With Kansas City set to host six FIFA World Cup matches in summer 2026, leaders across KU, Lawrence and Douglas County are preparing for an unprecedented influx of visitors—and a rare chance to showcase Mount Oread and River City on a massive international stage.
Thanks to his lifelong passion for soccer, Lamar Hunt, founder of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, in the early 1970s designed Arrowhead Stadium with field dimensions suitable for international soccer. FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, rewarded that foresight by awarding Kansas City four group-stage matches (June 16, 20, 25 and 27), a round-of-32 match (July 3) and—shocking the soccer world—a prestigious quarterfinal (July 11).
Over the tournament’s six weeks, regional planners estimate 650,000 visitors will travel through the Kansas City area, filling hotels and restaurants within a 150-mile radius. Just 35 minutes distant, Lawrence is certain to feel an impact every day of the tournament; KU and city officials hope to boost that even further by hosting an international team’s base camp, with training at Rock Chalk Park and hotel rooms and meals at The Oread Lawrence, directly north of KU Alumni’s headquarters at the Jayhawk Welcome Center.
Deputy Athletics Director Jason Booker, d’99, says Rock Chalk Park, which opened in 2014 as the home to KU soccer, softball and track and field, offers amenities attractive to international soccer clubs, including a pristine field newly resodded last summer, multiple locker rooms, training areas, coaches’ offices and the track field that could fill in as a secondary practice pitch. “It may not have been built for this moment,” Booker says, “but it’s perfectly suited for it.”
Five national teams have already toured Rock Chalk Park, and reviews are glowing. “They’ve been blown away,” Booker says. “It’s secluded, secure, and it checks all the boxes.” Also impressing the visitors, Booker says, are Kansas Athletics’ supplemental services—medical, training, logistics, even laundry—drawn from its experience supporting 16 varsity sports programs.
“This can be a huge boost for the local economy,” Booker says. “Yes, there’ll be some inconveniences, for sure, but we’re going to be part of something that everybody will remember. We’re putting Kansas, and the University, on a global stage.”
Lawrence’s base-camp bid aligns with those from KC’s professional soccer franchises, Sporting Kansas City and the Kansas City Current, creating the possibility that three national teams could train within a 45-minute radius. “That’s incredible,” Booker says. “You’d have six matches next door and three international squads based in the region.”
The Dec. 5 World Cup draw will determine which teams qualify and where they’ll play, and Booker says he’s been told to prepare for a rush of site visits for a month afterward. “Teams rank their preferred camps based on FIFA standings,” he says. “Some want to be off the beaten path, and Lawrence offers that balance—quiet but connected.”
The city, county and University more than a year ago renewed the unified command structure first created in response to COVID-19. The top steering committee—which includes Chancellor Doug Girod, city and county administrators, and Lawrence Chamber of Commerce leadership—guides the efforts of numerous working groups, including safety and security, transportation, economic development, housing, and culture and events. KU International Affairs, led by Associate Vice Provost Megan Greene, is conducting “Culture 101” awareness training across the enterprise.
“Even if we’re not a base camp, we’ll see significant spillover from Kansas City,” says Tricia Bergman, associate vice chancellor for economic development. “When Taylor Swift was in Kansas City, Lawrence hotels were booked full for a week. Multiply that by five—that’s the level of activity we expect.”
The local task force Lawrence 2026 is hustling to get the word out about what’s to come so businesses and citizens are not caught off guard. Ruth DeWitt, director of community affairs for Explore Lawrence, notes that all businesses—but especially hotels and restaurants—should ensure their websites are updated. (DeWitt says that with a brief bit of online research, she found one local hotel that advertised itself as a short drive from the Schlitterbahn—a Kansas City, Kansas, water park that closed in 2018.)
DeWitt also urges restaurants to consider trimming their menus and begin planning for two months of high-volume sales. Explore Lawrence is ready to provide help in the logistics required to hire and train an influx of hospitality employees, including navigating legal and ethical considerations arising from the long and late shifts sure to come, and all businesses need to be ready to adapt should Lawrence host a team, for instance, from a country where eating late dinners is customary.
“It’s about being welcoming and responsible hosts,” Bergman says. “We want visitors to feel at home, and we want to highlight the wonderful things available in Lawrence and Douglas County.”
Regardless of the details, the pace—and stress—will be high, and officials hope Lawrencians will find extra measures of grace when facing weeks of visitors descending upon the city.
“It’s one thing to get through a graduation weekend. It’s another thing to do that for six weeks in a row,” DeWitt says. “I always hear two sorts of reactions. People are either like, ‘I am out of here!’ or it’s, ‘Put me in the mix!’ It’s just absolutely night and day.”
If Lawrence is selected as a base camp, plans call for a national team’s entire entourage to stay at The Oread Lawrence, which would be fully booked for the delegation. Daily practices would take place at Rock Chalk Park, on the western edge of town, with team charter flights in and out of nearby Forbes Field in Topeka. “Our proximity to everything—Kansas City, the airports, KU’s resources—is a huge advantage,” DeWitt says.
For KU’s Booker, who has logged four hectic years helping prepare Rock Chalk Park and the entire Kansas Athletics enterprise for site visits, the conclusion feels tantalizingly close, yet remains so far away.
“Kansas City will be hosting six Super Bowls next door. It’s hard to grasp the magnitude of that, but I think we and all of our partners are as organized and prepared as we can be,” Booker says. “Now we’re just ready to find out who’s coming. I get asked about it five, six, seven times a week, and that’s been going on for two years. I always say, ‘We won’t know until January 2026,’ and now that’s almost here. When you plan for something this long, you kind of just want it to get here.”
Booker pauses, then adds with a chuckle, “Be careful of what you wish for, though.”
Chris Lazzarino, j’86, is associate editor of Crimson & Blue.
