June 22, 2026

Kansas City is the epicenter of sports architecture.

Words Greg Echlin

or NFL football, the venue at the Truman Sports Complex since 1972 has been simply Arrowhead Stadium. But for this summer’s World Cup soccer event in Kansas City, the stadium’s name is generic to meet FIFA regulations, following a shift away from its corporate name in recent years—GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

FIFA requires its 11 NFL venues for the World Cup to erase any commercial name to “protect its brand and the exclusive rights of its sponsors.” But unlike the rooftop venues, Arrowhead Stadium, being an open-air stadium, had an easier time complying.

By architectural standards, whatever its name, the iconic multi-faceted facility adjacent to Kauffman Stadium and I-70 is the historical marker for Kansas City’s reputation as the center of sports design and architecture.

“Kansas City is the capital, not just (of) sports design architecturally, but many of the engineers that contribute to these incredible venues are based here in Kansas City as well,” says Peter Broeder, a principal designer at HOK in Kansas City since 2011.

The origins of creative designers for sports venues in Kansas City can be traced back to pre-World War II, when Clarence Kivett and Ralph Myers became acquainted as colleagues at an architectural firm. After the war, they partnered up to form their own firm which later had its fingerprints on the sports complex in addition to other prominent structures through the years around Kansas City. The architecture and engineering firm HNTB purchased Kivett & Myers in 1975. From there, several architects went on to form HOK Sport, a landmark firm that later became Populous.

These days, HOK and Populous stand on their own. Along with several other firms, such as MANICA, Kansas City has architects firmly planted here, designing sports venues both locally and around the world.

The current number of firms in Kansas City specializing in the design and architecture of sports venues, according to local architect historian Tom Waggoner, is phenomenal: 20.

Locally, Homefield is developing the next generation of athletes. Before they’ll play to throngs of stadium crowds, they’ll get their feet wet at the Populous-designed Homefield. Homefield has partnered with Sporting Kansas City for the opportunity to offer at two facilities—KCK West and Olathe—youths and adults to participate in soccer. Its motto is to provide a “pro player pathway” for every athlete who enters. Photo by Matt Kocourek.

Homefield is a multi-sports facility that offers training for soccer, basketball, volleyball, and football and also hosts tournaments. Photo by Matt Kocourek.

Running lanes with synthetic surfaces are provided as part of the training regimen. Photo by Matt Kocourek.

Chase Center in San Francisco’s Mission Bay is home to the Golden State Warriors and attracts fans and conventioneers with plazas and public spaces overlooking the water.

Designed by MANICA, OKC’s basketball arena, the Continental Coliseum, is being built on the site where a convention center and basketball arena were combined into one facility. It’s walking distance from Bricktown and the heart of the Oklahoma City downtown area.

Miami Freedom Park will become a recreation destination of publlc parks and soccer fields that all Miamians can enjoy, not just where Inter Miami takes to the pitch.

Premium loge seats are available at the new Nissan Stadium, elevating in-person game-watching with superior views, increased comfort, and exclusive amenities like in-seat service and private tables.

Fans can enjoy the new Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans, TSU football games, and community activities, year-round in the enclosed space.

HOK

@hok_kc

The only World Cup venue rooftop given a pass to FIFA’s no-branding regulations is Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, though it will still be referred to during soccer’s premier event as “Atlanta Stadium.” HOK, with an office in Kansas City and another in London, was the project designer.

As part of the Mercedes-Benz design team, HOK’s Peter Broeder says it’s the project he’s most proud of: “It is super-iconic in terms of its exterior design and its roof. It’s one of a kind.”

The change Mercedes-Benz couldn’t avoid for the World Cup is the installation of a natural grass surface for the competition. Other HOK venues in the World Cup host mix with playing surface changes are MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which opened in 2010, and Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

But, as HOK undertakes other current NFL stadium modernization projects, such as EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville and Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, flexibility is the foremost factor.

“Not just a consideration, but frankly a prerequisite in the design of any new NFL venues,” Broeder says. “They are multi-purpose in nature in a variety of ways, but certainly with the ability to host international soccer.”

Hard Rock Stadium in the Miami market underwent a $500 million renovation from 2015 to 2017.

“Miami, being an international sports destination, that venue and its recent upgrades, becoming Hard Rock Stadium, soccer was at the top of the mind for that venue as well,” Broeder notes.

Within the state of Missouri, HOK will have its fingerprints on the 2028 Summer Olympics. As a St. Louis native, Broeder takes pride in the fact that Energizer Park, the home of St. Louis City SC in Major League Soccer (MLS), will be one of the soccer venues.

“Energizer Park is, I would say, sort of a third-generation MLS venue,” Broeder says. “It’s a really spectacular venue that builds a lot on the principles that were established with Sporting in Kansas City.”

Though not the only sport HOK is involved with as a designer, soccer designs have become a prominent part of the office.

“It certainly is a market that is vastly accelerating here in North America,” Broeder says. “In terms of work that’s on the boards for our office right now, we’re doing quite a bit of soccer work.”

Broeder recognizes that far more than what happens on the soccer pitch will impact Kansas City visitors.

“Kansas City is going to be on display in many regards, whether it’s hosting matches, hosting base camps,” Broeder says. “In some capacity, the vast majority of venues that will be hosting have a fingerprint from Kansas City on them via the design community.”

Populous

@wearepopulous

The construction of Sporting Park, the home of Sporting Kansas City in Major League Soccer and designed by Populous, preceded David Hodge’s tenure with the firm. But during Hodge’s tenure at Populous, the firm has borrowed and applied several concepts from the Kansas City trend-setting stadium to other worldwide venues.

“It’s one of the older MLS stadiums now, but it is probably, I would say, the first of an entirely new generation of MLS venues, one of the first purpose-built,” Hodge says from his Populous office in New York City.

Think about the supporters stands in the end zones, a supporters-specific club, and a roof that almost entirely envelopes the grandstands. All features perhaps now taken for granted in Kansas City for Sporting home matches, but adopted with the multitude of new soccer venues being designed and built.

The idea is to entice the fan who’s inclined to enjoy a soccer match on television from the comforts of his or her own home, rather than the feeling of similar comforts and even more excitement from actually being there.

“With the venues, we’re trying to make the bowls tighter and steeper, the atmosphere more cauldron-like, and the roof reverberating to make it memorable,” says Hodge, who travels frequently from NYC to Kansas City and finds the city “comforting.”

Hodge has also found Kansas City’s “connectivity” to the rest of the country appealing, which has led four countries to establish team base camps in KC for the World Cup.

“Everywhere I go with people who are on a project team, and there are people from Kansas City, I’m in a little bit of a bad mood because I’ve just flown to L.A. and it’s taken seven hours,” Hodge says. “The Kansas City people can get anywhere in two or three hours.”

Hodge rates Etihad Stadium, the home of Manchester FC in the English Premier League, as his most endearing project. The tunnel club there became his office during the almost four years he worked on-site.

“People would say, ‘The players are coming.’ I would walk over to the door, open the door, and high-five (world-class midfielder) Kevin De Bruyne, (former world-class striker) Sergio Agüero, and (former manager) Manuel Pellegrini,” Hodge recalls.

Hodge says every MLS club that Populous works with today requests a tunnel club, and its appeal has spread to other sports, such as NBA basketball arenas.

“That proximity to the players is now really the juice that everybody is trying to squeeze,” Hodge says.

GEHA Stadium at Arrowhead is no exception.

When Inter Miami CF played its first MLS match there two years ago with Lionel Messi, arguably one of the greatest soccer players of all time, the best view of him came after the match, when he made his way up the runway and took a left toward the visiting locker room.

In the summer of 2028, the MANICA-designed Continental Coliseum will open as the new home of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder. It’s under construction across the street from Paycom Center, the Thunder’s current home.

Energizer Park, designed by HOK, is the home of St. Louis City SC in Major League Soccer. It will also be one of seven soccer venues used for the 2028 Summer Olympics. Photo by Michael Robinson.

Seasons cross for Mercedes-Benz Stadium, another HOK project, when the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons play their preseason and regular season games in the fall while Atlanta United in MLS wind down their campaign. Mercedes-Benz is also a World Cup site this summer. Photo by Michael Robinson.

Jacksonville Jaguars Stadium of the Future: The Jacksonville Jaguars will play the 2027 season in Orlando while the modernization of EverBank Stadium under the design of HOK takes place. Once completed, Jacksonville is expected to also host international soccer events.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London opened in 2019 and is the third-largest football (soccer) stadium in England. The Populous-designed facility, used for Tottenham Spur home matches in the English Premier League, was the first in the world to use a dividing retractable, synthetic turf pitch for NFL games and other events. Photo by Hufton+Crow.

When TQL Stadium, the home of MLS’s FC Cincinnati, opened in 2021, the facility, designed by Populous, borrowed from Kansas City the concept of a tunnel club. Fans who purchase tickets to the Medpace Tunnel Club Loge Boxes enjoy their promoted “feet to field” experience on the sideline with full access to the tunnel club. Photo by Alistair Tutton.

MANICA

@manicaarchitecture

Anyone who attends a sporting event in Kansas City is familiar with the impact of a festive atmosphere. Both for the home team and the visitors inside the venue. As someone born and bred in Kansas City, David Manica has experienced it, and these days, MANICA, the firm in his name, applies those principles worldwide.

“We’re always learning, both internally with our own projects and with each other, and we’re pushing the market,” says Manica, who started his own studio in 2007. “We’re making these buildings new and exciting every time a new one opens.”

Two of Manica’s favorite soccer projects are currently on the drawing board—the New Birmingham City Stadium in the United Kingdom and a new venue in Milan, Italy, to replace the iconic San Siro Stadium shared by AC Milan and Inter Milan in Serie A, the top Italian soccer league.

“San Siro is famous for its atmosphere,” Manica says about the stadium, most recently the site of the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. “It is an incredible (soccer) match day experience. I’m very excited. I think we’ll be taking that and even elevating it one step further.”

An example of elevating the experience is the evolution of stadium seating arrangements in the U.S., such as loge seats, theater boxes, and club amenities.

“Those are things the Italian market has not seen before and certainly something we’re bringing over to that market,” Manica notes. “But in a new and unique way. It will be its own building.”

There was a time when architects and engineers were wary of the possibility that technology, such as larger high-definition TV monitors, would replace the stadium experience.

That may be true for those who choose the comforts of home over fighting traffic and the crowds.

But Manica counters that thinking.

“The truth is we are human, and we love sharing human experiences, and going to a stadium is something you can’t replicate at home,” he says.

With England as one of the four countries (Argentina, The Netherlands, and Algeria being the others), training in Kansas City as a World Cup base camp, British fans of Birmingham City FC will perhaps connect MANICA as a Kansas City-based firm, along with the renowned Heatherwick Studio office in London, as the designers of their new soccer venue destination down the road.

Manica hopes for more than that. He wants visitors to feel Kansas City’s vibe throughout town.

“For all that attention to come to Kansas City, I think Kansas City deserves it,” he says. “I think it’ll grow from it.”