Kansas City commits to $50m in World Cup stadium upgrades, to be paid for by Not Me

One of the cities that won the right to host 2026 World Cup games in exchange for agreeing to upgrade its stadium is Kansas City, where the Chiefs‘ stadium will need $50 million in work, according to Mayor Quinton Lucas, including raising and widening the field to meet FIFA standards for soccer, which is an entirely different sport from American football with different field dimensions, who’da thunk it. And who’ll pay for that renovation work?

“Look for an ask to the state on that in addition to private fundraising to fund that step,” tweeted Lucas.

Private fundraising? What private interests would want to pay for stadium renovations that they wouldn’t benefit from? Fox4 TV, you have something?

The source of that “private fundraising” is unknown at present.

Other Kansas City area officials, meanwhile, mostly did that thing where you turn your pants pockets inside out to show how broke you are. Jim Rowland, executive director of the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority, which owns the stadium, told Fox4 in an email, “The Authority would have no source of funds”; when asked Tuesday by an authority board member who then would pay for improvements, Rowland said, “Great question. Call Kathy Nelson of the Kansas City Sports Commission,” a local nonprofit that promotes sports in the city. Nelson declined to answer questions yesterday.

That would seem to leave the state, which already exempted 2026 World Cup tickets from state sales taxes in an attempt to land some matches. (Nobody seems to have calculated how much of a cost this will be to the state, but with 76,000 seats and at least four matches, and tickets averaging at least $100 each, and a sales tax rate of 4.225%, we can guesstimate it’s around $1 million.)

And if the state says no? Who actually committed to this $50 million (estimated) in upgrades? In the World Cup bid book, it’s host cities that promise to be able to accommodate FIFA’s demands, so presumably the buck would stop on Mayor Lucas’s desk, but nobody’s saying at present.

All this is also taking place against a backdrop of Chiefs owner Clark Hunt wanting a new stadium, maybe, or maybe renovations to his current one for football, not soccer. Team president Mark Donovan told reporters last week that investing “tens and tens of millions” of dollars into this has to “factor into those discussions and that decision” about the stadium’s future, which … no, I have no idea what that means, either. Here, enjoy some renderings of fireworks, that oughta cheer you up, or at least distract you for long enough that you forget what question you asked.

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13 comments on “Kansas City commits to $50m in World Cup stadium upgrades, to be paid for by Not Me

  1. If I were FIFA, I would have chosen M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore/DC instead of Arrowhead Stadium.

    1. If you were FIFA, you would have chosen whichever city applied the most grease to your palm then figured out the details later.

  2. Raising the field level seems like a new demand. Most of the new NFL stadiums (but not SoFi) were built wider, with international soccer in mind, but all of them have submerged fields (to see over NFL sideline debris). Arrowhead is the only older stadium in the mix.

  3. Love how it’s the US v Brazil in the rendering.

    I find it interesting that there is a soccer-specific stadium in KC, but they weren’t included in the bid, arrowhead was.

    And likewise, Orlando’s (failed) bid was for camping world stadium, not the soccer specific one.

    Because by all means go to the larger(?) stadium that requires money to be invested, rather than using the pitch that was literally made for that purpose.

    1. The soccer-specific stadiums in KC and Orlando were entirely too small to be viable World Cup venues, with zero possibility for even a temporary expansion (a la Toronto). And the Citrus Bowl is so much of a pit that the NFL deemed it unfit to continue as a *Pro Bowl* site. Seriously, stop and think about that one for a minute.

      1. Of course that’s the reason.

        I was being mildly sarcastic about the whole situation.

        It’s remarkable how this all works. To quote tom cruise “show me the money!”

  4. Yes, it’s all falling into place for one of America’s richer dynastic wealth families… Stick the public with the bill for “upgrading” Arrowhead for the world cup, then point out that the upgrades actually make it worse for it’s primary purpose… and voila, that new stadium cash ball just starts rolling down the hill all by itself (ok, with quite a lot of help but still).

    I mean, what’s the point of being a billionaire if you can’t stick bank tellers, restaurant workers and retail staffers with the cost of your toys?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_Oil_Company

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Hunt

  5. Private fundraising and private funding are not the same thing.

    Ask any lobbyist paid by a private corporation to lobby a government entity to provide funding for something that benefits the private corporation (and generally no-one else).

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