Sports as a Superpower: Building the Identity & the Economy in KC – Kathy Nelson | President & CEO of Visit KC and the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation

Ethan Whitehill: Welcome to our monthly podcast, “To the Point.” This month we’re doing something different. We recorded in front of a live audience with this episode’s guest. A native of Kansas City, Kathy Nelson serves as the president and CEO of both Visit KC and the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation. She is a strong believer in the economic, social and community building benefits of sports meetings, tourism and events of every kind. Kathy works to promote Kansas City locally and nationally with the goal of attracting, retaining and facilitating sports programming, business events, and leisure travel across the region. Most recently, she’s been behind the success of such high-profile achievements as the 2023 NFL draft and bringing FIFA World Cup 26 to Kansas City.

Now, without further ado, please enjoy this special installment of “To the Point.”

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I thought it might be fun for us to start with just a little bit more about your journey. What was the career path that brought you to be a dual CEO over two organizations that have a massive influence on Kansas City?

Kathy Nelson: Well, thank you and thank you for the invitation. Very honored. So, my background is actually in television, which is how I became a producer for NFL Games. I started my career at Fox 4 here in Kansas City. It was WDAF-TV and it was NBC when I started. And we also used typewriters for our scripts.

Kathy Nelson:  Okay, now you make me feel old! But I started in the newsroom, started on the assignment desk and I was a college athlete and just really wanted to figure out how to continue to participate in sports somehow. And I asked the news director, “could I move my desk back to the sports department,” which meant I sat next to Kevin Kietzman. I sat across from Al Wallace and Frank Boal, and the four of us shared a pod of four desks like this with no barriers. So, you can imagine I have very thick skin.

So, I was at Fox four for 12 years and went from news reporter to producer, and all the way up to Creative services director of creative services and hired a lot of the talent you still see on a lot of the TV stations. So, John Holt, you know, I think back to so many people that I’ve hired from camera guys to on-air talent. And then I had met a couple guys–I was producing sports for television. Started with Fox 4, doing that on the side and met a couple other guy––and as an athlete, as a female athlete, none of our high school students were getting any type of exposure. We were like, we should put high school sports on television. And so, I had a crazy idea along with these two gentlemen. And we left our careers and started Metro Sports, which is a local sports TV station.

So, I wrote a business plan, bought a bread truck and gutted a bread truck and created a television production truck and learned how to run cable and figure out audio and cameras and hired people. So, we went from a staff of three to a staff of 67 when I left. And when I left Metro Sports, I was starting a Metro Sports for Time Warner Cable in 11 other cities. So, I would fly to San Antonio and live in San Antonio for six months. I’d fly to New York or Green Bay and would buy a building, would hire talent, would create the logos, create the graphics, get a camera––you know, all the equipment. And anyhow, so that was my career and was working as a volunteer for the Sports Commission. And my husband and I were donors. We were participants in the marathon for the Sports Commission and volunteered at anything I could there.

And the president, CEO the sports Commission at the time was a gentleman by the name of Kevin Gray. He had been CEO for decades. And he said, “you should come work for me.” And my husband was like, “you’ve got to be kidding me. You’re going to go from broadcast television to creating your cable station––where I made no money––to taking a pay cut to go work in non-profit.” So, I did. I left and went as the Win for KC director at the Sports Commission. And sadly, Kevin passed away six months after I started. He died at the age of 51 of muscle cancer. So, the board did a search and about that time they said, “you should consider this.” And I was like, no, no, no, no. I would not know what to do. Like well, you’ve started a TV station, you’ve grown other businesses. So, I said yes on Thanksgiving Day, 2011. And here I am.

Ethan Whitehill: You’re not shy to take on a challenge. So, connect that then to Visit KC. And tell us a little bit too about how those roles complement each other, because it sounds like two very large tasks.

Kathy Nelson: They’re very different. Very unique, but actually similar missions, if you will. So, four years ago, the CEO of Visit KC stepped aside, and I was on the visit KC board of directors as the CEO of the Sports Commission. And the board had asked if I would consider doing this. And I was not ready to give up the Sports Commission. I’m like, you know, this is my baby. We are working on the World Cup bid. We’d done so much and there’s so much to come. And so, I said, there’s somebody in Cleveland, Ohio that runs both, they’re very unique organizations, but they have a similar type of feel to them of attracting people to your city. So, we flew to Cleveland, met with him. We took board members from both the Sports Commission and the Visit KC board, and we met with their boards because he also reports to two boards like I do. And then we rehearsed and we brought in five people, two board members from each, and then a fifth person, which was totally not connected to either organization and helped us think differently about the idea. And then created this plan of a shared CEO. But it took both. I wanted both staffs to be comfortable and aware of what that meant for them as well.

Ethan Whitehill: Amazing. So have to talk about World Cup now. Eight years in the making. A little bit of a long road to get there. But what really did it take to attract World Cup to Kansas City? Give us some of the behind the scenes.

Kathy Nelson: I think it took about 10 of us to say, could we really do this? Do we really want to do this? One person at the table with us all the time was Clark Hunt, of course. And his dad’s vision of hosting a World Cup here. And then Cliff Illig with Sporting KC, the owner of Sporting. And it was a lot of their vision and their dreams, and you just want to do this for them and their families. So, staff from Chiefs, Sports Commission and Sporting KC and we would just say, you know, “what does it feel like to do a big event in Kansas City? What does it mean to do a big event? How are we going to pull this off?” And then I flew to a lot of other cities and interviewed other people that were mid-sized markets like us and asked, “okay, how are you hosting Olympic trials and what do you, what’d you do differently?”

And really just a lot of understanding of what it took to get across the finish line. And then as we kept making the cut, you know, that was part of it. It wasn’t just we bid, and we were awarded, it was a process. And it was painstaking. There were nights we would be up till midnight, 1 a.m. putting the next set of bid materials together and then we’d make that cut from 30 cities and then 20 to 16 and then 16 to 11. Like even though early on in 2016 when we started talking about it, we were bidding against Canada and Morocco and there were about 12 of us sports commissions that said instead of bidding against them, we should partner with them. And so, we actually had the crazy idea of partnering with Canada and Mexico and US Soccer to say, why don’t we try and do this together and you know, skin in the game. And at that point, we hadn’t even been awarded. So, we decided, and so then US soccer took it from there and worked with the federations from Canada and Mexico. And then we bid out and won against Morocco. But it was a lot of late nights, and we are certainly a worthy underdog. And it took a lot of, hey, get on a plane and instead of just shipping this in or emailing it, go deliver this in person. So, they trust you and get to know you.

Ethan Whitehill: And I understand Kansas City logistically is a good market. If you could talk a little bit about Base Camp and what that means. Knowing that we’ll be hosting some countries potentially.

Kathy Nelson: Yeah. So, there are two parts to the bid process for us. One of course was getting matches and that was we’re hosting six matches. Our goal was to get two to four matches and then as it got closer and closer, and then when you’re awarded six as a quarter and including a quarter final. That one I could not sleep the night before. Because I thought if we get four, that’s the legacy. And then to be awarded six, that was pretty special. So, games, matches at Arrowhead is one thing. That’s one piece of the bid. The second piece of the bid is base camps where these countries will choose the city or the venue where they will sleep, train, eat, hang out together, play, so they will pick the location. And Kansas City, we actually started with seven base camp locations. And then they come in and say, okay, this works, this doesn’t––there are many, many parameters around that.

And then finally got narrowed to three base camps. And we’re one of the cities with the most opportunities. Not all three will be chosen. Please know that. We’ll get lucky if we get one base camp. So it’s really two different pieces to World Cup. And had we not moved forward with bidding on matches, we were still going to move forward with bidding on base camps. But, think of it this way, like I’ve traveled now around the world to see base camps and over in Nuremberg, Germany, I went to see Germany’s base camp. And it’s amazing. Like it’s a truly five-star hotel built just for that team. But what happens with them, and especially European teams, they bring their fans with them and those fans will stay and live and play in that city where their team is playing. So, whether it’s Croatia or Italy or Germany, those fans will come with those teams, and they will stay throughout the duration until that team moves on.

Ethan Whitehill: So, for anybody who hasn’t been to a World Cup City before, help us understand what the impact of that will feel like on Kansas City in terms of the economics of it, the civic impact, the cultural impact.

Kathy Nelson: When we hosted the draft–and that was a massive lift for that, and the economic impact was significant––World Cup is 10 times that. So, there’ll be over 600,000 people that will come into Kansas City for those six matches. And then potentially one base camp. So, right––Kansas City is a half a million people.

Ethan Whitehill: When was the last time we had 600,000 people come to Kansas City?

Kathy Nelson: Maybe the RNC? Maybe? No, not even that. So that’s, that’s one piece of the puzzle. It’ll also be the biggest economic driver of any event our city has ever hosted or will ever host. We have some other big events we’re bidding on, but it won’t be like FIFA World Cup.

Ethan Whitehill: Knowing we’re going to have 600,000 people descending on us …

Kathy Nelson: Not all at once, too. That’s the other thing.

Ethan Whitehill: Right. Over the course of the matches, what should businesses expect? You know, whether you are a retail business or a restaurant or you know, any other business banking, you know, what should we expect from this?

Kathy Nelson: Well, I think some of it is yet to be determined, right. I was in Doha for two weeks with World Cup and a lot of people go, “oh, the NFL draft didn’t do anything.” And actually, that’s not accurate. When we hosted the NFL draft for the first time ever, we were able to utilize 20 local businesses, restaurants and things, flower shops. But people said, “well, no one showed up.” And Manny’s David Lopez is a dear friend. Manny’s like, “hey, we brought in all these people, and we weren’t busy.” But the draft is different in that people went to the draft, stayed at the draft, saw their player picked and went home. A lot of the people that attended the draft weren’t necessarily traveling from India. And so, I think for us local businesses, we were just talking about this today. If you remember when we planned and hosted the 2015 World Series Parade, our businesses didn’t know what to expect.

And most people ran out of toilet paper. How many of us remember there was no toilet paper at Union Station anywhere. So, I think it’s not going to be that. It won’t be 500,000 people within a two-hour window, but I do think we’ve learned lessons along the way of hosting bigger events. And it’s also up to that business owner to make sure that you’re aware of what’s coming and then how do you make yourself known? You need to be aware and educated that this event is happening. And, what’s your niche? Right. And that’s the other thing we’re learning when we travel. We’re getting ready to head over to London and be back in Germany this summer. We have staff in Italy just recently, and they’re learning that when people come to Kansas City or to the United States, they don’t want to go eat at an Italian restaurant. So that’s the other thing, if they want the true Americana, they want Route 66, which is bizarre to me. But next year is the hundredth anniversary of Route 66. They want to feel what we live. So be unique––but not that unique. Be yourself, do what you do and do it well. And invite people in but don’t feel like you have to cater to what they are because they want to experience what we have.

Ethan Whitehill: And you actually have a hub online as a resource for businesses that gives them access to RFPs. Do you want to talk about that, too?

Kathy Nelson: Yes! So, it’s kansascityfwc26.com. And you can go on there and even if you don’t have a business that feels like, you know, “hey, I’ve got something that I could contribute to.” If you want to understand what’s the volunteer process; how do I get tickets; what’s coming up; what RFPs are out there for businesses? That is the best place to get all your information because we’re sending everyone to that hub. Even our Visit KC staff––if you want to know about Kansas City, go to www.visitkc.com––if you want to know about World Cup, you’ve got to go to that website. You can get online, sign up to get our quarterly newsletters. And any information, whether it’s Q3, Q4, volunteer information will come out. And then that’s the best spot for you to get all that information.

Ethan Whitehill: Wonderful. Last World Cup question, I promise. After World Cup, what is the legacy you want that moment to have on Kansas City? It’s going to leave, obviously, an impression. And what do you want that to be?

Kathy Nelson: It’s hard to define. I think for each person it’s different. It’s not a building. Right. Is it better transportation? Probably. Is it an awareness for our community and our region? Absolutely. When we think about Women’s World Cup’s a great example of this. When we’re doing a watch party inside Power and Light District and the international broadcast cuts to Kansas City to show how we show up to support women’s sports, to me that’s a legacy that people are coming and experiencing the true Midwest and leaving here going, “I’ve got to go vacation there. I need to take my kids back there. I want to build a business there.” I mean there’s so many things that can come of this. So, when you say legacy, it can mean so many different things. For me it’s an awareness because my job is to attract people to our city and that’s the legacy.

Ethan Whitehill: Great ad. So, zooming out from World Cup and just thinking about the Sports Commission from a larger point of view, what do sports mean to Kansas City? And how do they shape the identity of Kansas City?

Kathy Nelson: Well, I think what we were just talking about. Legacy. You know when we think about Big 12 in our community year after year, a lot of these organizations and big events really do want to give back somehow when we hosted the 2017 US Figure Skating National Championships and we said, you know, that was an expensive event and a very difficult event for us to host, but what were they going to do to give back? And so, we did figure skating uniforms for all the clubs in and around the region. And then Big 12 has rebuilt basketball courts. Big 12 now builds libraries. They also–just a couple years ago–worked with us for the Kansas School for the Deaf and we redid their gymnasium and Big 12 went in painted. We did air conditioning, bleachers, new goals and things like that.

So, I think sports is this legacy type of moment. It could mean something to different people. But then also the economic impact of sports. There’s really nothing else like it. It’s hard to duplicate a Big 12 championship with much anything else. I mean, hosting men’s and women’s is $30 million of economic activity. And within a 10-day period, really nothing else competes with that. Planet Comic-Con might a little bit, it comes close, which is a big deal for us. But I mean, that’s the other thing sports does. And then also it’s that feel good social impact. You know, we feel good when our city is in the spotlight. We feel good when you cross a marathon finish line. You feel good when your kids go to a sports camp. And I think that’s really important too, is to realize that social economic impact that sports can do that nothing else does.

Ethan Whitehill: It was so funny because I was going to the NAIA Men’s Basketball Championship during Planet Comic-Con and it was such an interesting clash of cultures.

Kathy Nelson: Oh my gosh. I think I told you this, Ethan. So, I had walked through the convention center because that’s a Visit KC event. And so, they, it started at three o’clock on Friday, our game, I stopped over at the noon game on Friday at Municipal, walked through the convention center and there’s thousands of people in line to get into Planet Comic-Con hours in advance. So, people, and it was a beautiful day, and people were celebrating Kansas City. Yeah. And that was pretty special.

Ethan Whitehill: It was a great weekend. Nice weekend for Kansas City. Yes. So, thinking a little bit more about sports in Kansas City beyond the teams that we have, expansion teams. You know, I know there was a conversation about WNBA and other things that we would love to have. Is there an ongoing effort to attract teams?

Kathy Nelson: Yeah. We were so, so close on WNBA. Actually, when we were awarded our NWSL team, the KC Current, we were working on a WNBA team. And Chris and Angie Long, if you haven’t met them, just phenomenal, phenomenal people. We’re so fortunate to have them here. The NWSL called and was like, you know, we need a place for a team. And they jumped right in. And within a month we had a team, we had owners, and all this stuff came together. So, you know, the focus now is WNBA. We did not get the most recent team. It’s being awarded to Cleveland. They awarded it to another NBA city, which I can appreciate why. And I’m like, if we could just get them to Kansas City and they could see our city, they’d be like, “oh, that makes total sense.” But you know, we go to New York, you pitch, we were up there two or three different times pitching the idea it was going so well. And we really thought we, we were like, well it’s obvious it’s us. Like, just come to Kansas City, wait till you see T-Mobile Center and wait till you see where the KC Current practice in Riverside and we’ll build a new practice facility over there. And we couldn’t get them to Kansas City. None of them had been here. And that’s my thing. If we can just get people here, it’s a little easier. Just like with the NFL draft.

Ethan Whitehill: And the Current is such a great case study for that. It’s right there.

Kathy Nelson: Amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yes, we’re always working on something and even though you don’t hear what we’re working on, know that there’s conversations happening.

Ethan Whitehill: So, speaking of those conversations, what big events are still on your bucket list for Kansas City? So not even sports, you know, just, events you want to bring to Kansas City.

Kathy Nelson: There’s so many. Every association has some type of convention. And so, what our Visit KC staff is working on right now is what are those industries that we really want to lean into? Medical animal science is something we’re working on. But you know, we’re known for having that great convention footprint. So, working on what’s next. We’ve landed a few really big conventions. We’re super proud of. We just hosted Sweet Adelines. We just hosted the International Sweet Adelines Convention in December. Massive convention for us. We had women here from Hong Kong, anywhere and everywhere, New Zealand, they flew in to compete and it was like the NCAA bracket competed. So those types of things open doors for other things because those ladies will go back and tell people in their country, “you’ve got to check out Kansas City.” So, there’s always something there. On the sports side, we are a finalist for the 2031 Men’s Rugby World Cup and the 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup. So when you think of the biggest sports events in the world, FIFA World Cup’s number one, summer Olympics, winter Olympics, Tour de France and Rugby World Cup Wow. Rugby World Cup is the top five in the world.

Ethan Whitehill: 2031.

Kathy Nelson: 2031 for men. 2033 for women. So, we just had that site visit and it went very well. We’re looking at 2031 Women’s FIFA World Cup as an opportunity. And then where––I know how cool would that be?

I don’t know that we would want to host both women’s FIFA World Cup and Rugby World Cup in the same year. But you never know. I mean, right. Yeah. We’re a big city now. We can do this––And then we’re also working with a lot of governing bodies. We are working on a bid for gymnastics, summer Olympic trials. We’d love to bring figure skating back again. Fencing is a big thing for us. We host the national fencing right now. So, just continued with governing bodies and what’s bigger and better out there.

Ethan Whitehill: That’s Amazing.

Kathy Nelson: And of course Big 12, keeping Big 12 here is a big deal.

Ethan Whitehill: And you’re, as I understand it, you’re also part of a group of 300 leaders across the country called Brand USA.

Kathy Nelson: So, Brand USA is an agency.

It’s an agency that represents the United States. So, when we, we all have agencies. That we work with Brand USA is agency for the United States. We were all together last week in Savannah, Georgia. And we get together once a year as CEOs and tackle projects.

Ethan Whitehill: Well, Kathy, thank you. Thank you. We’re grateful to have you on the front lines representing Kansas City and doing all the good work you’re doing. Thank you. We look forward to the World Cup and everything else.

Kathy Nelson: Yes. But thank you very much. It was an honor to be here.