Downtown KC businesses allowed their employees to work from home in anticipation of large amounts of crowds and traffic. But it just feels like standard business here, no big surge of people. It’s a very local-heavy party and crowd. Few to no visitors from out of town from what I can see. Big hotels aren’t very lit up at night, which I expect is because of the prices they wanted to charge. It’s so far going the way I thought it would though - local issues magnified to a more global audience and a party for the locals and their friends. Being in the middle of the country with no increases in flights and no international connections makes it difficult for most foreigners to get to.
And to be honest, the area’s in worse shape than the preparations made for the NFL Draft. Highways aren’t as clean, the cracked out homeless people are more numerous this event and the number of homeless is higher. There’s still a month to go with events and all that so we’ll see if more show up, but it’s a big party for the locals.
Kansas City also hasn’t hosted a game yet. So some of it might be no one has come to town yet since it’s still a few days away.
There was definitely a lot more people out today. There was no FanFest today and there wasn't a big game happening but the streets, especially along the whole streetcar route, were still busy with so many Argentina fans. At the Argentina parade there was also a bunch of international media there and the vibes were high. Anyway, I am eager to see how the ConnectKC transportation system works out tomorrow. Hopefully it performs well, but we'll see. This is why public transportation is important! Love the streetcar, but the Metro Link is better transportation wise.
Downtown KC businesses allowed their employees to work from home in anticipation of large amounts of crowds and traffic. But it just feels like standard business here, no big surge of people. It’s a very local-heavy party and crowd. Few to no visitors from out of town from what I can see. Big hotels aren’t very lit up at night, which I expect is because of the prices they wanted to charge. It’s so far going the way I thought it would though - local issues magnified to a more global audience and a party for the locals and their friends. Being in the middle of the country with no increases in flights and no international connections makes it difficult for most foreigners to get to.
And to be honest, the area’s in worse shape than the preparations made for the NFL Draft. Highways aren’t as clean, the cracked out homeless people are more numerous this event and the number of homeless is higher. There’s still a month to go with events and all that so we’ll see if more show up, but it’s a big party for the locals.
Kansas City also hasn’t hosted a game yet. So some of it might be no one has come to town yet since it’s still a few days away.
There was definitely a lot more people out today. There was no FanFest today and there wasn't a big game happening but the streets, especially along the whole streetcar route, were still busy with so many Argentina fans. At the Argentina parade there was also a bunch of international media there and the vibes were high. Anyway, I am eager to see how the ConnectKC transportation system works out tomorrow. Hopefully it performs well, but we'll see. This is why public transportation is important! Love the streetcar, but the Metro Link is better transportation wise.
Isn’t the Fan Fest this afternoon and evening? My family said they were going. Do you have any trio recommendations? Getting excited for my trip.
Transportation issues couldn't have been that major. The stadium was filled from start to finish. And the Europeans said the stadiums would be empty! Proud of our region for showing up! Will be interesting to see how the city will adjust ConnectKC to smooth out the issues.
Tuesday marked the first World Cup game in Kansas City, Argentina vs. Algeria, and for Monday and Tuesday of match week, hotel bookings in the Kansas City metro show about an 111% increase over this time a year ago. For all six matches, the night before the game and night of the game, reservations are up 32% for those 12 nights.
DB I find your posts about downtown St Louis to be very insightful but your fanatic obsession with finding negative or even fake stories about KC and other cities becomes boring after a while.
I really wish St. Louis had a big NFL stadium on the North Riverfront. With Metrolink straight from the airport. St. Louis could have really impressed and handled the World Cup with ease.
DB I find your posts about downtown St Louis to be very insightful but your fanatic obsession with finding negative or even fake stories about KC and other cities becomes boring after a while.
This is a real story in the World Cup thread related directly to the World Cup. You’ll just have to cope
DB I find your posts about downtown St Louis to be very insightful but your fanatic obsession with finding negative or even fake stories about KC and other cities becomes boring after a while.
seconded on both counts. Stick to downtown STL, DB. *Greatly* appreciate that content from you. Your KC sh*t is lame AF.
I greatly appreciate DB doing his part in spreading the reality that KC is Missouri's most dangerous city, because what's actually lame is the fact St. Louis suffers the consequences for what KC actually is. I once again can't imagine the media coverage and commentary we'd see if this happened in STL.
I'm sure this Argentinian fan was very fakely shot at in a fake drive by shooting.
I don’t think you all are picking up on the satire. The tweets, KCRag posts, and media I have seen over the years directed at St. Louis have been extreme and often rooted in thinly veiled racism. KC celebrates every loss. DB is giving a taste of their own shitposting.
I hope it rains everyday KC has a match. It’s not jealously. It’s much deserved animosity.
Hey KC friends, despite the WC not being a real money maker and not getting 650K tourist to come to KC, enjoy it. It's an amazing play for the KC "brand." Looks super fun and I wish it was here.
When KC unfairly rags on St Louis, it comes across as jealousy. Just understand that works both ways.
I understand it perfectly and have experienced it first hand for decades. Throughout my life, KC folks have often seemed jealous of STL. Still are in many ways.
No matter, now, seeing whining from STL folks like this WC stuff, it comes across as petulant jealousy. I think it's below us.
I've said on twitter (and maybe here?) a lot recently - KC folks are deliriously optimistic about KC whereas STL folks are deliriously pessimistic about STL. While neither place is as good/bad as any locals believe, vibes matter and right now KC has superior vibes. Wish it weren't the case, but it is.
DB. You did inspire me to do more traveling for the World Cup. I’m going to do the east coast cities with the plan to attend watch parties if I can get cheap last minute tickets. In addition to the KC trip I have tickets for.
I am one of the biggest STL guys out there. I’ve long felt many KC people relishing in anything bad that happens to us. Obviously, there is a rivalry there. That being said, I’m extremely jealous of KC & their World Cup journey. I’m also jealous that they seem to have surpassed us with regards to City pride. They are riding high, while somewhere along the way, STL people started hating on our own City, feeding many a negative narrative. It wasn’t long ago we were far superior in the City-pride department.
I too wish STL could build up a fake brand so much that we get to host events we have no business hosting, but alas, STL is crowned the most dangerous city in America while it isn't even the most dangeorus in the state.
Yeah, despite the news no one here seems to be bothered about it. The news has reported it but not significantly or as much as it should. The tourist don’t even now. Even if they knew they probably wouldn’t care. When there was the mass shooting near where England is staying I saw a report that many of the people at KCI either didn’t know about it or didn’t care and still felt safe.
All anybody will remember is that KC hosted a World Cup. Not sure that is worth much long term but positive perception does help to drive real estate development eventually having a compounding effect.
I don’t get the discourse about KC hosting the WC it’s not like STL had a real shot at hosting it in the first place & we’ve likely saved ourselves a lot of embarrassment on how downtown looks specially with the big sinkhole underneath the highway
PlatinumBlues wrote:I don’t get the discourse about KC hosting the WC it’s not like STL had a real shot at hosting it in the first place & we’ve likely saved ourselves a lot of embarrassment on how downtown looks specially with the big sinkhole underneath the highway
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The point is KC, like STL, had/has no business hosting the World Cup. FIFA chose KC over a city like Denver or Nashville, and it's just a crazy choice on every level, as we are seeing in real time.
No one is saying STL deserved it or anything like that, it's more just animosity over KC getting spoon fed sh*t it doesn't deserve because it's a golden boy city. Again, KC literally has a higher violent crime rate than STL, but no one is aware of that, in part because eveyone ignores KC's flaws while we have baseball announcers taking cheap shots at STL because stock footage of a fountain downtown had no people in it.