Sports teams celebrate World Cup coming to Kansas City

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The celebration kicked into high gear when Kansas City was named one of the sites for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Soccer Thursday evening at KC Live in the Power & Light District. The list of United States cities that will play host to FIFA World Cup games in 2026 includes Kansas City, the world’s soccer governing body announced on Thursday. Kansas City is one of the U.S. cities awarded games for the global event that will be co-hosted with Mexico and Canada.

Rich Sugg

rsugg@kcstar.com

While the real party will begin four years from now when Kansas City takes center stage among the world’s sports fans, Thursday was a day to celebrate.

FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, announced Thursday that Kansas City would be one of the host cities for the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Sports teams, politicians, former athletes and others reveled in the news as they posted messages on Twitter.

Here is a sample of what was said.

The Royals shared this:

Mayor Quinton Lucas was fired up:

Kansas City, you are a World Cup City!

— Mayor Q (@QuintonLucasKC) June 16, 2022

Former Sporting Kansas City forward Kei Kamara tweeted this:

Kansas City
host city
World Cup 2026
So awesome
️️#WC2026

— KEI KAMARA (@keikamara) June 16, 2022

Former Sporting defensive star Jimmy Conrad had campaigned for KC in the past.

The Kansas City Current shared a fun meme:

Sporting Kansas City tweeted this:

Kansas City changed its Twitter profile picture:

The city of Overland Park was excited:

Here is what the Chiefs tweeted:

Missouri Gov. Mike Parsons called Kansas City a winner:

Sporting KC co-owner Robb Heinemann tweeted this:

Congratulations Kansas City … This is so far from mini ponnies as ticket bait at Arrowhead in 2007. Thank you for being so amazing. We can’t wait to partner w all of u to make our city the greatest world cup city ever. You are so strong. #kcworldcup2026

— Robb Heineman (@RobbHeineman) June 16, 2022