate if they want to safely,” KCPD Capt. Abigail Martinez said. “… It’ll be due during June and July, so thinking about heat emergencies of people being outside and not used to Kansas City weather. We’re kind of just trying to do a risk assessment across all of it and make sure that we’re ready for anything that comes our way.”
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Martinez, who helps lead KCPD’s Events and Special Projects Unit, called the work involved in preparing for the World Cup “astronomical.” There are all the usual issues associated with big events — crowd control, traffic control, crime prevention, emergency assistance, anti-terrorism activity, etc. — but with the added challenge of more people, more vehicles and more unfamiliarity.
“Being able to bring all of those resources in — asking state and federal partners to bring in equipment that we don’t have, resources that we don’t have, whether that be people or equipment — just coordinating all of that, and for the length of time that we’ll need it, I think that that’s probably the biggest challenge,” she said.
It’s also complicated with so many unknowns right now.
It may be 18 months before Kansas City learns which teams will play at Arrowhead and it may be a year or more before World Cup teams select base camp sites, including three options in the Kansas City area.
KCPD and other law-enforcement agencies have to be ready, but Kansas City and the wider region have to remain functional for residents, too.
“It’s important to us in our planning that we’re keeping Kansas City in mind,” Martinez said. “Yes, we have this event that’s super exciting. We’re happy for all these visitors. But also we want to make sure that the people that are living in Kansas City aren’t put out.”
Residents should expect occasional road closures, roads congested with a parade of buses moving visitors around town, and packed entertainment venues during the World Cup, but local fans familiar with Arrowhead also need to brace themselves.
“The biggest is going to be that you won’t be able to drive to the stadium and park,” Martinez said. “They have transportation experts that are looking at all of that and whether it will be a park-and-ride or some type of express shuttle. They’re still determining all of that.”
The security perimeter around the stadium for World Cup matches will be expanded dramatically compared to a Chiefs game, leaving precious little parking for fans.
Even Lot P, the far-flung lot across the pedestrian bridge southeast of the stadiums, may not be an option.
“That may be the transportation depot,” Martinez said. “If you think about all the equipment that FIFA is going to bring in, they’ll have kind of a fan experience in between those two, the regular perimeter and the expanded perimeter, so all of that will be taken up. Then, you have to have a place to store the buses that are bringing people, so I don’t know that there’s going to be a lot of parking. But that’s all being worked out, too.”
Normally, KCPD and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office can handle game-day needs at Arrowhead. Still, there may need to be a wider net cast for law-enforcement personnel and private security during the World Cup, which will include a massive FIFA Fan Fest at the National World War I Museum and Memorial along with other scattered watch parties and FIFA-requested police escorts for teams and dignitaries.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime event and we want to make sure that everybody that comes loves Kansas City as much as we do, but that takes a lot of people to pull off,” Martinez said. “We won’t be turning down resources, that’s for sure.”
That includes agencies across Missouri as well as Kansas and federal partners.
“We have local, state and federal partners that we’re bringing in to host these events,” Martinez said. “I think it’s not only how large, how global the event is, but also the span — from start to finish of the tournament is 39 days. You start talking about resource fatigue and all of that, and just making sure that we’re taking care of our own members during all of that.”
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