KANSAS CITY, Mo. – More than three decades ago, Lamar Hunt and his son Clark stood on the field inside Arrowhead Stadium, trying to pitch FIFA on the prospect that their NFL stadium could play host to World Cup games hosted by the U.S. in the summer of 1994.
Their pitch back in 1990 didn't work. Or at the very least, the results took quite a while to come to fruition.
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But now, after the Kansas City Chiefs poured millions of dollars into altering their 53-year-old stadium so that it could fit the field dimensions required by soccer's global governing body, the dream of the Hunt family is about to become a reality. Their stadium will host six pool-play games beginning next month, along with a round of 32 match and a World Cup quarterfinal.
"Clark has been keen on really living that legacy, finding a way for Kansas City and Arrowhead Stadium specifically to host World Cup matches," Matt Kenny, the Chiefs' executive vice president of operations and events, said Monday during a stadium tour.
The first match at Arrowhead Stadium will feature defending champion Argentina against Algeria on June 16. Ecuador and Curacao will play the following week, while Tunisia will play the Netherlands and Algeria will face Austria later in pool play.
The two knockout games are scheduled for July 3 and July 11, after which Arrowhead Stadium will revert to a football stadium.
The Chiefs expect to play their first preseason game about a month later.
All of the games played in the U.S. will be played in the homes of NFL teams, from MetLife Stadium — the home of the New York Jets and Giants — to Levi's Stadium outside San Francisco and SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles. But what makes Arrowhead Stadium unique is that it was built in 1972, in a much different era for professional sports, and the notion of hosting soccer matches was never a thought.
To accommodate the larger field, several rows of permanent seats were removed from the north sideline, which is where the visiting team is on NFL game days, and replaced with modular seating for use during the football season. Those seats were then removed again when Arrowhead Stadium began to transition into a soccer venue.
For World Cup purposes, it will be known as Kansas City Stadium.
Perhaps an even bigger upgrade came to the playing surface itself. The Chiefs installed an air system beneath the field to help with the quality of the Bermuda grass pitch, which was re-sodded with a different shape crown for the World Cup matches.
“FIFA has some basic requirements in respect to playability. They want consistency with the way the ball bounces. Obviously, the width and the size of the pitch across venues,” Kenny said. “It's been the better part of 10 years from the bid to actually executing the matches here, and it's been a massive collaboration.”
The work is not quite done. Even with teams due to arrive in only a few weeks — Argentina, England, the Netherlands and Algeria will be based in the area — cranes were still working Monday to remove signage to avoid sponsorship conflicts, and putting up the fanfest, pavilions and other infrastructure that will consume vast areas of Arrowhead Stadium's expansive parking lots.
Don't expect the kind of robust tailgating experience folks are accustomed to seeing in Kansas City, either. The majority of fans will be bussed into Arrowhead Stadiums from satellite parking areas, and only a few thousand parking spots will be made available.
“The challenges were really tied to us understanding exactly what FIFA needed, what we could do to balance our unique situation,” Kenny said. “We're hosting a quarterfinal match, so that's a testament to our planning and the work that's been done.”
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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup