Abandoned KC Sports Complex Hotel To Be Re-Imagined for 2026 World Cup

The old Adam's Mark Hotel at the Truman Sports Complex at Blue Ridge Cutoff and Interstate 70 may see redevelopment before Kansas City and Arrowhead Stadium host matches for the 2026 World Cup.

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When I was a child on our first couple of baseball trips to Kansas City to see the Royals play in the late 70s, and early 80s, I was a little jealous that we didn't get to stay at the Adam's Mark. It wasn't that my seven or nine-year-old self needed to stay at a swanky high-rise hotel. It was more I wanted a room on one of the higher floors to hopefully see into the stadium. Or the fact that I just thought it was a "real" hotel. It might also had been that my parents had heard some of the teams playing the Royals stayed there.

Yet no, on our first trip we stayed at The Cottage Inn on Noland Road, what had been the original Holiday Inn in the Kansas City area, which had definitely seen better days. By our second trip, The Cottage Inn had deteriorated and we wound up at The Drury Inn near the sports complex.

In the decades that followed The Adam's Mark hotel chain would be dogged by racial discrimination investigations and allegations. The area around the Truman Sports Complex never seemed to develop as much as the hotel's developers thought it might. And finally, the coronavirus pandemic pretty much did the hotel in.

According to Fox 4 Kansas City, the hotel has been vacant since it was acquired by Community Builders Kansas City. With the FIFA World Cup coming in 2026 the builder is looking to speed up their redevelopment project on the site. The television station says there are two options.

One is a redevelopment of the hotel into a mixed-income condominium project which will lop off the top four floors of the building. Or a more ambitious project that would see the hotel fall and the site developed into a sports training facility. Kansas City Business Journal took a look at that option which seems to include a facility with a pool, indoor training fields, courts, and more. The article's paywalled though, so I couldn't access a lot more details.

If I were banking on the redevelopment I might be more inclined to bet on the sports training facility option. Why? Because it's not really all that dependent on the Royals or the Chiefs playing or staying at the Truman Sports Complex. It's a nice perk, but it doesn't really matter.

Not that a condominium project is either, yet, there's something attractive about the Royals and the Chiefs playing across the street. At this point, there's no guarantee either team will be there in ten years or twenty years. While the Chiefs seem to want to keep playing at Arrowhead and don't seem all that hung up on the location. The Royals seem more likely to make tracks for a downtown stadium.

If I'm looking at putting condos, hotels, apartments, restaurants, or any type of entertainment venue at the Sports Complex, whether or not the teams will be there long-term is going to impact that decision. Not to mention a question I have, on why that area didn't develop beyond a couple of gas stations, a Denny's, and three or four hotels throughout the complex's existence.

Right now the only thing that's clear is that for the next few years the Truman Sports Complex will house the Royals, Chiefs, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Beyond that, plans are clear as mud, so yeah, I'd go for the sports training facility.