Welcome to business session, the official Pam Kramer business session.

First item, approval of minutes.

You come on up, Pam.

Approval of minutes for business session from the last time we did it.

So we've been moved in second.

All in favor indicate by saying aye.

All opposed.

Motion passes.

KC 2026.

The most exciting thing in some ways that I get to talk about.

And so we have Pam Kramer, the CEO of KC2026.

Thanks for coming to us on late notice, and we look forward to an update from you on all the good stuff going on.

C right on here.

Great.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council, for having me.

Exciting times in Kansas City, to be certain.

Today I want to give you an update on what's happened since uh we've last since I've last been here.

Let's see if I can navigate the slides.

I'm on my own today, so they trusted me.

Maybe over this one.

Just should I just write around?

There we go.

There we go.

So a hundred and forty-six days to go from today, the first World Cup match will be played.

As I reminded my team yesterday, that's 100 business days.

So it really is essential.

I think the first time I uh came before council, the that number started with a seven.

So time is flying, and uh we're making great progress.

Uh I won't review these goals because you've seen them.

What I want to do today is talk about some of the key developments over the last few months.

You will all be receiving, if you haven't already, our momentum report.

Um, it highlights some of the milestones over the past year, uh, but the past two months in particular have brought significant developments starting with the final draw.

So in December, FIFA conducted the final draw.

They drew the 48, uh, 42 of the 48 teams and the six two qualify into groups of four.

Um the next day they issued our schedule, and we were thrilled.

Kansas City fared very well uh in terms of visibility of teams, quality of matches.

We have no um we have no 3-4 matchups in Kansas City.

We have the reigning champion Argentina as our first match.

We met with the embassies today of the qualified countries that will play here.

Uh, you know, they they expect tens, if not 100 plus thousand of their uh citizens to be here for these matches.

So really excited about that.

The round of 32, we will have the winner of group K.

Um in group K currently is Portugal and Colombia.

If the winner of group K is Colombia and that winner persists through the round of 16 to the quarterfinal, they will play here.

And if Argentina persists through the round of 32 and 16 to the quarterfinal, they will also play here.

What that means for those of you who are not soccer fans is that we would have two of the best players ever uh in Ronaldo and Messi at Arrowhead for that quarter final.

So a lot of soccer has to happen, and lots of things could go a different way, but that would be um an uh a match of historic uh epic proportions.

So we should all be prepared for that.

So some key learnings um in addition to our schedule.

The first is that different from uh past World Cups, the times are not consistent.

So I think there are um a dozen different starting times depending on what city, what countries are playing.

We have different starting times here in Kansas City, so it makes scheduling a little more complex from day to day.

There are also we knew this going in, but there's a different number of matches on each day.

So at the beginning of the tournament, in the first two group stages, there are four matches a day.

As that progresses, there are six.

Um we knew this before, but now we know the certainty around it.

On Thursday, June 25th, the U.S.

plays.

We also have a match in Kansas City.

Um so really thinking about our match being at 6 p.m., the U.S.

match being the last match of the day at 9 p.m., what that means for fanfest uh and other activations around the city.

We also learned the times for the U.S.

matches, so that factors into our planning.

You see there.

Um two in the evening, one in the afternoon.

We'll want to make sure we accommodate for that at FanFest and then Team Mexico.

We expect to be of uh interest no matter who's playing here in Kansas City, so knowing those match times important as well.

And then finally, the group J group stage match here in Kansas City will be the final match of the group stage.

So everything will be drawing to a focus uh on that match and moving into the knockout rounds.

The other piece of information that we have knowing um all of our matches are evening matches.

FIFA is instituting hydration breaks for all matches, so we know that the match times will be a little bit longer than we expected.

So thinking about that in the context of transportation, um, all good learnings coming out of the final draw, in addition to country specific uh customs and cultures.

So what we are doing now is going back and looking at operating hours for FanFest.

So reevaluating what constitutes an A plus day.

We certainly know that US matches, I'll use the 25th as an example.

June 25th is an A plus day.

We have a match here, the U.S.

plays.

We know that there will be big visitor crowds, high interest.

The Argentina match, it's their first match of the tournament.

So regardless of where fans plan to go, if they're following the team, the first stop is Kansas City.

So that means that we are likely to have lots of Argentinians in the city for that match.

And then looking at what we want our fanfest days of operation to be.

We've announced that we'll have at least 18.

So thinking about those A plus days, and then referencing our strategy to spread out economic impact, leaving open some of those A plus days for other community activations to leverage.

Ticket demand and pricing will be variable.

So we expect that there's likely to be a much higher demand for that first group stage match than there are for some of the other matches because of the visibility of Argentina because it's their first match and some of the other associated factors.

We still do have some unknowns and variability.

We don't yet know who will play here in the round of 32, although we understand the paths.

There remains a path for the United States to play here in the round of 32.

They would have to finish third in their group, and the third place team from their group would have to advance.

If that happens, they could play here in the round of 32.

There's a path for the United States if they persist to play here in the quarterfinals.

So we're monitoring all of those variables to make sure that we're flexible in our planning where we can be and fixed where we need to be.

And then looking at the customs and cultures.

So the Netherlands is playing here.

You may have seen or be familiar with the Orange Walk, very organized fan walk in Germany in the World Cup.

There were 100,000 people that participated in the Orange Walk.

We don't expect that many people here, but making sure that we are connecting their team to public safety so that that is a safe event.

And then the teams have been they can they completed all of their base camp visits last week, I believe.

They submitted their choices to FIFA on Friday.

We should find out in early February who will be base camped here.

The embassies that are playing here, as I mentioned, have started to reach out.

So we will be connecting with them, making sure that the city is connected, connecting with them.

And then we are starting to draw parallels.

Each of the teams that plays here, there is some connection to Kansas City.

So Argentina, we can certainly relate to being the defending champion and having one of the best, if not the best players in the world on our team.

Curaçao is the smallest team ever to qualify for the World Cup.

We can relate to being the smallest.

So we'll start messaging that.

So a quick update on FanFest, as I mentioned, we know we've committed to being open 18 days.

We know that of those days will be open on the Kansas City match days and the U.S.

match days.

We're looking at those additional days.

Our hope is to announce those by the end of first quarter, likely by the end of February, so that other community partners can start to plan.

I mentioned some of these match scheduling considerations.

What are the highest interest tournament dates?

How can we be as consistent as possible so we don't confuse people about when FanFest is open?

And then what else is going on in the community?

Is there something that we intentionally want to have FanFest dark for so that we can shine a light on other activations?

You've seen the renders and some of the plans.

So please make sure that businesses in your districts know about that.

You see the QR code there.

It's open until February 11th.

Same with entertainment, we will have a similar process.

We want to make sure that we are reflecting local businesses and cultural and entertainment people from the region.

I hope all of you have seen the rollout of the transportation plan.

This is the host city footprint, the official host city footprint.

So you see the airport, you see the three training facilities that are potential base camps, the two venue specific training sites, the stadium, fan festival, and the volunteer center, which is at Union Station.

We had more than 16,000 volunteer applicants.

We have already interviewed more than 5,000 of those people.

So it's it's been an extraordinary turnout.

If you want a tour of the Volunteer Center, please reach out if you've not already seen it.

The feedback we are getting is even the volunteer tryout experience is remarkable.

People are excited to participate, looking forward to being part of this.

So transportation.

So again, I hope you've seen this before.

There are three key services.

One is tournament service from the airport to downtown that will run the duration of the tournament.

We've leased 215 buses to support that service, along with the match day service, which will be from four park and ride locations, FIFA Fan Festival, and then others, and then regional connectivity, which will be every day of the tournament.

We have added an additional 15 sites.

Those all connect into existing transit services.

So we want to make sure that we're filling in gaps.

We used Airbnb and hotel maps, looking at where people will be staying, where the gaps are in transit, how we can supplement that, making sure that we are connecting the region.

So this is uh with those uh the official sites overlaid onto this along with the park and ride locations.

So park and ride in blue, regional connectivity in red.

So uh we rolled out in the last couple of weeks uh two playbooks.

One is Kansas City Game Plan.

This is the small business uh platform.

We've had more than 2,500 businesses sign up for the business interest forum.

We've connected with more than 11,000 businesses, 250 of those businesses have filled out the readiness assessment.

So again, you all have a toolkit for this.

Please share this with your constituent businesses.

We want to make sure that they understand what the opportunity is, if they can benefit from it.

The next phase of this will be training.

So cultural sensitivity, customs, um, you know, everything from does a does a certain uh culture is tipping the norm or not.

Restaurants will want to know that.

What time of day do people typically want to have dinner?

Restaurants will want to know that.

So we are working very hard to make sure the entrepreneur support organizations uh and we are are providing information to those small businesses.

And then the community activation playbook.

So we have been hosting quarterly community engagement sessions for the leaders of those those community activations so they can understand what is the process for a public viewing license, uh, what do you need to do?

What should you be aware of in terms of FIFA restrictions on intellectual property?

There are now resources available on our website, uh, multilingual as well.

So this is the uh game plan hub on our website.

Lots of the things that I just talked about.

Um the uh the small business playbook is live, the community events calendar in coordination with Mid-America Regional Council, um, and then as I mentioned, those readiness assessments and business interest form.

So uh I'm not sure that I've shared this before at a council meeting, but a key host city activation for us is really engaging the global business community beyond the matches.

They're coming for the matches.

We want to make sure we connect them to Kansas City as a place to invest, a place to locate business, a place to start a business.

So this will be an invitation-only gathering place.

It's on the uh east side of the plaza in the Forever 21 space.

Um, it's a place for global leaders to connect with our business and civic leaders.

The embassies on our call this morning were very interested in this.

So they will all have heads of state, heads of business, heads of ministry here, making sure we understand sectors of interest and connect global business decision makers to our economy is a key sustained and long-term impact of the World Cup.

So the idea here is to make it not only a place to connect, but also a place to entertain.

So you see here a rendering from our pop populist partners of what the entrance could look like.

The left side there is a potential host city supporter activation.

So populist might have a space where they have 3D renders of some of the stadiums they've designed, but also a place where they can host clients.

And then moving upstairs in the evenings.

So not only a place to connect, but we might have uh TED talks in the afternoon around a certain industry or sector.

Maybe we bring in thought leaders to share uh ideas and information, and then keeping in mind that again they're here for the matches, so we want to make sure that soccer is woven throughout the experience.

And then this is the rooftop view, perhaps postmatch entertainment and hospitality.

So with that, I wanted to leave time for your questions.

I would just say that uh if you've seen any of the coverage, people are taking notice of what's happening in Kansas City.

Uh, there's a Boston Globe opinion piece in particular that calls out our leadership.

The Athletic has called out our leadership.

That is due in large part to your leadership and commitment.

Our ability to commit to a free FIFA fan festival has put us on uh on the national um front pages, and it is really calling attention to how we're doing things here in Kenn City.

So I appreciate the partnership and the commitment from the city.

And with that, I'll turn it back over to you.

Pam, thank you so much.

Councilman Bunch of questions.

Yes, thank thank you, Miss Kramer for uh providing us uh another update, and uh it's great to see details coming together, uh really exciting stuff.

Um something that hadn't occurred to me until just now is seeing the the last few slides of the KCE house space.

Um this may be a question for the mayor and others, but um is are are we asking the EDC or maybe even working with the KCADC on helping to provide that experience for anyone who may be interested in opening a headquarters here or uh is is anything like that being coordinated thoughtfully?

Yes, thank you for the question.

Great question.

That's exactly the idea.

So this concept is really a partnership with KC ADC.

EDC is also involved.

KC ADC will be bringing in site selectors, they've already started inviting those people, and then we will work with uh EDC, um, the Missouri Department of Economic Development and the Kansas Department of Commerce to bring in additional invitees, and then we're looking to our host city supporters, Black and Beach Populace, who are their global clients that we can also bring to the conversation along with those embassy connections.

That's exactly uh the idea.

So thank you for the question.

Great.

Other questions from Miss Kramer.

Um I got one.

Councilman O'Neill.

Just quick to that point.

Um you said KCAC, KCADC.

Are they uh sponsoring are they a uh sponsor of the event?

They are.

They are um so they are a partner in that they're providing some of the services for KC House, and then they are uh bearing the cost of inviting those site selectors to um to the event so that we can connect them.

Okay, I guess my concern is is it really promoting Kansas City, they're promoting the entire area.

If we're the major supporter, I'm a little uh intrigued how they kind of get first access.

They are also providing financial support to us.

Okay, well it and I see councilwoman Robinson, but Councilman Willet.

Yeah, what's the breakdown between them and us?

Uh you mean KC ADC?

I mean, the city's significantly you know 15x of uh really any other business other than our sports teams.

Councilwoman Robinson.

Thank you, uh Pam.

I do want to interject um and talk about Pam's uh extraordinary leadership um in her role in representing Kansas City on the world state, her negotiation skills and she's just been an amazing uh leader, um and we thank her for all that she's doing to make sure that Kansas City is seen as the very best whole set whole city.

I think that is going to be out.

Um her leadership in the thing that she's a symbol.

Um, Pam, can you just build on the KC house conversation?

Um hopefully this is a tool to help us to leverage our investment to get more people in our city because we do have significant corporations here in the metropolitan area, and we want to leverage that so that they can really have something of uh tangible, not only is it cool and it is exclusive, but it's an intangible, it's a tangible investment for them to invest in um the games, and so that's really critical and very creative.

But Pam, can you talk about three things that I think are are really critical for this body?

One is, and I get this question a lot from my colleagues is um how do you see the council uh as individuals participating um during uh the games, and then if you could talk um uh a little bit about um legacy, you touched on transportation, you touched touched on the Casey house, um, but bring us up to speed more specifically about legacy and then um readiness from a standpoint of dependencing on public infrastructure.

Um, how can we be preparing for our everyday folks to you know get around the city during this time?

So first of all, thank you for the kind words and all thank you for the questions, all good questions.

So I'll start, excuse me, with the uh council involvement specifically, and I would maybe broaden it to to city involvement.

So um in addition to being representatives and an ambassadors for us at official events, um we envision Kansas City specific events at uh things like KC House.

So if there are um economic development prospects you want to host, and there is a Kansas City specific time at KC House where it is council, it's your economic development uh staff presenting, telling that story.

Um that is certainly something that that we will do with all of our public funding partners that is built into our model.

So there is a specific plan for funding partners there at fan festival, same thing, right?

We will have in addition to free admission premium hospitality VIP areas, we'll certainly want council to be there to help us represent the city.

Um and there are going to be uh dozens, if not hundreds of dignitaries here.

So even if we try to have a four to one uh ratio, I'm not sure we we still have enough people to host all of them, so we'll certainly engage the council there.

Um, in terms of legacy with uh council and robinson's input and others, um the board has uh identified three legacy pillars.

Um the first is really that sustained and long-term economic impact.

So the small business engagement, the KC House ideas, the the embassy connections, um workforce capacity, those sorts of things.

The second is brand.

Um, how is Kansas City viewed by the world?

And how how much do they know about Kansas City?

How likely are they to consider Kansas City?

Um, not only to locate business, but to visit, to revisit, to live.

We just conducted our first wave of brand research asking those questions.

We will conduct the second wave.

We will also do uh exit surveys to determine net promoter score of people who have experienced the World Cup in Kansas City.

And then the third is access to play.

So really understanding what the barriers are to play.

We have um we have quite a uh a lot of of soccer infrastructure in Kansas City.

Some of the barriers exist in transportation to practice.

Uh, you know, could we, if there is funding, legacy funding, could we create scholarship funds for access to some of the more competitive programs?

So all of those things are under consideration right now.

I think I answered them.

Oh, and then city infrastructure.

So on transportation in particular, one of our key goals was to minimize disruption to daily life in Kansas City.

So we started with what exists today and how do people use it, and how do we make sure that we don't strain that capacity so that people can still get to work, um, can still do the things that they normally do.

Um we say uh every time someone asks me about renting out their house for a short-term rental, I tell them that I do not want them to leave Kansas City.

We want local people to stay here and engage with the World Cup and enjoy it.

We certainly want everyone to benefit economically, um, but I think there's the the experience is different if people from here aren't here.

So we want them to be here, and part of that is making sure that the event um support and infrastructure is as self-contained as it can be, including law enforcement.

We're working right now with KCPD on mutual aid requests.

That federal funding is critical in bringing in outside law enforcement to make sure we have sufficient capacity to handle the event.

Mr.

Mayor, just on that note, um, I would like to get feedback or any objection from you all, uh, my fine colleagues around um potentially hosting um some a tour.

I know that we all love to get on a bus and go to a tour, but um, to have these conversations around World Cup readiness with our staff internally, but also with some of our players like visit KC and EDC and our public safety partners, um, just so that we can spend some time um specifically on understanding preparedness.

And KC26 has an amazing dashboard that they you know kind of keep or keeping up with things.

We'll love some of uh some visibility time with you all to kind of look at that and drill down when we have time.

So if there isn't any objection today, I would love to be able to move forward with our staff.

Um re day, who's also on the board to put that together for the council.

So could I have one thing that I I would like to um to thank the city manager for his collaboration?

We are now meeting regularly with the city manager and his team.

There is a shared project list so that we can promote what the city is doing, and so that um the city staff has visibility to what we're doing.

We're we're very connected on that.

So I want to thank him for for his leadership and um Camiko Gilmore Black for the partnership there.

She's our point person, so we we really appreciate that collaboration.

Councilman Curls.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, and thank you, uh panel, for all your work and everything that you've done.

I mean, I know this is a monumental task, and it sounds like it's uh going pretty well.

I just wanted to ask and kind of see if you could if you can, and I don't know if if you got it uh all figured out yet, but you mentioned about the rotation of small vend small business vendors, and uh if you could, could you kind of tell me how you envision that to be to work?

Uh is there certain locations that these individual that these businesses are going to be in?

Uh when you say rotating, will they be able to say do it one day and then maybe come back and do it again?

How how do you kind of envision that to work?

If you could kind of expound on that a little bit for me.

Yeah, thank you, Councilman.

Great question, and thank you for the kind words.

So um I will I will tell you uh I'll give you an example.

I think the the fine details are still to be determined based on um how many businesses are interested and the final days.

So if it's consecutive days, it might be different than if there are gaps in days, making it easier to rotate people in and out.

But one of the the working concepts is a barbecue restaurant of the day, so that um visitors are exposed to not just one uh Kansas City barbecue establishment, but that every day there's a different um idea.

The I think some of the coordination that has to happen is are are those fixed stations or are they food trucks or both?

And if if certain food trucks, if that's easier for them, maybe there's a combination, some fixed station, some food trucks.

There are also as much as we control with this, there are some restrictions.

Um FIFA sponsored McDonald's is the only French fry provider at FanFest.

So, you know, if if businesses have French fries as their primary menu item, they may not it may not be a good thing for them.

Um the other thing that we're talking to these businesses about is really thinking about what they're good at.

So if you're good at a uh your signature dish takes 42 ingredients, fan festival may not be the best place to represent yourself.

So how can we promote you?

Um still send people to your business if FanFest isn't right for you.

So um the details, Mallory Cage on our team is really doing a phenomenal job at working through all that.

She's meeting, by the way, with uh the restaurant association and with specific restaurant owners to get their input on that very thing because I think the last thing we want to do is create a plan that the experts haven't informed.

Yeah, and and I just want to just say, yeah, that sounds great, and I I think that that sounds very inclusive as much as possible.

And I I want to make sure that we are trying to do what we can to make sure that small businesses feel inclusive.

I know at the thank you.

At the uh at the um the draft, the the draft the uh uh football, the uh quick draft in that.

Thank you.

Uh they kind of felt excluded.

So I just want to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to make sure that they uh have uh feel inclusive and we are trying to include them as best as possible.

Absolutely.

The other thing I would encourage all of you to do is to download the FIFA World Cup Tournament app, where today, if you go into the app, there's a uh city by city section, and if you uh click on Kansas City, we have been working over the last few months to aggregate data sets.

So we want to get beyond um any lists that are paid to play to make sure we're being inclusive.

We are reaching out to the business community now to say if your restaurant is not listed, if you don't see yourself, let us know.

We want to make sure you're included.

So we'll share that with you as well so you can send that out to make sure that uh we have all the restaurants reflected, and that as visitors are using that app to search.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Bond, just one last thought is just the um in relation to the NFL draft.

Uh last term I was probably one of the more outspoken folks after after the fact because of the lack of communication, the lack of inclusion of our local businesses, and what uh many characterize uh in the small business community as a bit of a flop for them.

Um the the contrasting that with this, uh it's night and day difference, primarily because we have local representation doing all the hard work on the ground and coming back and talking to us.

That was something that I said up front, and I think those uh last term and this term shared that thought.

Um, and last term primarily because the fourth district was so hit by just the disruption of it.

Um that may still happen here, and I but but the fact that we're communicating it out and talking about it on a right semi-regular basis here, and I'm able to tell that to my constituents is I just want to say thank you for being up front and communicative with us because that was not the experience we had with the NFL draft um last time, and so just but then also encourage you to continue coming back and talking to us and keeping keeping us up to speed on everything so that we can adequately communicate that to our our constituents.

So thank you.

Thank you.

And and I have to give credit as a team effort, a team of teams.

So Tracy Welpley on our team, uh Nia from the city.

Certainly um, there are all sorts of people who are connected and collaborating on that, but but I appreciate the feedback.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for the presentation, Pam, and continue the good work.

Thank you.

Discussion of ordinances, resolutions, and other items too late to be placed on today's docket.

You're likely to see two items today for um a more immediate review.

One relates to a moratorium relating to zoning approvals for detention facilities that are non-municipal in Kansas City proper.

Um the connection with that would relate to the idea that um we are blessed, of course, with uh certain facilities that are state, county, and otherwise, and are building our own.

Uh there may be others with interest, federal, state, all types of facilities looking at the moratorium process to help address that.

That's one.

The other uh helps for clarification to I think the office of the city manager.

Uh there is a deadline on Jackson County's option offered to us of 2.3 million dollars to purchase a uh site for a jail off of 40 highway.

We've also explored, of course, the uh site at Front Street.

I believe direction there may be warranted to ensure that uh the front well, whatever discussion we were to elect continues proceeding rather than um a longer delay.

That being said, we are likely to go to a closed session and to discuss, I think probably contractual issues and a little bit of litigation uh work that uh have come up for us lately.

So we'll entertain a motion to that effect.

I move uh we go into closed session pursuant to sixth hand.021 of the revised statutes of Missouri subsection one and subsection 12.

We moved in second at uh if there's no further discussion, the clerk will call the role.

Ray bunch.

Girls, aye, fork show, aye, boo, Duncan, all right, O'Neill, Willard, uh French Rogers, all right.

Patterson has Robinson.

Hi.