KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There are 20 people listed on the Kansas City 2026 Board of Directors and while Katherine Holland directed a successful FIFA World Cup bid, Karen Daniel will serve as Board of Directors president and is more than capable of stewarding the three year plan to 2026.
“It is not a long time away, but I’m excited about this next step. This had to happen,” Holland said.
“I love Kansas City, I love the fact that we’re going to be on the World stage and it’s an opportunity to showcase who we are as a community and as a region,” Daniel said.
A former CFO of Black and Veatch and community leader along with joining the ownership group of the Royals in 2020. Daniel’s understands its big task but ready for the challenge.
“My reputation would be that I’m comfortable bringing forward issues, especially complicated ones, but I’m also really proud of the fact that I can bring different groups of people together and come out on the other side of it with a much better project,” she said.
One of those first tasks is infrastructure.
“We have the infrastructure in place, we might need to create some things temporarily, but we have it in place, we have the hotel rooms — KC’s one of the easiest host cities to navigate,” Holland said.
FIFA and the city have contract signed to meet certain deadlines. There’s the issue of money and how much a private of public split is involved with raising the necessary finances, but she has the backing of many.
“She’s obviously been a very well respected executive in the KC area, has done a lot of things from a philanthropy standpoint and we’re very lucky to have someone like her who’s willing to dedicate the time and it will be a lot of time,” said Chiefs owner Clark Hunt.
So with the board in place and strategy in place, Daniel is ready.
“We will have a plan a schedule of activities, who’s going to do it, who’s going to execute and work our way to the end,” she said.
