"To have games in his favorite place on earth, Arrowhead Stadium, will be very, very meaningful for me and my family." Clark Hunt said that quietly, and it lands harder than any press conference boast could.
Kansas City is hosting six matches at the 2026 FIFA World Cup — including a quarterfinal — and for the Hunt family, this is personal in a way that no economic impact figure can capture. The projected $600 million boost to the city is real. But so is the grief sitting alongside the celebration.
Lamar Hunt, who died in 2006, spent decades trying to make this happen. He pitched Arrowhead to FIFA officials ahead of the 1994 World Cup and got nowhere. His son Clark watched that rejection. Now Clark is the one who got Kansas City over the line — and his father won't be there to see it.
The man who built American soccer
Lamar Hunt's fingerprints are on every corner of American football and soccer. He coined the term "Super Bowl." He co-founded the AFL. He helped establish the United Soccer Association in 1967, then became a founding investor in Major League Soccer in the early 1990s — a league that only exists because FIFA demanded a top-tier professional competition as a condition of awarding the US the 1994 World Cup.
Clark called his father perhaps the "single most important figure in the development of soccer in the United States." That's a big claim. It's also hard to argue with. The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup carries his name for a reason. So does his plaque in the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
Clark's own love for the sport traces back to childhood summers spent travelling to World Cups with his dad. The defining image isn't a final or a trophy — it's a moment at the 1974 World Cup in Germany, where Lamar spotted a makeshift football setup in the street and encouraged a young Clark to join in. They ended up kicking a ball together into a makeshift goal. Clark saw something in his father that day — a joy for the game that ran deeper than any business interest.
Kansas City's unlikely place on the world stage
Of the 16 host cities for 2026, Kansas City is the smallest market. FIFA chose it anyway. Clark credits Arrowhead's track record of hosting major events, the city's existing soccer infrastructure — Sporting Kansas City and the Kansas City Current both operate world-class training facilities — and years of groundwork that quietly made the case.
The quarterfinal assignment alone puts Kansas City on a short list of cities that will matter most when the tournament reaches its decisive stage. Betting markets on match outcomes and city-specific attendance records will make Arrowhead one of the most-watched venues of the entire competition.
Clark already knows exactly what he'll be thinking about when the first whistle blows. "I'll stand up there with my siblings, and we'll talk a lot about my dad... how much he would have been thrilled to know that Kansas City finally got a World Cup."
Lamar Hunt tried to make this happen in 1994. It took another 32 years. He didn't get to see it — but the stadium he loved is finally getting its World Cup.
