Why KCMO pushed to lock down ‘Kansas City’ brand ahead of its biggest sports event yet

With World Cup visitors already eyeing plane tickets to Kansas City for matches opening in June 2026, clarity around what constitutes “Kansas City” will be key, said Quinton Lucas, who in late 2024 made moves to restrict labeling the city’s name on certain projects.

The effort aims to authentically represent KCMO on the world’s stage, the mayor’s office said. And it could play a role in how entities across the region present themselves as an estimated 600,000 soccer fans descend on the metro.

Temporary signage welcoming visitors to Kansas City’s new airport terminal; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

“It’s not about limiting the use of our name or not allowing the community to define Kansas City, but maintaining the integrity of our City and community’s brand and preventing potential confusion that could harm our city’s reputation,” said Lucas, who is mayor of Kansas City, Missouri.

Concerns arose at City Hall in September when leaders from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, announced plans to change the name of their airport in south central Jackson County to “Greater Kansas City Regional Airport.”

By December, KCMO’s city council approved an ordinance “establishing the City’s policy for the use of the name ‘Kansas City’ by entities other than the City of Kansas City, and directing the City Manager to ensure legal protections for the City’s intellectual property.”

The mayor notes that the ordinance “does not restrict private businesses.”

“Companies can continue to use the Kansas City name, as long as their usage does not create misleading representations about official city affiliation,” he said, alluding to the fair use of brands like Made in Kansas City, Shop Local KC and others that have taken on the hometown moniker.

Lucas later announced that the metro’s downtown airport would rebrand to Kansas City “Downtown Airport – Wheeler Field” and said that he “understood” that Lee’s Summit’s airport “Kansas City – Lee’s Summit Airport” name change “has been approved.” Those changes are expected to take hold this summer.

Officials contacted in Lee’s Summit and Kansas City, Kansas, did not respond to requests for comment.

Local and state officials stand together in May 2023 at Union Station in Kansas City during an event to unveil marketing and preparations for the World Cup in 2026; photo by Channa Steinmetz, Startland News

What legal authority does KCMO have?

KCMO flexed its muscle on naming rights, but the apparent win in the airport situation might have reflected more on the power of Lucas’ and the city’s influence than true legal authority, one expert said.

“My thought when I heard about it was ‘good luck to them,’” said Andrew Torrance, associate dean of graduate and international law at the University of Kansas.

Torrance believes the city’s efforts boil down to issuing a statement “meant to focus people’s minds more than an actual threat of legal action.”

When it comes to airports, Torrance said, the city has a good case. There’s a “very strong public policy argument that we should be clear about which airports are called ‘Kansas City,’” he said.

But when it comes to just controlling any brand identity around the phrase “Kansas City,” Torrance said, the city’s options are limited. For example, it would have a difficult time actually trademarking the name, he said.

“They could try and register ‘Kansas City’ as a trademark … but the trademark system makes it very hard to register a name which is descriptive,” Torrance said. “The first thing the trademark officers would say is ‘that just sounds like a description of Kansas City, and so we won’t give you the mark.’”

Lee’s Summit’s attempt to rebrand its airport with “Kansas City” was “actually quite a brilliant move” from a marketing standpoint, he added.

“Nobody knows Lee’s Summit outside of Missouri and Kansas City, so boy, if you could trade on the name Kansas City, suddenly you’re playing in the big leagues,” Torrance said

Complicating the “Kansas City” name use debate, of course, is KCMO’s proximity to Kansas City, Kansas, next door, he added.

Mayor Quinton Lucas cheers alongside fans June 16, 2022, at Power & Light as news breaks that Kansas City will host during the 2026 World Cup; Photo by Channa Steinmetz, Startland News

Ready for the world to see KC

Torrance speculated that “everybody’s feeling a little bit vulnerable at the moment, given the uncertainty about where the (Chiefs and Royals) are going to go,” he said, referencing ongoing conversations about where two professional teams will land when their current leases at the Truman Sports Complex are up.

RELATED: Downtown KCMO ballpark remains in play as Kansas aggressively pursues Royals

For now, though, Lucas and KCMO are hanging their hats on airport name clarity, pointing to the naming convention travelers encounter elsewhere — Dallas Love Field, for example.

“It is the trend that you’re seeing in aviation to make sure you can identify the location into which someone is flying,” the mayor said in a Dec. 3 Fox4 interview.

A former spokesperson for the mayor indicated the conversation has been in the works for longer than publicly known, noting, “city officials have for some time considered adopting a new name for the downtown airport and implementing branding standards.”

That effort pairs with “a process to modernize the downtown airport and continue preparations to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors during the World Cup in 2026,” the spokesperson said, adding that, “It was the right time to … (ensure) Kansas City is represented accurately and authentically for the world to see.”

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Haines Eason is the owner of startup media agency Freelance Kansas. He went into business for himself after a stint as a managing editor on the content marketing team at A Place for Mom. Among many other roles, he has worked as a communications professional at KU and as a journalist with work in places like The Guardian, Eater and KANSAS! Magazine. Learn about him and Freelance Kansas on LinkedIn and Facebook.