With 693 days (& counting) to 2026 World Cup, new KC2026 CEO says ‘every day matters’

By the time her appointment as chief executive officer of KC2026 becomes public on Wednesday morning, Pam Kramer will be thinking about not merely that humbling development but, again and still, of the dwindling calendar before the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

It will be down to 693 days, she’ll know and convey, until the momentous event begins and is draped over Kansas City — the smallest metro area among 16 North American hosts and 11 in the United States.

“Every day matters,” she said in an interview with The Star on Tuesday.

Because it’s of an unprecedented scope and scale in this region.

And because it’s nothing less than an inflection point in the history of the city, she said, that must be delivered with flawless hosting and logistics and “distinctly Kansas City” touches — and “cannot be only about the 35 days of matches.”

That’s a lot of responsibility, perhaps especially since she assumes the role in the considerable wake of the recent resignation of former executive director Katherine Holland — who also was the director of Kansas City’s bid for the international spectacle expected to bring hundreds of thousands of people here as we play host to six games and three KC-area base camps (including Lawrence) for teams from around the globe.

But Kramer, whom The Star’s Sam McDowell recently reported was widely expected to get the job, hardly is starting from ground zero.

For one thing, the former Sprint, Chiefs and Kansas City Current executive has been the fractional chief operating officer for KC2026 since March and appreciates all that’s already in place and on trajectory.

But now it’s about focusing forward on what might seem an infinite job that she sees as entirely manageable with communication and clarity — traits the Jefferson City native honed studying journalism at Benedictine and through her career since.

“I think that’s where this role is more about collaboration and convening than directing, if you will,” said Kramer, who prides herself on “taking really complex ideas and distilling them into not necessarily a simpler version but the most salient points: What do people want to know? What do they need to know? And how can I close that gap?”

Part of that notion will hinge on what she calls further organizing “a team of teams” handling specific aspects of the more broadly mind-boggling enterprise but still “marching to the same goal.”

Goals, she said, the KC2026 board has been clear on from the get-go.

“The first is … we have to put these matches on in a way that is best in class, safe, seamless and distinctly Kansas City when people arrive, when they’re on a bus, when they’re at the Fan Fest,” she said. “We want them to know they’re in Kansas City and feel what’s different about this place.”

Secondly, she added, “how do we capitalize on this moment on the world stage?”

Sure, we know that will be by showcasing obvious Kansas City institutions such as the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the National WWI Museum and Memorial, the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the Chiefs and Royals. And, no doubt, barbecue.

And, she said, by backing up calling ourselves the “soccer capital of America” by articulating why: from the Lamar Hunt legacy to CPKC Stadium, the world’s first stadium dedicated to a women’s professional team, Sporting KC and world-class facilities such as the Compass Minerals National Performance Center in Kansas City, Kansas,

But to her it’s also about flexing that we have “warm people” and that we “play bigger than we are” and other parts of our story that might not meet the eye.

“This is the moment that people will see that we are responsible for more than half of the sports stadium designs in the world, and (learn about) the animal health corridor,” she said, referring to the fact that between Columbia, Missouri, and Manhattan, Kansas, is the largest concentration of animal health companies in the world.

Most significantly, she said, what’s to come has to be about “sustained long-term impact for the region. So how do we build that thinking into the decisions we’re making now? … ‘OK, what does this look like in late 2026? And what does it look like in 2036?”

As for what it looked like 694 days out as we talked Tuesday, Kramer spoke to some of the looming questions.

One was on the topic of transportation, a matter that The Guardian took up on Tuesday in a broader piece headlined, “This Copa America was chaos. Will World Cup 2026 be different?”

(The piece also addressed the frightening security failure in Miami, which Kramer said “underscores the importance of being prepared.”)

Referring to the July 1 game between Team USA and Uruguay at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, where the World Cup games will be played here, The Guardian wrote that “a near-complete lack of public transportation links to Arrowhead Stadium meant that the highways surrounding the Truman Sports Complex where it resides were gridlocked before kickoff of the United States’ game against Uruguay.

“This is a scene familiar to any resident of Kansas City who has ever attended a Chiefs game in the NFL, but it is perhaps less so to visitors from around the world.”

To be clear, I hadn’t seen the report before I met with Kramer on Tuesday, so I didn’t specifically ask her about that.

But her answer about transportation nonetheless was illuminating:

The working group (led by senior adviser Julie Lorenz) and made up of transportation experts, area agencies and departments, created a request for proposal for transportation plans that had a deadline of last Friday. The response, she said, “was terrific in terms of local representation and experience in mega global events.”

“There’s some really extraordinary thinking,” she said, adding that she considers this realm “our greatest opportunity to show that we can figure it out.”

Toward that end, KC2026 expects to soon provide further insight to transportation schemes with a transportation education and awareness campaign for the public — an initiative that also might include explaining how so many dynamics of World Cup-preparedness are on an entirely different scale than what went into Copa America.

Also likely in the near future, she said, will be a decision about where the massive Fan Fest will be held: either in the footprint between Union Station and the WWI Museum or in Theis Park across the street from the Nelson-Atkins.

Since the Fan Fest will have an enormous impact on the areas around it, she said, KC 2026 officials have been in conversations with various stakeholders “about what they need, and what they want, and making sure we can address those before we finalize the site and announce it.

“But I think we’re close.”

As she pondered the increasingly close commencement of the World Cup, Kramer also is appealing beyond full-time staff (soon to expand to around 20), partners and shared services (with Visit KC, for instance, and the Kansas City Sports Commission) to the public to embrace it.

Not just by volunteering for a variety of different sorts of ambassadorial roles that ultimately will number in the thousands, though you can apply for that on the KC2026 website .

But also by trying to help people otherwise meet the moment.

“I think small business is a great example: We have to make sure we’re providing a toolkit for small businesses to be ready,” she said. “I use this example all the time: If you’re a restaurant, can you translate your menu? Do you know what to do with international currencies presented?”

She added, “I think the key message is we can’t do it all from this organization or office or whatever. To me, it is going to require civic, public, private, everyone working together.”

So much so, she wonders if that prevailing spirit might make for a lasting impact as worthy as any enduring infrastructure or transportation breakthroughs.

“Maybe the legacy is the way we operate regionally,” she said. “Maybe that’s the legacy: The great things that we’ve done, we’ve done together. So this is the next in that series. And how do we demonstrate it?”

First, by making every day count.