With six World Cup games being played at Arrowhead Stadium this summer, the arena has been getting a complete soccer-friendly makeover to go along with its new World Cup name: Kansas City Stadium (only to be used this summer during the World Cup tournament).
The Missouri State Legislature Fiscal Year 2024 budget appropriated $50 million for certain FIFA World Cup activities—marketing, transportation and event support—with $42.5 million reportedly going to stadium renovations. Changes to the stadium have been underway since April 2024, picking up in earnest after the conclusion of the NFL 2025 season.
Since 1999, Arrowhead has hosted a handful of soccer matches, most recently the South American Copa América in 2024, where Uruguay defeated the United States 1-0. A Major League Soccer game between Sporting Kansas City and Inter Miami in April 2024, featuring Miami’s marquee player Lionel Messi, drew more than 72,000 fans, the fourth largest soccer crowd in MLS history. But the soccer legacy in Kansas City goes back even further, to the Kansas City Spurs, who played two seasons at Municipal Stadium from 1968 to 1969, right around the time that Arrowhead was being built.
That soccer legacy played a significant role in FIFA’s decision to make Kansas City one of its host cities for the world cup. And FIFA is laying it on thick, promoting the “vibrant energy of Arrowhead Stadium” and calling it “an iconic symbol of innovation and the community spirit at the heart of Kansas City.” It’s an “architectural marvel, home to the legendary Kansas City Chiefs” and offers an “experience that transcends beyond sports, uniting generations in a shared fervor for excellence and excitement.” Yeah, we knew that. Loud, raucous soccer fans should fit right in here, beginning with the Argentina v. Algeria match on June 16 and ending with a quarterfinal match on July 11.
But physically reworking Arrowhead for soccer is no easy feat. The FIFA-approved soccer field is 115 by 74 yards—essentially a square-shaped field. Arrowhead’s field dimensions, like all NFL football fields, are 120 by 53 yards, a definite rectangle.
For modifications to the field, such as widening it approximately 20 yards to meet FIFA regulations, developers have carved up 5,100 cubic yards of earth, enough to fill about 510 large and fully loaded dump trucks, and removed 9 million pounds, or 4,500 tons, of concrete.
Approximately 3,500 seats at Arrowhead had to be reconfigured with removable systems, mostly those on either side of the width of the field.
“Of the approximately 3,500 total seats removed during the modification process and then reinstalled as a modular riser seating system, each of those seats was replaced 1-for-1 in the modified configuration,” wrote Luke Shanno, vice president of corporate communications for the Kansas City Chiefs, in an email response to questions.
Other projects Arrowhead crew have been working on include installing an aeration and moisture control system under the field to ensure a world-class playing surface. “We also installed new LED light banks in 2024,” Shanno wrote. “The ‘warning track’—the area around the edge of the field nearest the wall—was replaced with a seamless natural-to-synthetic turf transition.”
But not to worry. Arrowhead will still be Arrowhead. The process to convert the stadium and field back to the original football configuration will begin immediately following the final soccer match on July 11. The seats will be put back in their original positions, and the field will be ready for the first preseason game.
