Sessions, good to see everybody.

I'm uh Quent Lucas, I guess the chair of this business session.

Our first item is approval of minutes of business session of uh October 2nd.

Oh, let's just say it this way.

Is there a motion to approve the business session minutes for the previous business session?

So moved.

We're moving second.

All in favor indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Motion passes.

Our first item today.

We are excited.

World Cup 2026, KC 2026.

Whoever wants to talk to us.

The Queen of Cole County, Pam Kramer.

I prefer Princess, but thank you, Mayor and Council, for having us.

I'm Pam Kramer.

I'm the CEO of KC 2026.

Lindsay Douglas is our chief operating officer.

So just a few slides, and really we want to leave time for questions that you have.

Happy to provide updates on topics that may be of interest to you.

So I won't spend a lot of time on this slide.

You've all seen it.

Just a recap of where we've been.

The city, of course, uh signed the original contract and guarantee to FIFA.

That contract was novated to us.

We have a funding agreement with the city.

And once that novation happened, we signed the host city rights agreement, which allowed us to go out and sell sponsorships.

So a quick overview of the some of the core requirements.

Safety and security, there are 18 uh areas of planning.

We are coordinating with federal government, state government, local.

I think 32 exercises have taken place.

We have an RFP in the market right now for World Cup specific exercises.

So you'll see more about that coming soon.

Transportation, we're thinking about in two ways.

One is that required transportation.

So to and from fan festival to and from the matches, airport to downtown, but also working with partners to create a regional connectivity system for the length of the World Cup.

The fan experience, the fan festival, human rights and sustainability, really focused on economic impact and making sure we're engaging local and small business.

I'll share a little bit more about that in a minute.

And then those facilities and venues, the stadium, the team based camp, the venue specific training sites.

So you may have seen a few weeks ago, we have launched KC Game Plan, which is our small business engagement readiness program.

So it is uh it was more than a hundred um entrepreneur support organizations and agencies helped us create this program.

Some of the key uh available now items are all of our sourcing events, $15,000 and above are competitively sourced and advertised.

That's really where small business plays.

Um there's a readiness assessment that small businesses can complete on our website right now.

More than 200 uh businesses have already completed that assessment.

There is um training calendar and additional resources available.

We are getting ready to launch our small business playbook.

Um, and then we are working on some visitor forecast heat maps so that small businesses can help we can help small businesses understand where people will be, how they might be moving, um, what kinds of activities they'll be looking for.

And then post-final draw, um, we will be sharing based on what teams are playing here and what teams are base camp tier, cultural insights.

So if there are um cultures that don't tip as an example, that would be information that restaurants would want to have so that they can build that into their planning.

And we're working with the Mid-America Regional Council on a community events calendar.

So uh events that are registered on that calendar will be promoted on our website and in the our component of the FIFA app, um, the official app for the tournament, which includes the ticket, so really sticky.

We want to make sure that we're represented in that.

So Lindsay and her team are leading that.

So, as I mentioned, more than 200 businesses have completed those assessments.

More than 2,000 have completed our business interest form.

That form uh is not only used for our procurement, but we share that with other event organizers.

So if um you know Lee Summit is having some sort of uh event, we share the food truck list if they're looking for food trucks so that those businesses are connected to opportunity.

Um you can see some of the media exposure, and then Meta has agreed to host the first digital marketing workshop for small business, so helping them think about how to optimize their website and mobile presence so that they are findable uh on mobile.

So a quick look at the financial picture.

You see the sources and uses there.

Um the city is about 8% of our funding.

Uh private funding is about 16 percent.

We are 85 percent uh complete on private fund fundraising.

We've done a tremendous job.

The team has over the last six months of making great progress.

We have announced two host city supporters.

We have five more that are in contract stage.

So if you'll recall, we are only we're we're capped at 10.

So feel very good about the work that's being done there.

The federal funding is solely for safety and security.

So that is primarily personnel and workforce cost for safety and security.

We're still waiting on the NOFO for that funding.

And then uses the safety and security for federal funding is pretty much a one-for-one.

Transportation is the second highest category.

And then the fan festival, and if you're recall part of our agreement, is that the only official FIFA fan festival must be in Kansas City, Missouri.

So it's a significant cost driver, but it is going to be, I think, the best fan festival of any of the 16 host cities.

You all should have an invitation, by the way, to a press conference next week where we will be revealing the renders for that fan festival.

So what comes next?

As I said, the the fan fest render reveal next week at the World War One Museum and Memorial.

Our volunteer center will open in late November.

We had more than 16,000 people fill out volunteer applications.

So very pleased with the response there.

And then I wanted to take a few minutes and talk about the final draw because I think there is a little bit of confusion about what will happen on December 5th.

So on December 5th in Washington, DC, FIFA will place the 48 teams into 12 groups of four.

On December 5th, we will not know immediately which teams are playing here.

We will only know which teams are in which groups.

FIFA will take the groups, they'll look at the schedule based on broadcast times, travel, lots of components.

They then will do match fixtures and schedule.

So we don't know if that will be a day or two days, but pretty shortly thereafter we will know the actual match schedule.

By the end of January, the teams and venues will know where base camps will be located.

That will not be announced publicly until April.

So just for clarity, the groups that you see outlined in blue there are the groups that will play in Kansas City in the group stage, group E, Group F, and then we have two group J matches.

So that is a very quick update.

Maybe I'll pause and see if there are questions, comments, anything else we can touch on.

Just trying to make sure I understand because it's it's not like March Madness, which I understand and many of us do.

It's even more vexing.

And so if we're trying to read the tea leaves on December 5th, look at EF and J and be like, you could get them.

Right is kind of the idea.

Correct.

And then we'll know.

And what was the date by which you noted that 48 hours or FIFA has told us 24 to 48 hours?

Um the group J, especially.

So we have two matches, so we'll have at least three teams from group J.

So that one, you know, we'll know every team but one, at least we may have all four, depending on how the matches work.

Um and then, you know, looking at the the cities that we share matches with, you also start to get an indication of how FIFA might think about it.

So group J, we share, I think they have one match uh that is in San Francisco.

So from a television scheduling standpoint and where countries of interest would be uh located, that will that will come into play.

Got it.

Other questions on this?

Councilwoman Patterson has.

Hi, thank you.

Um I wanted to know if you had a little bit more information about the um activation sites, the remote activation sites.

Did you have a list?

Uh is there any advice you can give us to help our constituents prepare if they are an activation site, and then I had another follow-up after that.

Do you mean fan activations or transportation?

Okay, so um the only official activation that we have announced is fan festival.

Um we are we are talking to some other partners about um complementary activations, whether that's a concert, whether that's um additional public viewing parties.

We're really encouraging those communities to organize their own activations, and we're seeing that already.

We hosted a community um information session with with there are probably 40 task forces within the region, individual cities, neighborhoods, um, jurisdictions have created their own task forces.

So sharing with those leaders, the public viewing license restrictions, the rules around watch parties, those sorts of things, um, and that will all go into that Mid-America Regional Council calendar.

We would really encourage people to make sure their events are in that calendar so that we are promoting them.

From a budget standpoint, beyond fan festival, we'll be um we may do some smaller activations, but uh fan festival will be the big one.

When you um when you roll out the different information session dates, um, how are those typically communicated?

Are they coming to council offices?

Is that social media?

Do you have a database?

I tend to miss the formal things that you do to educate the public, and I'm trying to not miss any more.

Yes, so we do we do send those to council, we put them in the newsletter.

Um, they are on our website, and we share them with the business interest form list, those 2,000 businesses.

Um, so we try to be and and on social, right?

So we try to be pretty broad in our communication.

Um, we will also start uh beginning next week holding um media briefings twice monthly uh just to make sure we're getting information out in a regular cadence.

Okay, and then just back to the slide where you mentioned um small business training.

If you could go back, yes, this one.

Um small business playbook is coming soon.

Do you primarily push that out to the people that completed the interest form, or will that be just something you can we can even share with anybody?

Yes, we will send.

So what we've done in the past, and you should have all received it.

We create tool kits for uh civic and business leaders to share with their constituents.

Um we'll do one for the the playbook as well, which would include social email uh language, however you want to share that, and then it will be on our website so anyone can download it.

We'll also push it out through.

I think there are 130 chambers and business support organizations that are helping us distribute that as well.

Last question the RFI and the RFP opportunities over $15,000.

Can you say a little bit more about what that is and what that means?

Sure.

So on our website right now, there's a um an area called business opportunities.

Um we post every every uh RFP RFI over $15,000, so it's competitively sourced.

Um we have a very rigorous procurement process.

Um we are very focused on local and small business to make sure that we are engaging and um and providing opportunities to those businesses.

I think we currently have our RFPs posted or RFIs posted for uh crisis communications.

Um trying to remember Lindsay can probably help me.

Inner global media relations, uh security exercises, and I think audit.

Yes, an audit, an auditor.

We will uh after this year, we anticipate needing a single audit.

So uh and we do, by the way, for city funds, we work with the city's CREO uh office to make sure that we're um following your standards there.

Thank you.

Other questions?

Councilman Down.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh, regarding transportation, I am really loud regarding transportation.

How's that plan coming together?

Um, and what does it look like?

We're getting ready to celebrate the opening of the Southern line of the streetcar tomorrow.

Um, so how is that all gonna fold together and what's that what's that plan look like as far as like how our buses, streetcar, and then the dedicated buses for COP.

Yeah, I'm gonna let Lindsay go into the details because she's really uh it's in her purview, but we're thinking about it in two ways.

One is tournament-wide regional connectivity, and the other is match day transportation to the stadium.

So if you want to say a little bit more about that.

Yeah, um, so we have secured the the 200 buses that we will need to kind of operate the service overall.

Um, we may need to go back to get a few more buses, just depending on how our numbers shift on how many people we have to move.

Um, the match day service that Pam mentioned is um about four park and ride locations that we will move people that can come park there or get to a park and ride location and take the bus service directly to the stadium or get to fanfest and travel directly to the stadium.

So that's just those six match days.

Um, in addition to that, beginning at the start of the tournament and ending um a couple of days after our last match, we will be operating a regional connectivity system with 15 different points around the region that will connect to existing transportation uh transit hubs and also points of interest in our region.

Uh, we will run those services either 20 or 30 minute intervals in and out of the fanfest area.

Um, we're working on where exactly that bus mall would be, but those would uh provide direct services in and out from those 15 locations into FanFest and help people that are staying here downtown get out to those locations.

Um, the streetcar is a really essential partner for how people will move in and out of FanFest as well.

Um, and we've been working with their team uh to make sure that if they need to increase capacity, those extensions are going to be critical because we know that there are hospital or excuse me, hotel uh hubs kind of located along that streetcar line.

So that'll be a real key asset for our community to utilize during the tournament.

The streetcar is also looking at uh headways um if they can reduce those, uh run more frequent um service, you know, every minute that they take off a headway, add some capacity for us.

And then we're looking at post final draw, depending on what countries will be here.

Do we need to supplement that line with buses just at peak times perhaps when FanFest is egressing Councilwoman Boo?

Um so kind of along the lines of councilwoman Patterson has those questions.

Um and we talked about in our our meeting recently, a lot of our community improvement districts who oversee or manage a lot of our businesses have asked us questions, especially in Brookside and Waldo, which is slightly removed from where the hub of the activity is gonna be about communications and and when you um the what communications have you been having with them?

So um in addition to the to the formal communications, uh we've made I think 230 presentations to community different community groups, more than 23,000 people in those presentations.

So really making sure that we are out and about and including those community improvement districts.

Um, I think if there are places that you think we are they're saying they're not hearing from us, please let us know.

We're we're happy to connect directly.

I think we will because I I think there they still feel like there's some maybe disconnect on the information that they're receiving and um what kind of those areas that lay outside of the the central zone, what they might expect.

So we will make sure that we're connecting and um any toolkits or information that we can help pass along, um that will be helpful.

You bet.

I think that you know the final draw is such an important.

Yeah, once we know the the match schedule and the teams that are gonna be here and understanding what those fan bases look like, um, you know, what the what the travel patterns are, what their cultures and customs are, um the that small business playbook coming, that is a big uh will be a big resource for them as well.

But absolutely happy to connect directly to anybody we're missing.

If I may, one one thing that will be part of this, and and we didn't spend very much time talking about it, but was the visitor forecast heat maps.

I think that will also help some of those um individual areas of the community to understand kind of what they what the visitor traffic may be to their area.

The other thing I might I might add to that, so one um uh big project that we have underway right now is um aggregating data for the FIFA app to make sure that we are including a broad set of restaurants, um hotels, entertainment, you know, all of the options.

So we want to make sure we're working with the restaurant association with all of the area CBBs with the State Department of Tourism, um, so that thinking about it, yes, from the Metro standpoint, but even broader.

So that will be a key way.

We want those businesses in that app so that when they're you know they get to Kansas City and they're looking for things to do, that we're serving up uh all the options.

Just a follow-up, Ms.

Bear.

So the one of the direct concerns was there's a there's a real sense of FOMO of with these businesses, like they don't want to miss an opportunity.

And I think that there's still some ambiguity and some questions around what is the proprietary use, you know, you know, who can show the matches, you know, who can host, and is it official, is it official um, you know, FIFA watch party or not.

Um and so they they don't still don't seem to understand what are the steps they need to take to be in the best position to seize that moment.

Yep, and that is exactly the information we shared at that uh the gathering of all those task force leaders, but we can absolutely share it with anybody who we miss.

The key is uh there's a public viewing license portal that will open in December.

And we don't yet know what the cost structure looks like.

It depends on if you're if you're commercializing, if you're monetizing it.

Um but we covered use of the FIFA intellectual property, the marks, the words, the logo, um, and and I think we are hearing the same thing, so we have the information we want to make sure people can access it.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Bunch.

Yes, uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I think thanks for being here.

I'm uh uh interested in all of this, but in particular as it relates to neighborhoods immediately around FanFest uh and in the stadiums as well.

Um but what is uh when will we have more information about like the traffic control plan, just so um residents and I know we're still a ways out and and if if we had all that detail right now, everyone would forget it by then.

Um but just understanding what impacts are we're gonna see on neighborhood access and uh and how the public can weigh in on those matters.

So uh right now we are in the midst of um neighborhood outreach around the stadium, and uh I think Lindsay sent uh all of you an overview of of the work that's being done there in I believe late November.

We will start that for the neighborhoods around the FIFA fan festival.

We want to make sure we have input as we're developing those plans and also sharing information back.

Um you want to talk about traffic management the the and the chapel room concert and the learnings and yeah, um we work together with the city, um KCPD, KC Fire Um, and other stakeholders that were able to watch the Chapel Roan um ingress egress, understand traffic flow during that event.

It was the same or very similar footprint to what we'll have for FanFest.

They had a little bit more uh capacity than what we plan to have for FanFest.

Uh and it was it was really great to take away some learnings from from how that worked.

Uh we worked with a streetcar and and we're involved in several after action meetings related to that.

We're wanting to incorporate some of that feedback into kind of the plans as we're developing them, working with city staff on that as well.

Uh we will be making official recommendations on exactly what management needs to occur during FanFest days, and I think there's gonna be a difference between maybe a really, really high traffic fanfest day and maybe a lower traffic fanfest day and having different plans to adjust to the volume of people we anticipate having.

Uh but we're working with all the stakeholders on kind of some draft plans right now, knowing that we're gonna have to test and evolve those as we get into uh early 2026.

It's a it's another way the final draw will inform the planning as well.

Once we know what we're calling the A plus days.

Um June 25th, we have a match here in Kansas City, the U.S.

plays that same day.

We know that will be an A plus day.

Once we know the other A plus days, um, we can start to think about what a what a B day looks like, what a C day looks like, what a closed day at FanFest looks like.

We want to make sure that we're um we're we're not trying to do a one-size-fits-all for every day.

Okay.

Yeah, and I would just add that communication is gonna be key, and I uh so that just want to reiterate the expectation.

So I really appreciate the the any heads up we can get.

Thank you.

Yeah, and we'll we'll share that survey.

Sorry, uh we we'll share that survey similar to what we did with the stadium for around FanFest for the businesses and and residents that live around there, um, so that you guys will know kind of what questions we're asking and what information we're uh providing throughout that communication process.

Thank you.

Councilman Rayo.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um appreciate y'all being here.

Thank you for the update.

Um and I know you'll do a good job at this, but please keep us updated when you do that community engagement with with essentially what are going to be our neighborhood associations um surrounding that area so that we don't hear about something on the back end that someone is upset about, and then we gotta call you because we're angry that you receive the information that way.

Um and I would just encourage you the sooner you can start having those conversations the better, and I'll give an example of why um there are some folks that are going to have to make decisions very soon about what they're currently trying to do.

So, an example is North Point Development is building a big 300 something um uh unit apartment building at Maine and Wyandotte, and Wine Dot being probably the best way into the um Liberty Memorial Mall coming off of um 31st Street or anywhere south, and their construction is not going to be complete by the time the World Cup is here, and they're currently getting permits to you know close off parts of the street so they can do their construction, and they're gonna have to make decisions on how to manage around that very soon, and obviously any requests you have for a traffic plan could impact that.

And so there are some folks that are at some point gonna be making some decisions here pretty soon on how they're completing their projects and doing some other things, and so I've just encourage you to be mindful of that as you start to do community engagement um for especially those folks who've got to make some decisions.

Um and then will you please make sure we are looped in when the small business playbook is available so that we can push it to fourth district businesses.

I I want to make sure everyone in the city is able to make money off this thing, but you know, the vast majority of the businesses that are gonna be most directly impacted along the streetcar line, around FanFest, around Downt, are gonna be folks that we communicate with on a on a regular basis.

Um and on that small business point, uh I'm curious to hear uh the extent to which you all are going to promote Airbnb experiences.

I know Airbnb is now the official partner of FIFA, and I just you know, speaking for for my wife and I, any time we travel, especially out of the country, we discover incredible experiences and places to eat and visit through Airbnb Airbnb experiences.

And I know they have taken um that that part of the platform down for a couple years and it's back now, but I've been pitching that to a lot of our small business owners who have an opportunity to really generate revenue off of something other than just lunch and and you know alcohol sales.

Uh I've been telling all of our Hispanic businesses that you know they should be having tequila tastings and or the making classes and all this stuff that you can put up on an Airbnb experience, but Airbnb experiences rank the experiences based off of feedback, and so if you're not building that feedback prior to the World Cup, you're probably not gonna have much exposure if you don't have a high ranking or a lot of reviews, and so um are you all working with Airbnb specifically through Airbnb experiences to make sure small businesses are able to leverage that part of the platform?

We're working with Airbnb to provide information to potential hosts and people who want to um to uh use their properties to host.

Um they are a sponsor of FIFA, none of that funding comes to us.

So for us, you know, we want to we want to be neutral in promoting one platform over another and their experiences.

I think we will promote all experiences.

We do have some intellectual property um constraints around branding.

Um I don't know if we've talked specifically to them about experiences.

They're working with us, by the way, on our community um presentations.

They're part of the they were part of the the task force presentation.

So um I can find out specifically about the experiences piece and what that looks like.

Because I think especially for for you know some of the businesses that are not located on the streetcar line, maybe in a different part of town, if they're offering a really cool authentic American experience that someone is wanting to go and and you know experience, it's a great way for them to leverage the platform.

I think everyone is thinking of Airbnb in terms of short-term rentals and how how it's used in that way, but we have an incredible opportunity for small businesses through Airbnb experiences to provide something unique.

I think the way we are thinking about it is more from a um uh curated Kansas City experiences.

So if you want a Brookside, if you're staying in an Airbnb close to Brookside, we wouldn't maybe wouldn't say Airbnb, but what what part of town are you staying in?

Here are here's an itinerary for you, right?

You want a day trip.

Here's an itinerary for you.

The app will allow you to check locations, check um, you know, are you looking for music?

Are you looking for food?

Are you looking for Americana?

Um, and and curate your own experience.

Thank you.

Councilman Curls.

I'll I'll yield to Councilwoman French.

She's been trying to get your attention.

And we're just gonna go around.

Um, go around.

Oh, okay.

That's fine.

Um, thank you.

Um and appreciate your presentation.

Uh I'm gonna go back to um Councilman Duncan's point about transportation.

Um I think you mentioned something about having 15 sites or locations throughout the metropolitan area for pickup drop-off so everybody can experience the fan.

Have you identified those locations yet or are those still in the process?

We are very close to being able to announce those.

We've we've been in communication with um the endpoints, the all 15 of those.

I think we have one meeting still to go, um, but we're expecting to announce those locations uh before the end of the year.

So um we're we're really close.

Uh we we just need to coordinate with those different um property owners, one, and then if we're connecting into an existing transit service, uh making sure that they are okay with uh us bringing people to that location, um so coordinating with KCATA and then on the Kansas side, Johnson County Transit.

Um, and I know there's additional conversations about um if there are enhanced services or other services being provided by those transit providers today that would help or continue to move people from those points.

So, how are those locations identified?

And could you without giving the exact location that you're talking about?

Uh uh could you give me maybe a geographical area because I want to make sure that we're looking at South Kansas City as well, Southeast Kansas City.

Oh, absolutely.

Um yes, and we can we can certainly follow up and and share some additional uh information about those locations, but we really looked at a full um geographic distribution north, south, um, and Lawrence being a potential base camp on the Kansas side, looking at helping to move people out there.

So we really wanted those 15 points to really uh serve the whole metropolitan area, but happy to follow up with you on where we're where our list is for for South.

I'd that'd be great because I want to I I my constituents have been asking me about being able to participate, and they are so far south that they were asking me about was there gonna be any possible transportation.

And so I just wanted to make sure that they or at least I have spoken up for them.

Absolutely.

And and and you are at least considering that or somewhere out there.

Yeah, one additional thing.

Um, in addition to just thinking about those 15 points really serving the whole area, we want those to fit in and synchronize with the current transit services that are being provided, um, whether it's uh KCATA or Johnson County, Wyandotte County, we want any existing transit service to fit into this system.

So we're adding um additional direct service, almost like linkages that get them to that broader transit service.

So we want all of that to come together and work together to help people move throughout the region during the tournament, and um and really work seamlessly as best we can to connect to those existing services.

Okay, well, I appreciate if you follow up with me on the okay.

Yep, Councilman French.

So Councilman Curls, you yielded to me and then stole my question.

So I guess on that point, um, I was gonna ask about uh train back to transportation as well in the Northland.

So last we spoke and class DPA we were looking, there was gonna be one transportational hub for the Northland.

Now you're saying there's different like 15 different points.

Do you still envision just one for the Northland out of those 15?

So the again that kind of there's those two different services.

So we we keep trying to define and and separate match day service from that regional connectivity um 15 points service.

So there will be a park and ride location to get people to the stadium on match days, and there will also be northern um points of connection for the 15 regional connectivity service.

We're calling it KC Connect.

Um, and again, happy to follow up with you on those northern points.

We've also heard um that the Northland was looking at maybe some circulator services.

They they had an RFP out on the street for that.

So we're we're working to coordinate with them as well.

We want those 15 points to connect to those circulator services and make that as seamless for visitors as we can and residents that that want to use those services.

So happy to follow up with you on on where we're looking for those north.

They're not official yet because we still need to get um approval with those property owners, uh, but happy to happy to kind of give you an idea of where we're looking.

Okay, I'd appreciate that, and then including my Northland colleagues of course those discussions as well.

We have, I mean, not only a good portion of our constituents live in the Northland, but we're gonna have a lot coming into the airport, hotels, restaurants, all of theirs.

So, how are we coordinating with the airport and hotels up in the Northland for these transportation nodes?

And like that's really need to flush that through still, or we're still working through that.

We are been coordinating last time you were looking at heat maps.

We probably met months ago, and you were looking at heat maps, so where we are on those heat maps, yeah.

So we we use the heat maps to narrow in on the nodes for the the 15 locations, um, and we're very eager to get those out and and have those approvals so that we can share those publicly with everyone so you guys know exactly where those are.

But yes, we're using all that data.

And I would just say there are kind of four pieces to this, right?

One is the heat map, where are the Airbnbs, where are the hotels, where are the points of interest.

Uh the second is the existing transit services and how we connect into those.

The third is an existing termination point, so we're not building new infrastructure.

Um, and the fourth is then negotiating and finalizing.

So it's a it's a a little bit of a puzzle, um, but it all the pieces are coming together.

Okay.

And we have been engaging with those stakeholders as well, um, particularly the airport for sure, um, as well.

Okay.

And I'm all about engagement and wanting to do as much engagement as we can, but we have to have a plan like moving forward, yeah.

We're getting really close.

And so I'm getting a lot of questions and a lot of pressure from the Northland too on of what that is going to be because we're gonna get really close, and we keep hearing that there's a plan coming, a plan coming, and we just don't have a plan.

We have a plan.

I think the key is we have to have all those sites confirmed before we can announce any site because you can imagine if we announce one site, uh, there are gonna be a lot of questions about why other sites were not included.

So we're gonna have the entire plan finalized.

I think that you know it's just negotiating with those property owners.

Um so there is a plan.

I think we're we're not ready to announce it yet.

Okay, and I guess I'm not saying like the Northland site needs to be, and I think we all need to know.

We all are wondering where those sites are gonna be throughout the entirety of the city.

So I don't want to speak for the rest of my colleagues, but I I feel like we need to get that sooner than later.

Um and then you mentioned uh fanfest, and so you also mentioned the taperone concert.

So I attended that, and I felt like that was really well run as far as the ingress and egress of pedestrian traffic, vehicle vehicular traffic, parking, all of that.

Like it was, I think I didn't get there till probably 4 30 or so, but anyway, it started around 2 p.m.

and went all the way to like 11 p.m.

or so, and I feel like that was a really well run experience.

So I don't want to just mention that.

And then on the contrast to that, um, how are we working with the stadium itself and FIFA as far as parking at the stadium?

Um, I know that tickets went on sale, and then as part of those tickets, pre-sale of tickets, there was parking involved in that.

You could purchase a parking ticket.

I know there's gonna be a lot more limited parking.

I just recently attended the Chiefs game last Sunday and just had regular parking, regular red parking, and it took me over an hour just to park for the Chiefs game itself.

This is gonna be so much more than that, just exponentially more, and there's gonna be less parking.

So, how are we handling that?

And then how are we also handing handling education around mass transit, ride share, and things like that to push that versus parking?

Yeah, absolutely.

So we've been working really closely with FIFA and the stadium on what available parking there will be at the stadium.

Um it's really FIFA's parking operation.

Uh, and based on the number of parking spots that they can make available for general spectator parking, we then have to move the remaining capacity at the stadium, either by bus or factoring in ride share.

Um, the way that we're looking at the stadium footprint, there will be a bus mall similar to kind of Disney style queuing coming from those park and ride locations that I mentioned.

Um, that will be in lot L that exists today, um, based on our current plan.

Lot L will be that that key bus mall that will bring people into the stadium, help create an established pedestrian pathway to the stadium, and then back out for egress.

Uh, there will be lot O that I know the Chiefs use for their stadium uh Matt or game days, excuse me.

Um will be the rideshare lot is is what we're currently thinking about.

So that's on the opposite side of the stadium, um, and working on the traffic management back to the point made earlier.

Uh, traffic management of getting those ride share vehicles in, getting people dropped off and back out to take additional rides, and then the same for for egress.

Um right now, the capacity at the stadium is around 65,000 tickets.

Um, so it's a bit of a reduction from what they have today.

And I think um parking spaces are drastically reduced for general spectators.

I think FIFA has paired a number of their tickets uh with parking passes, and then there will be a very limited number that are for sale.

So we're moving um by bus, probably around 25,000 people, and um expect seven or eight thousand coming in by ride share to to make up the the and provide transportation to all of the ticketed fans.

Okay, so you mentioned lot L, and so that's where I was directed to to park for the Chiefs game.

So lot L, so a very interesting experience with that as well.

So if we are that's where the bus circulation is gonna be, ride shares, so that is quite a bit of which I'm all for pedestrian traffic, but as many people are gonna be dropped off there at that location, then there is quite a bit of pedestrian draw where you have to go across the bridge and through a tunnel.

And so that got highly congested from the Chiefs game alone to where people were waiting 20, 30 or minutes or more just to get to the tunnel to get through the tunnel.

And so I know there's gonna be a lot more patrons and a lot a lot of people that aren't familiar with the area that are gonna be have to go through that experience.

And I just don't want to see like I'm just afraid of like uh no, we don't want to replicate that experience.

Yeah, I don't want to replicate that experience, and then I don't want people shoved and pushed in in the tunnel and people trying to get through, and then creating like a safety concern.

So um, to kind of help put this in perspective.

So we're we're separating bus traffic from vehicle traffic and ride share.

And ride share.

Um so putting them on opposite sides of the stadium, and then because of the way that we want to route traffic in the parking lot, this gets a lot, this is difficult to explain without a visual.

Um so maybe we can follow up on the side too with with that map.

But uh, we will be using Royal Way as that pedestrian path.

So the tunnel will not be utilized, okay, and we won't have vehicles, and so there's a there's a bridge, a very narrow pedestrian bridge right now, and then the tunnel, those won't be utilized uh except for rare circumstances, and then royal way will be a dedicated pedestrian path that we're we're hoping to eliminate any sort of vehicle or bus crossing on royal way, so that just becomes the last mile pedestrian walk into the stadium.

So by not commingling pedestrians and vehicles, we're hoping to make that a really safe and clear journey for people coming from La L into the stadium.

We will have to map out a similar pedestrian path from La into the stadium as well to give them a safe way of getting across the parking lot.

So when you when you consider La L and La O essentially being taken out of parking, um, you're really restricting the number of of personal vehicles that are are making their way to the stadium and eliminating a lot of those conflicts as people are trying to navigate out or navigate in and people are walking across.

Uh, we're trying to make that a safe and experience possible as possible.

That gives me a lot less anxiety.

Because people were not wanting to wait for the tunnels, so they were trying to jump the fence, and then they were told to go along the fence, and people are going along the fence and then down the hill, and everybody's trying to get it.

Right.

And the current ride share situation, I think we we want to improve that as well, not utilizing the visitor center because we know the volume of ride share is going to increase substantially for the matches, uh, making sure that they have a dedicated area.

And then a key thing that we heard after Club World Cup is making sure that we're signing and providing appropriate wayfinding so that the fans are making their way to the right location.

Um so really thinking about what that wayfinding overlay is uh for people to be able to navigate to the service that they want.

Okay, and I just want to end on a positive note.

I also attended the English Premier League was here for their fanfest at um the power and light area, and there were thousands of people that came from there, people from England and then all over the United States.

There was a couple that just drove in and got there at 4 a.m.

and they came from North Carolina just to watch the broadcast of the English premiere on the TV at um you know the large screen and stuff at the power light, and that was packed at like at five in the morning, and people are here with their scarves and things, and it was just a great experience, and we got um, so I was there with English and Grey League themselves, and then others are people um there from Houston as well saying how well prepared we looked and we were, and so much more than they are for Houston, and just just the entire experience of that, and that was just a small portion of what's to come for the World Cup, and just how good our city looked and how impressed they were.

So I just wanted to know a positive note of that.

Thank you.

Councilman Rogers, just briefly, um, one quick question.

So we keep hearing the number 650,000 people are gonna be here for the world cup.

How much variance is there depending on which countries end up here?

It's probably a uh better question for visit KC because that's that's uh they're the source of the number.

Um I think the the um federate if we get I'm gonna make it up two top four teams in the city at the same time, which could happen in the quarter final, uh, there could be upside.

The base camps could provide upside.

What I've heard visit KC say is that they believe those numbers are conservative, and remember that those visitors will not all be here at once, right?

It's over the course of the the tournament.

Um I the I think the plan is after the final draw to re-forecast based on what we know about um the countries that are coming, we're trying to get ticket data as well from FIFA on those tickets that have already been sold.

Where are the buyers located?

Are they in the Midwest?

Are they international?

Where are they seeing interest from?

And then the next thing I'll say is, and thank you guys for being here, but you know, on the NFL draft, I think a lot of people were disappointed.

I'm not comparing this to that bell draft, so hear me out before you before you get too worried.

But um, you know, the small businesses got so focused on doing business with the NFL versus the people that are coming into town, and that didn't work out that great because they were all confined to one space for a day and a half, so it's not the same.

But when I read this, and I think you know, yeah, I'm I'm a small business owner in the hospitality industry, and I'm not gonna have no interest in filling out a bunch of paperwork to try to do business with the World Cup and a lot of people are the same way.

But what I'm really excited about is the fact that you guys are putting this together, and there will be so many people in our region for five weeks.

So that's that's a great thing.

And I'm more interested in how how am I gonna benefit from all these people going out to eat and going to hotels and all that sort of thing.

So it just makes me a little uneasy when there's too much focus on one potential customer in FIFA, whereas you're gonna have literally hundreds of thousands of new customers here ready and looking to spend money.

Um so I just worry a little bit about that.

People will end up missing the bigger picture by focusing on one customer versus many customers.

Yeah, I think our intent is exactly what you just said.

That is what we are trying to communicate every every time we speak, right?

There will be some procurement opportunities that FIFA has.

Those will not generally speaking, these small business opportunities because the nature of them will require uh large established businesses.

We think the better opportunity is making sure that they are thinking about the visitor who will be here.

And you know, what what time of day does a certain culture have dinner, right?

What how do we help them prepare for that?

What languages might they need um to be able to translate their menu into and what businesses will benefit and what businesses may not see an impact.

I think setting a clear expectation and uh you know uh giving them the information that we have, that is exactly what we're trying to do.

No, I appreciate that.

Um so anyway, I guess I'll just conclude with all that other stuff you guys are gonna talk about transportation and getting people to and from and making sure it's safe.

That's all gonna help with these hundreds of thousands of customers.

So I don't think that I mean to me, this current slide that's up here is just one small piece and a much bigger economic opportunity for these small businesses that you guys are creating.

So thank you for that.

Thank you.

And and really the the design of everything we're doing is intended to distribute economic impact.

So the regional connectivity system is not only to allow everyone to participate in FanFest, but it's to send visitors to other parts of the city.

And I think that um the app, right?

I think the every plan we are making is very intentionally focused on distribution and making sure that we are thinking beyond uh a part of the region.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Any other questions?

Councilman Bone.

Yeah, just one last.

Um, you know, uh heard very optimistic things about working with streetcar authority.

Um, how have the conversations been going with the KCATA on other fixed route services?

Uh there and to um uh to uh contextualize that a bit, uh the staff has been asked over there to devise some scenarios for increased service on fixed route, um, knowing that there will be a higher demand.

But is there is there conversations with KCATA on that matter and and how that might look with integrated?

Yeah, thank you, Councilman.

Um, we have been working with KCATA on what their existing services are, how those connect uh with the service that that we want to provide through KC Connect and the scenarios that they've been asked to create, we're also in interested in in learning more about that.

But they are in all of our uh working group meetings and have been really great partners to help us understand uh where their services are, making sure that we're connecting those bus services in with our services, uh the fair uh discussion as well, and and how that relates to how we may charge for KC Connect.

So working together on on all of that as they continue to develop plans as well.

Great.

And uh, if if there's ever an opportunity, I would love to sit down and just learn more about how it's because I think uh I I've said all along that I think there's some really good opportunities here to learn a lot from the transportation system that you're building temporarily.

Um, what are some lessons learned, but also like going into this, what's the planning and the thought and how can we leverage this opportunity to really kind of reshape how we think about transportation and kind of to to some of uh council of infringe's concerns about the congestion around the stadium.

I think what we have here is you know, we have a smaller version of that every every time there's a Casey Current match down the riverfront is well, people are figuring out how to get down there with most of them without vehicles, and so this I think is a really good opportunity to kind of figure that out for something that's as remote and isolated as uh as Arrowhead.

So uh I would love to sit down and learn more about the process going into that.

Yeah, and we sh we will share with you data.

We did a pre um, I believe it was March, February, March uh survey um to measure.

We asked people have you used public transportation in the last year?

Would you be willing to use it during the World Cup?

Um and we're going to measure that post-World Cup, would you be willing to use it now because you tried it, right?

I think that is a legacy opportunity for us.

Awesome, thank you.

Councilman Ray.

Actually, I think that answers some of my question.

I if there could be a broader conversation about that, because what we were just talking about is, you know, what I think one of our one of what our challenges will be is how people without a vehicles get from point A to point B.

Obviously, there will be good options to get to the games if you go to a certain pickup spot.

But if you're here and demand for, say Uber is really high and limited, and rental cars are in demand and limited, it's either the bus system, the street car, um, or you're figuring something else out.

And so I I don't want to keep us here longer on this topic, but I would like to hear a little more about that study and what you're seeing from how people can get around without a car.

Yes, and we can also maybe in a follow-up session.

Um, and I think uh councilwoman French, this relates to something you asked, um share more about our travel demand management, the communication plan, uh, not just for visitors but people who are here.

Um, you know, how we're viewing modal splits, how we want we will have to change behavior during the tournament.

So we'll have to start doing communicating that um in December is when we're we're planning to do that.

All right.

Thank you for the thorough discussion.

We'll look forward to more regular check-ins with all of us as you uh as we get ready for the world cup, and we'll just let you tell us what countries will be here when the time is right.

So thank you all so much for the presentation.

Um given the hour and the fact that it seems like we have a good number of folks outside, we will note that for those extra interested in uh the prior citywide business plan presentation, it was presented in the finance committee on Tuesday.

Uh we'll also invite this outstanding team from the city's finance department.

Yes.

The A team really to come back and uh visit with us at another point.

For now, I hope as good Kansas City residents, you got to see one part of what we do.

So hopefully it was not time wasted.

So we'll go ahead and uh call this it unless there are any items to discuss.

We could just discuss it at full council.

For now, we'll stand adjourned.