Can the World Cup transform this Midwestern city into a global tourist hub? | CNN Business

Betting almost $200 million, in fact, that hosting the World Cup will transform this Midwestern hub into a global tourist destination. It’s a heady proposition. Already, the tournament has been dubbed the “World Cup of Chaos” over immigration fights and exorbitant ticket prices. Kansas City’s gamble is that it can break through all of that – and convince people to keep coming back. “You’re putting yourself on the international stage,” Victor Matheson, a professor at The College of the Holy Cross and an expert on sports economics, told CNN. “But do we really think people from Japan and Uzbekistan and Cape Verde are saying, ‘hey, I’m going on my once-in-a-lifetime trip to the United States, and I’m going to take it to Kansas City’?” Local officials say this is their shot. Kansas City has never hosted something this grand and may never again. Organizers project more than $653 million in direct economic impacts through retail, food and drink, hospitality and more, said Jenny Wilson, vice president of tourism development at Visit KC. Organizers expect over 650,000 visitors, enough to swallow the city’s population of about 520,000. Kansas City propped up tra