Kansas City 'Potemkin Village' World Cup 2026 Economics Explained

As always, it's important to define terms . . . 

"In politics and economics, a Potemkin village is a construction (literal or figurative) whose purpose is to provide an external façade to a situation, to make people believe that the situation is better than it actually is. The term comes from stories of a fake portable village built by Grigory Potemkin, a field marshal and former lover of Empress Catherine II, solely to impress the Empress during her journey to Crimea in 1787."

 Even better . . .

In this passage, tax fighter bloggers share their perspective on how this tactic might apply to recent global soccer adventures . . . Check-it:  

There’s a long track record of inflated claims around the economic benefits of hosting major sporting events. Economists Robert Baade and Victor Matheson found that the 1994 World Cup resulted not in a $4 billion boost, as advertised, but in a net loss between $5.5 billion and $9.3 billion across host cities. Despite this, city officials—and their usual partners in the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Council—continue to market the 2026 event as transformational for Kansas City.

A recent article outlines the Small Business Storefront Vacancy Revitalization initiative, under which the city will offer up to $25,000 per year in rent subsidies to small businesses that occupy empty retail spaces. The goal is to fill downtown with activity and present a more vibrant environment to World Cup visitors.

But if the World Cup were the growth engine it’s advertised to be, wouldn’t businesses already be competing for these spaces?

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Show-Me Blog: Kansas City’s World Cup Potemkin Village

Developing . . .