Clark Hunt spent summers as a child traveling the world alongside his father, Lamar Hunt. Specifically, they tried never to miss the FIFA World Cup together. Those trips with his dad to see the biggest sporting event in the world are how Clark fell in love with soccer. Decades later, the 2026 World Cup arrives in Kansas City, with games being played at Arrowhead Stadium. For Clark, this is a deeply emotional moment as he is without the man who helped make this event a reality in the first place. And the man responsible for his love of the game.

“I’ll think a whole lot about my dad because he loved the sport,” Hunt recently said on FOX 4 News while reflecting on Kansas City finally hosting World Cup matches. “We have so many fond memories as a family attending World Cups together. And to have games in his favorite place on earth, Arrowhead Stadium, will be very, very meaningful for me and my family.”

One of Hunt’s core memories with his dad came during the 1974 World Cup in Germany. As the Hunts wandered through town, they encountered a soccer event set up for children and fans. Lamar encouraged Clark to join in, and they ended up kicking the ball in a makeshift goal together. Clark saw his father’s passion for soccer run deeper than Clark’s own childhood, not having grown up playing soccer himself. The moment helped shape his lifelong connection to both the sport and the World Cup itself.

Clark Hunt himself took his love for the sport onto the playing field. He played soccer at Southern Methodist University, which was a nationally ranked Division 1 program. He has now attended 12 of the last 13 World Cups himself.

Lamar Hunt was one of the most influential figures in the history of American sports. He is widely recognized as one of the founders of the American Football League and the originator of the term “Super Bowl”. Lamar spent decades building soccer infrastructure in the US.

Lamar helped found the United Soccer Association in 1967.  He also became one of the founding investors of Major League Soccer during the early 90s. MLS itself emerged partly because FIFA required the United States to establish a top-tier professional soccer league as condition as part of hosting the 1994 World Cup.

Clark described his father as perhaps the “single most important figure in the development of soccer in the United States”. Lamar’s impact on the sport eventually earned him induction into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.  The United States Soccer Federation later named its annual national championship the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

Lamar once tried to bring World Cup matches to Kansas City back in 1994. Clark Hunt remembered his father pitching to FIFA officials at Arrowhead before the 94 World Cup. He tried to sell them on the fact that the stadium is more than capable of hosting World Cup matches. Hunt believes that his father’s vision for American and Kansas City soccer may have been decades ahead of its time. Now, more than three decades later, that vision has become a reality.

Clark himself championed Kansas City’s bid for the 2026 World Cup. This time, Kansas City’s bid succeeded. Kansas City is now set to host six matches during the 2026 World Cup. This includes a massive quarterfinal match-up. The projected economic impact for the city reportedly surpasses $600 million for hosting the event. Hunt also believes that hosting the World Cup could permanently elevate the city’s international profile.

The city’s selection is notable because it’s the smallest market amongst the 16 host cities. Hunt credits Arrowhead Stadium’s reputation for hosting major events over the past few years as a key factor. He highlighted the city’s existing soccer infrastructure. This includes two professional soccer teams, Sporting Kansas City and Kansas City Current. Each boasts world-class training facilities. All of this ultimately helped push FIFA to select the city.

Clark says that many of the lessons guiding him in his success today still come directly from his father. And Lamar will be sorely missed when the World Cup arrives in June. Hunt already knows exactly who he will be thinking about most when the games begin. “Yeah, 100 percent I’ll stand up there with my sibling, and we’ll talk a lot about my dad…. how much he would have been thrilled to know that Kansas City finally got a World Cup.”