England, Kansas City and Taylor Swift: Why FA chose midwest as World Cup base
England have picked Kansas City as their home from home at the 2026 World Cup, along with three other teams, despite not having any games there. So why has the Taylor Swift-linked midwest become “base camp capital”?
Kansas City’s recent contribution to sports discourse has been dominated by the Chiefs’ three Super Bowl wins in five years and star tight end Travis Kelce’s romance with Taylor Swift, but locals hope the World Cup is about to change all that.
That’s because no fewer than four teams have chosen Missouri’s largest municipality as their base for the tournament – including England, despite having no fixtures scheduled to take place at the city’s Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Chiefs.
The Football Association identified Kansas City as its preferred World Cup HQ early on in its preparations, not least because its geographical location makes it well placed for reaching any game in the US, Canada or Mexico.
“There were really three things. The first was the location, obviously,” says Pam Kramer, CEO of KC2026, the local organising committee.
“The second was the facilities that we have here, and the investment that’s been made in soccer-specific infrastructure. None of that was made for the World Cup. It already existed.
“The third was really the experience, and I think they [the FA] did feel at home and that we were a partner in helping them compete for the World Cup. And that’s something we’re familiar with, competing for championships.”
Where England will live and train during World Cup
Kansas City is proud of being the “base camp capital” for this World Cup, Kramer says, with Argentina, the Netherlands and Algeria also setting up shop in the smallest of the 16 host cities, which is famed for its fountains, parks and barbecued meats.
That has also meant competition for facilities, however, and Argentina bagged the best – Sporting Kansas City’s performance centre – so England are training at Swope Soccer Village, a nine-pitch complex which is usually a base for the MLS franchise’s second team.
They will train in Kansas City between matches, only flying to Dallas on Tuesday for last night’s Group L opener against Croatia.
The FA has taken over The Inn at Meadowbrook – just across the state border in Missouri – to house England, booking all 54 rooms at the four-star hotel, having favoured a “home from home” set-up rather than relocating fixture by fixture every four or five days.
That homely feel will be accentuated by traditional midwest hospitality, says Kramer: “One thing we talk a lot about is being distinctly Kansas City. We’re not trying to be any other place. We’re a very welcoming, warm city.
“I think the hospitality that we express in the way people feel welcome and like they belong here is often surprising to people. Before you leave the airport, chances are people will talk to you and say hello. We want people to feel at home here.”
Kansas City’s $100m gamble
Kansas City’s World Cup efforts have extended far beyond hosting four national teams. The Arrowhead is staging six games, while the local committee has spent more than $100m on preparations.
They include recruiting 3,000 volunteers, leasing 223 buses to ferry fans to and from games, the airport and a free fan festival. The fan fest has been designed by Wembley architects Populous to house up to 25,000 supporters.
“It is not an inexpensive idea to host the World Cup. But we also know that the opportunity for us is pretty extraordinary,” says Kramer.
For Kansas City, it is a calculated gamble – heavily subsidised by public and private funding – on attracting visitors and business to an area that lacks the profile of some tournament host cities such as New York, LA, San Francisco, Miami, Seattle, Toronto and Mexico City.
“If people know us, it’s probably because of our sports teams, or Taylor-Travis, but there’s so much more to us,” adds Kramer.
“I think using sport as the platform to tell the story of Kansas City as a great place – not only to visit but to live, to invest, to start a business, to locate a second headquarters – we think there’s a real chance there.
“We’ve said for a long time, if we could just get people here, they would see what we know. That certainly was the case with the FA and other teams and now, we hope, the world.”
