St. Joseph prepares 2026 FIFA World Cup, hotel construction

ST. JOSEPH, Mo (KQTV) -- With the 2026 FIFA World Cup on the horizon, St. Joseph prepares for visitors, as well as construction on three more hotels.

The hotels that are being constructed include a Woodspring Suites near the south belt highway, a Townplace Suites by Marriott close to Red Lobster, and the Robidoux Hotel and Conference Center near I-29.

Christian Mengel, Director of Communications and Marketing at the St. Joseph Visitors Bureau, believes these hotels are a necessary addition to the city of St. Joseph.

"If the World Cup was not happening in Kansas City, I believe these hotels would still be built," Mengel said. "We don't ever want to lose out on business to another community because we don't have the supply to meet the demand."

Despite such a massive event coming to Missouri, sold-out hotels have not reached St. Joseph just yet.

However, this is a normal statistic for events like the World Cup.

"It's within that 40-day window that people really start booking for this," Mengel said. "The biggest ramp up is actually only, like, a week out."

Kansas City is expected to see over 650,000 visitors during the time of the World Cup.

With that number, it is expected that many of them will take shelter in St. Joseph.

"We were kind of like, it's gonna be slammed because we're a good distance away, so we can be more competitive with prices," Angela Williams-Crane, general manager at Cobblestone Suites, said.

The World Cup is set to take place from June 16 to July 11.