World Cup 2026 stadium guides: Kansas City Stadium – home of the loudest sports crowd in history

This article is part of our World Cup Stadium Guides series, in which we look at the 16 venues that will host matches at the 2026 tournament.

Amid the high-tech excess and luxury of modern NFL stadiums, nestled in Middle America and potentially on its last legs, Arrowhead Stadium stands tall and proud as an old-school sporting gem in Kansas City, Missouri.

It will never host a Super Bowl. It has no translucent roof, no 11,000-square-foot video board, swimming pool, or rooftop farm.

But for decades, and especially recently, it has been a fortress for the Kansas City Chiefs. Its best quality is its noise. During a Monday night game against the New England Patriots in September 2014, it housed the loudest outdoor sports crowd (142.2 decibels) in recorded history. It has become a stadium that makes opponents cower in fear.

In other words, among the 11 venues for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Arrowhead is the closest you will come to a European or South American soccer cathedral. Just don’t ask about the public transport.

What’s it known as normally? 

Colloquially, it’s Arrowhead Stadium.

Officially, it’s been “GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium” since 2021, when the Government Employees Health Association bought its naming rights. But everyone calls it “Arrowhead”.

Arrowhead was the name chosen long ago by Chiefs franchise founder Lamar Hunt, seemingly as a nod to the team’s Native American-inspired nickname and imagery, which has become controversial over the past two decades.

What will it be called for the World Cup?

Kansas City Stadium. Boring.

When was the stadium opened, how much did it cost, and who plays there normally? 

Built in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Arrowhead is the oldest of the United States’ 11 venues for this World Cup. The NFL’s Chiefs have played there and operated the stadium since it opened in 1972.

Back then, it cost $43million to build — or about $370m (£277m) in 2026 dollars. A renovation in the late 2000s cost more, but this is still among the cheaper NFL stadiums.

It also hosts the occasional college football game and housed the Kansas City Wizards (the Major League Soccer club now called Sporting Kansas City) until 2007. But nowadays it rarely hosts soccer — unless a Copa América or Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami come to town. This World Cup will be by far the grandest event in the stadium’s history.

What are the most famous moments that have happened there?

It’s not a single moment, but from 2019 to 2023, Arrowhead became the first stadium to host five consecutive NFL conference championship games (effectively the semi-finals to decide which teams contest the Super Bowl). Two years later, it became the first to stage six of them in seven years.

The Chiefs won four of those six, en route to three Super Bowl titles. That, more than anything else, will be Arrowhead’s legacy.

How many fans can the stadium hold? And will it be at full capacity for the World Cup?

Although capacity is sometimes listed as more than 76,000, the Chiefs say it holds closer to 73,000 for their games. It used to seat more than 80,000, with a record crowd of 82,094 fans cramming in one day in November 1972, during its first season — but that was before various renovations.

For the World Cup, like all NFL stadiums being used for the tournament, its capacity will be lower — FIFA currently lists it as holding 67,513. A few thousand seats are being taken out to widen the field area, as soccer pitches are broader than NFL ones; others will be eaten up by broadcast and other media allocations.

What kind of pitch does it have? Has it had to change for the World Cup? If so, what have they done?

Natural Bermuda grass. But, like all NFL stadiums hosting World Cup games, a specialized “hybrid” natural grass will be installed for FIFA matches, which is slightly different from the surface it maintains for NFL games.

What are normal temperatures there in June/July and will fans be sheltered at its games? 

Kansas City’s summers get hot. More often than not over the past 10 years, on the dates of Arrowhead’s six World Cup matches this June and July, temperatures have topped 90F (32C), according to Weather Underground data compiled by The Athletic.

And no, there is no roof. There is no shade at all, really, neither in nor around the stadium. That’s why FIFA has scheduled all of Kansas City’s games to kick off after 6pm local time.

Are they changing anything else for the World Cup?

Over the past two NFL offseasons, Arrowhead underwent significant construction to prepare for the tournament.

In 2024, workers knocked out concrete to build a new utility room underneath the stadium’s lower bowl of seating — this will serve a “SubAir” system that will help aerate the pitch, just like at other World Cup stadiums.

Then, in 2025, they cut away more concrete underneath about 10 rows of seats along the field’s north sideline. More than 3,000 seats were taken out and placed on dismountable bleachers. Those were then reinstalled for the most recent NFL season, but will be removed for the World Cup to accommodate a wider soccer field — plus the surrounding space that FIFA and its broadcast partners require for cameras and other operations or activations.

As a result, the World Cup pitch will be slightly off-center, at least compared to the NFL one at Arrowhead. No seats were taken out on the south sideline because there is a tunnel underneath those stands, and a stairway up the field that could not be removed. As a result, the World Cup pitch will be slightly off-center, at least compared to the NFL field at Arrowhead. It will not affect matches, but it might look slightly odd from above.

How do I get there?

It’s complicated.

Beyond one standard bus route — the 47 Broadway line — no public transportation serves the stadium. There are around 20,000 parking spaces surrounding it, as many Chiefs fans typically drive to their games. But only around 4,000 of those will be available to supporters throughout the World Cup, according to Lindsey Douglas, the chief operating officer of Kansas City’s World Cup host committee. The rest will be inside security perimeters or blocked off for other purposes.

So, Kansas City has rented hundreds of buses ahead of the tournament, and will provide a “park-and-ride” service, with shuttles running to Arrowhead from five locations in the region — including the city’s downtown World Cup 'Fan Fest' location on the National WWI Museum and Memorial’s south lawn.

If you don't have a car and can’t get to one of those shuttles, your best bet is a rideshare app such as Lyft or Uber.

What can fans expect at the stadium?

Typically, they’d see tailgating — when U.S. fans park up outside a stadium and share food and drink with each other well in advance of the day's game. But with most of Arrowhead's parking lots being closed off during the World Cup, it’s unclear how much of that will be possible or permitted.

As for inside the stadium, there are multiple barbecue and burger joints scattered around the concourses. It’s unclear if FIFA will stick with this local fare or bring in its own food and beverage vendors.

Is there anything else we should know about this stadium?

The Chiefs recently announced they plan to move out of Arrowhead, to a new domed stadium across the nearby state border on neighbouring Kansas' side of the Kansas City metropolitan area, in 2031.

That has left local government officials in its home of Jackson County, Missouri, sorting through potential plans for the site from 2031 onwards.

Which games are being played there?

• June 16: Group J — Argentina vs Algeria; 8pm local time, 2am BST
• June 20: Group E — Ecuador vs Curacao; 7pm local time, 1am BST
• June 25: Group F — Tunisia vs Netherlands; 6pm local time, 12am BST
• June 27: Group J — Algeria vs Austria; 9pm local time, 3am BST
• July 3: Round of 32 (Match 87); 8.30pm local time, 2.30am BST
• July 11: Quarterfinal (Match 100; 8pm local time, 2am BST

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