By Alexandra Sarabia and Maria Tsvetkova
KANSAS CITY, Missouri, May 11 (Reuters) - In its storied history, Kansas City has attracted traders and mobsters, jazz legends and barbecue pitmasters, and even Taylor Swift. Now it is preparing to welcome some of the world's best soccer players - and their devoted followers.
Kansas City is the smallest of the 11 U.S. host cities for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, which runs from June 11 to July 19. Yet three of the top seeds - Argentina, England and the Netherlands
- have chosen it as their base.
That means this Midwestern city will transform into the temporary home of cash-flush soccer players, their legions of fans, and what British tabloids refer to as "WAGs" - their designer fashion-clad wives and girlfriends, who may be struck by the contrast with their lodging at the last tournament in Qatar: a cruise ship.
In 1994, the last time the World Cup was held in the United States, Kansas City fell short in its bid to host. In the decades since, soccer has flourished here, and the city now boasts several world-class training facilities. Its central location also makes it a natural choice for teams wanting to limit travel times to matches in other cities.
KC, as it's known here, sits at the confluence of two rivers and straddles two states, Missouri and Kansas. The Missouri side is more famous and populous, and will host six World Cup games, including a quarter-final, at Arrowhead Stadium, home to the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs. Argentina, the reigning World Cup champions, will train on the quieter Kansas side and the English team will stay in a hotel nearby.
While the area may lack the nightlife of New York City, the food scene of Los Angeles or the beaches of Miami, locals expect that visitors will be pleasantly surprised.
Many will likely line up for brisket "burnt ends" or smoked pork at one of the city's famed barbecue joints, such as Arthur Bryant's, or Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que, a gas-station restaurant that made late U.S. celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain's list of "13 places to eat before you die."
Music fans can take in a jazz jam session at The Blue Room in the historic 18th & Vine District; movie buffs up for a drive can follow the yellow brick road to the Oz Museum, in the small Kansan town of Wamego.
"I think you come in and you expect Midwest cows walking down the street," said Jake Reid, vice president of the Kansas City host committee. "But it's got such a great arts and culture scene," he said, and the people "just make you feel welcome."
THE SWIFT EFFECT
Kansas City is best known for football - the kind played with pads and helmets. The Chiefs have won three recent Super Bowls and their star tight end, Travis Kelce, is engaged to pop superstar Taylor Swift.
But the city has also tried to position itself as the "Soccer Capital of America." It has thriving men's and women's professional teams - Sporting Kansas City and the KC Current, respectively - and over the last 15 years has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into state-of-the-art training complexes and stadiums.
Dani Welniak, the Current's vice president of communications, said Swift had helped elevate the city's profile. "We're so excited that she's a part of the Kansas City sports scene now, and I really hope and believe that she will show up for some of these World Cup matches because it is going to be a spectacle," Welniak said.
The Netherlands, widely regarded as the best team to never win the World Cup, will practice at the Current's training facility. Netherlands head coach Ronald Koeman said in April that he had visited the site and thought it was the "best option" for his team.
"Sports culture in Kansas City is contagious," said Kyra Carusa, a forward for the Current. "It's exciting. It's everywhere."
'COME PREPARED'
In February, Argentina were the first team to confirm they had settled on Kansas City as their base camp, citing the distances between cities and amenities. Superstar Lionel Messi, likely appearing in his last World Cup, and his teammates will begin their title defense on June 16 with a match against Algeria at Arrowhead Stadium.
England have no local matches but will train at Swope Soccer Village – the former stomping grounds for Sporting Kansas City – and will fly to Dallas, New York and Boston for their three group-stage matches.
For teams based in New York or Los Angeles "it's going to be a little bit crazier, there's probably a little bit more people hounding you," said Reid. Kansas City, by contrast, "feels like home," he said.
Some 650,000 people are expected to descend on the city during the World Cup, according to Visit KC, the city's official nonprofit promoter. But hotel bookings are so far lagging behind expectations, according to an early May report by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
At Joe's Bar-B-Que, regular Camilla Thomas, 29, warned visitors to "come prepared," as a server called out for a customer to pick up their order of pork spare ribs that fully covered the plate.
"It's going to be much bigger portions than anyone in Europe is going to be used to," she said.
(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova in New York and Alexandra Sarabia in Kansas City; Editing by Jesse Mesner-Hage, Frank Pingue and Rosalba O'Brien)
