KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — More than 30 years ago, Lamar Hunt and his son Clark stood on the field inside Arrowhead Stadium trying to pitch FIFA on the possibility of hosting an NFL stadium. world cup A game hosted by the United States in the summer of 1994.
Their marketing in 1990 didn’t go well. At least it took a long time to see results.
But now that the Kansas City Chiefs have spent millions of dollars renovating their 53-year-old stadium to match the field dimensions required by soccer’s world governing body, the Hunt family’s dream is about to become a reality. Their stadium will host six pool games starting next month, as well as Round of 32 matches and the World Cup quarter-finals.
“Clark was keen to really live up to that legacy; kansas city and arrowhead stadium Especially to host a World Cup game,” Chiefs Executive Vice President of Operations and Events Matt Kenney said Monday during a tour of the stadium.
The first match at Arrowhead Stadium will be held on June 16th between defending champions Argentina and Algeria. Next week, Ecuador and Curaçao will play, Tunisia will take on the Netherlands and Algeria will face Austria in a subsequent pool match.
Two knockout games are scheduled for July 3 and July 11, after which Arrowhead Stadium will return to a football stadium.
The Chiefs are scheduled to play their first preseason game in about a month.
All games in the U.S. will be played at the home base of an NFL team, from MetLife Stadium, 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, a completely different era for professional sports, and the concept of hosting soccer games was never even thought of.
To accommodate the larger field, several rows of permanent seats were removed from the north sideline, where visiting teams are located on NFL game days, and replaced with modular seating that can be used during football season. These seats were then removed again when Arrowhead Stadium began transitioning into a soccer venue.
For the World Cup, it will be known as Kansas City Stadium.
Perhaps even bigger upgrades were made to the playing surface itself. The Chiefs installed an air system under the field to improve the quality of the Bermuda grass pitch, which was resurfaced with a differently shaped crown for the World Cup matches.
“FIFA has some basic requirements in terms of playability. FIFA wants consistency in how the ball bounces, and of course the width and size of the pitch throughout the venue,” Kenny said. “It took the best part of a decade from the time of the bid to actually having a match played here, and there was a huge collaboration.”
The work isn’t done yet. Cranes continued working Monday to remove signage and set up fan fests, pavilions and other infrastructure that will consume vast swathes of Arrowhead Stadium’s vast parking lot to avoid conflicts with sponsors, even as Argentina, England, Netherlands and Algeria are expected to call the region home in the coming weeks.
Don’t expect the intense tailgating experience people are used to seeing in Kansas City, either. For the most part Fans will be transported by bus from the satellite parking lot to Arrowhead Stadiumonly a few thousand parking spaces will be available.
“The challenge was really tied to understanding exactly what FIFA needs and what we can do to balance our unique circumstances,” Kenny said. “It is a testament to our planning and the work we have done so far as we will be hosting a quarter-final match.”
___
AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
