Kansas City’s soccer boom sets the stage for 2026 World Cup
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KCTV) - Kansas City has quietly become a hotbed for soccer over the last decade. As the city prepares to host matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, local coaches and club directors say this moment has been building for years.
From new soccer complexes to the explosive growth of youth clubs, soccer is no longer just a fringe sport in the region—it’s part of the city’s identity.
Jefferson Roblee has been a part of the Kansas City soccer community for decades.
“The World Cup brings an international level event that’s something that everyone can enjoy and be educated from,” he said.
Roblee has seen the game grow firsthand, playing at Winnetonka High School shortly after the program began in the mid-1980s, coaching semi-pro soccer with the Kansas City Brass, youth soccer with the KC Pace, and at William Jewell – before taking the head women’s soccer coach job at Kansas City Kansas Community College.
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“The women’s program here started in 2012, so the growth of opportunity to play at various different levels for youth, but also in high school and college, is now huge,” he said. “Almost every college program sponsors soccer now, and almost every high school has boys and girls soccer.”
That expansion has been even more dramatic at the youth level. The Legends Soccer Club, founded in 1989, started with fewer than 10 teams. Now, it’s a major youth organization in the metro.
“We just finished our club tryouts last week, and we’ll be somewhere pushing about 160 teams and over 2,000 kids,” said Kyle Hogge, executive director of the Legends.
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Hogge believes the World Cup will only accelerate that momentum.
“It’ll be a motivator for kids,” Hogge said. “I think it’ll get kids that weren’t previously interested, involved in the game. And I think it’s going to put Kansas City on the map even more than it is in of youth soccer.”
Over the past 10 years, soccer-specific fields and facilities have been built across the Kansas City metro, from Wyandotte and Johnson counties to the Northland, creating more opportunities for players to train and compete.
Now, with the World Cup just a year away, many in the local soccer community believe Kansas City is ready, not just to host, but to inspire a new generation of players who could someday take the world stage themselves.
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