The Dutch, donning orange and hopping with happy feet, turned the streets of Kansas City into an undulating conga line. The Argentines like to sing before late-night burgers at Winstead\u2019s, a city landmark. The English? On social media, they name-check cherished taverns \u2014 the Peanut and Johnnie\u2019s on Seventh \u2014 like natives.<\/p>\n
Over the past month, the world\u2019s soccer fans have taken to Kansas City, the smallest American host of these World Cup games, succumbing to the charms of its Midwesterners, its artisan barbecue and its long, but largely overlooked, history with the \u201cbeautiful game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not since the 1920s, when Kansas City was the \u201cParis of the Plains\u201d because it was still a place that served alcohol during Prohibition, has it stood shoulder to shoulder with New York and Los Angeles, local boosters say.<\/p>\n
\u201cKansas City is now in the same conversation as some of these other cities when it comes to tourism and meetings and conventions,\u201d said Kathy Nelson, the chief executive of the Visit KC tourism and convention board and the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission & Foundation. \u201cWe may not be in the top 10 population-wise, but we have the right people and the right infrastructure here to make big events happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, 344,135 spectators, or an average of nearly 69,000 per match, have filled the stadium here, and Kansas City\u2019s FIFA Fan Festival has welcomed 310,000 people from over 150 countries, led by Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina, according to Visit KC. Through the first 92 matches, Kansas City led all U.S. markets in Fox\u2019s World Cup ratings with a 18 share, which means 18 percent of all local televisions turned on at the time of a World Cup game were tuned in to the tournament<\/p>\n
Kansas City offered the national teams not only a welcoming and devoted fan base, but also state-of-the-art practice facilities used by the city\u2019s Major League Soccer team, Sporting Kansas City and its National Women\u2019s Soccer League team, the Kansas City Current.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Kansas City will host the quarterfinal match between Argentina and Switzerland.<\/p>\n
It has been expensive and, at times, a fraught endeavor: The States of Kansas and Missouri, along with the city, spent nearly $100 million just to build a bus system<\/a> that stops running after the tournament. And in the preceding months, the American Hotel & Lodging Association issued a report<\/a> saying 85 to 90 percent of Kansas City hotels had lower-than-expected World Cup bookings. Once the games began, though, the rooms filled up, hoteliers said.<\/p>\n The seed for this moment was planted more than six decades ago when Lamar Hunt, one of Kansas City\u2019s most influential businessmen, became smitten with soccer after watching a match in Dublin. Mr. Hunt, who owned the Kansas City Chiefs, became enthralled by the pageantry and passion of the fans, especially during World Cup tournaments.<\/p>\n In 1994, he was instrumental in luring the World Cup to the United States for the first time, but was disappointed that he couldn\u2019t persuade FIFA, the sport\u2019s global governing body, to bring the tournament to Arrowhead Stadium, where the Chiefs play.<\/p>\n Mr. Hunt may be best known as the team owner who named the National Football League\u2019s championship game the Super Bowl. But he also laid the foundation for professional American soccer, co-founding the North American Soccer League in 1968 and Major League Soccer in 1996.<\/p>\n