Washington (EFE).- The only city in the American Midwest that will host the 2026 World Cup, Kansas City, is a city marked by being the origin of Charlie Parker’s bebop jazz sound and its mastery in smoking meats for hours, in addition to being a place that has bet heavily on soccer in recent decades.

Although technically most of Kansas City is not located in Kansas, but in Missouri, that does not stop both states from being fully committed to hosting six matches of the competition (including one for Argentina and another for Ecuador), Chris Gutierrez, president of the economic development group KC Smartport and the region’s foreign trade platform, tells EFE.

The commitment to soccer and related investments and infrastructure -Kansas City is, for example, the first city in the world to build a stadium exclusively for women’s sports, that of the KC Current women’s soccer team- have not only been key to hosting matches; the region was chosen by Argentina, England, the Netherlands, and Algeria to establish their base camps during the World Cup.