KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After two championship parades in the past five years, Kansas City is taking note of what they can improve on for major events in the future.
City leaders say there were a few hiccups, but few incidents during the Chiefs Championship Parade on Wednesday.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas credits the learning process from the Kansas City Royals World Series Championship parade in 2015.
"I mean the lessons that we learned from the 2015 parade were completely deployed for our 2020 parade," Lucas said.
Fans can only hope more championship parades will come through Kansas City. When they do, the parade route will mimic Wednesday's.
"The parade route needs to be straight so there is access off of both directions the entire day and that's why that route was decided upon, which made it much more convenient for not only spectators but for emergency services," Kansas City Sports Commission president and CEO Kathy Nelson said.
In addition to the parade route change, city leaders made new additions to ensure the day went smoothly. These included more restrooms and plans for lost children.
"A lot of folks have talked about the number of restroom facilities that we had, a lot of folks have talked about I think our incredible improvements on public transportation issues and frankly in crowd control, I think we've done a much better job at ingress and egress, particularly the rally side," Lucas said.
Fans told 41 Action News getting to and from the parade was one of the biggest improvements this time around.
"The ride was awesome, yeah, didn’t have to worry about parking and didn’t have to worry about the little extra stuff so yeah it was awesome real easy. Real easy to get to and from," parade-goer Lisa McCrary said.
With another parade under her belt, Nelson said the commission is on to its next big thing.
"We had NCAA Championship bids due this week, of all weeks out of the entire month, we had 28 bids due on Feb. 3," she said. "We ended up submitting them all on Saturday because of course then the Super Bowl was Sunday."
On top of the NCAA Championship, the commission is also dealing with the 2023 NFL Draft coming to Kansas City, as well as their bid for the 2026 World Cup.
"There are days that I wake up and think, somebody will tell me one of these days that pinch me and it's time to wake up now, none of this has happening, but no, I look at this visual and think, wow that all came together and it came together just right, and that's how I feel about yesterday," Nelson said
Nelson told 41 Action News the World Cup biding process will ramp up in March with site visits and in person meetings.
