Kansas City-area officials are bracing for the possibility that some Fifa World Cup fans will camp in public spaces instead of booking hotel rooms, after mayor Christal Watson raised the issue at an April 28 Mid-America Regional Council board meeting. Watson said she had heard from Argentina’s consulate that a large wave of supporters may arrive without hotel plans.

“I met with the consulate from Argentina just last week,” Watson said, adding that he “kind of verified that about 100,000 will be coming just from Argentina but they will not be staying in hotels.” She asked whether other local municipalities had heard the same warning and whether they were ready if fans tried to use open public spaces to camp.

The concern lands at a moment when local planning is already being stretched by expectations for the tournament. KC2026, Kansas City’s nonprofit World Cup host committee, has said about 100,000 fans from Argentina are expected to visit the United States, not just Kansas City, and it has projected more than 650,000 visitors in the Kansas City area over the course of the event.

Camping at the World Cup is not a new idea, and area municipalities have discussed how they would handle possible encampments if they appear. Several people at the MARC meeting said they had heard about the possibility of fans camping. Watson pressed the point directly: “Have you heard of anything as such, where they plan to use open public spaces to camp?” She then asked, “Are (we) prepared for that?”

What makes the issue more immediate is that overnight camping is not allowed in city parks in Kansas City or Kansas City, Kansas. The Beacon spoke with area officials and campgrounds to explore how likely fan camping really is during the tournament, but the warning from Watson showed that the question has already moved from speculation to local planning.

For now, the gap between projected attendance and available hotel rooms is what officials are watching most closely. If the expected crowds arrive as forecast, the real test may not be how many people come, but where they sleep.