SerpApi.Org
Earlier this month, I asked readers to weigh in on where in the city they thought The Heart of the Game - the giant heart structure that became emblematic of Kansas City during the 2026 FIFA World Cup Games - should land permanently.
I wasn’t surprised that the ask generated a fair number of responses, including several of the spaces I, too, had thought might be good spots for the sculpture - because this is just the kind of community participation that Kansas Citians love being a part of.
That was never more evident than this summer during the games themselves, when thousands showed up to make the Netherlands National Soccer team’s Oranje Fanwalk along Grand Boulevard from Power and Light to Crown Center the largest in the U.S.
And, game day after game day, Kansas City packed Fan Fest at the National World War I Museum and Memorial, where the giant red heart created a welcoming archway.
Now that the games are done, it’s just like Kansas City to hang on to the last bit of excitement and have some say in what happens next with the arch, which of course must stay in Kansas City.
As I said when I asked for input, Missouri is smack-dab in the middle of the country. We are the heart of America, so it’s fitting that the heart - constructed with a structural steel framework and clad with durable exterior materials, and designed by Populous - represents that for us.
So let’s get to it.
First, let me say the ideas were fantastic. People suggested everything from leaving it where it is to putting it outside Children’s Mercy Hospital on the Adele Hall Campus, Barney Allis Plaza and the River Market.
Among the responses that came in, most were from readers age 65 and older, and the next largest age bracket was readers age 46 to 65. But we also got input from those 31 and younger, and even some teens tapped in.
The respondents were from the Kansas City metro area on both sides of the Missouri-Kansas state line. The only exception was a reader from Omaha.
I read each response and tallied the votes. Outside Kansas City International Airport terminal got the most votes with 15.
“Somewhere at the airport where every person coming or going will see it,” one responder wrote.
“Around the airport, welcoming everyone to our state and all cities,” wrote another.
Mayor Quinton Lucas, in a social media post before the last World Cup game was played, suggested that the heart stay where it is. Leaving the heart at WWI Memorial got the second-most votes in our unscientific poll with 13, and putting it near the river and the KC Current stadium came in third.
I’m not sure whether the sculpture will be moved at all. I know that the 65-feet-tall by 85-feet-wide heart was built on site on the memorial’s lawn. And according to Bobby Sloan, principal at Populous, it includes 550 rotating lights around the perimeter of the heart and something like 15,000 linear feet of metal ribbon. It took roughly three weeks to build, light and program.
I don’t know, though, what it would take to dismantle and move it. Evidently folks seem OK should it just stay put.
But I really do like the idea of leaving the war memorial to stand in its own glory and creating a new welcome symbol in the median on the road to the airport.
