KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City World Cup 2026 organizers outlined transportation improvements on Friday they hope will help fans get to Saturday’s match between Curaçao and Ecuador at Kansas City Stadium.
Officials with FIFA and KC2026, the local World Cup organizing committee, met throughout this week to work on improvements and discuss lessons learned following the city’s first World Cup match Tuesday between Argentina and Algeria.
“The place we are most focused on is transportation,” KC2026 CEO Pam Kramer said in a news conference Friday from FIFA Fan Fest Kansas City at the National World War I Museum and Memorial.
Kramer outlined several changes that will be implemented ahead of Saturday's match.
- Working with ride-share partners to only drop fans off at Lot O.
- For those fans with parking passes, increased emphasis on how those fans should enter, where they should enter, and empowering parking lot staff to help fans get where they need to go.
- Stadium Direct buses will leave as soon as they have access to the gates
- Traffic control coordination will begin 90 minutes earlier than the previous match
- Improve way-finding signage at the stadium.
- Improve visibility with Google Maps and other services.
Kramer said that, in addition to beefing up Stadium Direct service from Fan Fest, fans at Fan Fest heading to the match can take the KC Streetcar to the Country Club Plaza Stadium Direct stop.
"We're doing so much right, and we'll get this right too," Kramer said.
LINK | Transportation information from Connect KC26
Kramer said the Stadium Direct bus service transported 19,000 fans to the stadium on Tuesday night. She said 98 percent of fans were in their seats by kickoff.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
