Sports, tech leaders: This is our moment to turn Kansas City’s new fans into investors
Stuart Ludlow, CTO and co-founder of VeloVisa, speaks on a sports tech panel during the Gamechangers and Champions summit in Lawrence; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News
With Kansas City’s knack for scoring big sports headlines, opportunity is on the court for the region to boost its brand as a hub for innovation, said Pam Kramer, emphasizing that the eyes of the world will be watching when the World Cup arrives this summer in the Midwest.
But the shot clock is already ticking, she warned.
“Chances are, if they know about us right now, it’s because of the Chiefs or one of our sports teams,” said Kramer, CEO of KC2026, the local organizing committee for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. “That’s amazing. We want them to be fans, but we also want them to know this is a great place to invest, a great place to start a business, a great place to raise a family.”
“So creating opportunities for investors and for startups to meet global investors who will be here for the tournament is just one of the ways we’re thinking about that,” she told a crowd gathered Tuesday for the Gamechangers and Champions summit — set in the spotlight of recent state-of-the-art renovations at the David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on the University of Kansas’ Lawrence campus.