KC "scored" all World Cup long
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Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
Kansas City just beat every other U.S. World Cup host city in one unofficial competition: dating the visitors.
Why it matters: Four years ago, a national ranking named KC the worst city for dating in America, citing too few young singles spread across too much sprawl.
- Apparently, all we needed was the world to come to us.
Zoom in: 86% of KC singles say their dating or hookup activity increased since the tournament began, the biggest jump among the 11 U.S. host cities, beating Houston (74%) and Miami (69%) per a DatingAdvice.com survey of 1,000 singles conducted in June.
- Yes, we out-flirted Miami.
Zoom out: Across host cities, 44% of singles say they dated or hooked up with a World Cup visitor, and 80% matched with someone on a dating app during the tournament.
- Ask host-city singles what drew them to World Cup visitors and it wasn't looks. More than 1 in 5 cited the accent, nearly double the share who picked physical attraction.
- The most active daters were boomers. 52% said they dated or hooked up with a visitor.
- Singles' top pick? Fans from Argentina and Brazil. Argentina then fought its way back to KC for the quarterfinal, presumably for soccer reasons.
💭 Abbey's thought bubble: My advice to single friends this summer was "go outside." Revolutionary stuff. Somewhere, a matchmaker is billing $200 an hour for the same advice.
The intrigue: The city saw it coming. Public health officials planned to monitor STIs during the tournament because big events reliably raise, ahem, activity, and Planned Parenthood Great Plains prepped 5,000 safer-sex kits for soccer fans.
The fine print: Split across 11 cities, the survey's per-city samples run small, so take the bragging rights with a grain of salt.
The bottom line: Worst city for dating? KC would like a recount.