Kansas City, MO – Kansas City is preparing for a surge of visitors as it gets ready to host World Cup matches this summer, with hotel availability and short-term rentals already tightening months before the first game kicks off.

Tourism officials estimate hundreds of thousands of visitors could pass through the metro during the tournament, while the city has roughly 36,000 hotel rooms. Some of those rooms are under contract with FIFA and unavailable to the general public, adding pressure to an already competitive lodging market.

That demand is pushing some locals to take unusual steps. Adam Kinner, a short-term rental host who owns multiple properties in the Kansas City area, says he even plans to rent out his own home during the World Cup and move in with his parents.

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“I will actually be moving back into my parents’ basement,” Kinner told FOX. “The opportunity is just so large here that it would be silly not to take advantage of it.”

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President and CEO for Visit Kansas City and the Kansas City Sports Commission, Kathy Nelson, says the city has been preparing for this moment for years and is closely monitoring hotel capacity as bookings accelerate.

“The energy, the excitement, the anticipation is unbelievable,” Nelson said. “Everyone’s about to show up on our doorstep.”

Nelson says Kansas City is one of the smallest host cities in the World Cup lineup, alongside major destinations like New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, but officials are confident visitors will spread out across the region to find places to stay.

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New hotel development is also racing the clock. A 45-room boutique hotel called River Market Hotel is set to open this spring, just weeks before matches begin. The hotel’s managing member, Mike Heitman, says the timing adds pressure but also opportunity.

“It’s exciting and scary at the same time,” Heitman said. “There’s a good chance we will have been open by just a week or two.”

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Kansas City will host six World Cup matches at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, including group stage games, a knockout round, and a quarterfinal. Tourism officials estimate the event could bring more than $600 million in economic impact to the region, making it the largest tourism event the city has ever hosted.

TORONTO — The Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs played what has become a typical Atlantic Division outing: A three-point game.

Dylan Larkin ensured it would be the Wings celebrating a two-point gain in the standings when he scored at 4:07 of overtime to settle the game on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 2-1. It was a pretty finish after Moritz Seider knocked down the Leafs’ defender to get Larkin a one-on-one chance at the net.

Simon Edvinsson scored in the first period for the Wings’ only other goal.

The Wings (31-16-4, second in division because the Tampa Bay Lightning have games in hand) came into the night having won the first three meetings against the Leafs this season, with Cam Talbot stealing the first outing at Scotiabank Arena, back in October. In the second appearance in Toronto, John Gibson was in peak form, finishing with 29 saves. The Wings had 41 shots on net, including six in overtime.

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Gibson delivered to the standard he’s set since Thanksgiving in the first period, making, among his 11 saves, one on John Tavares as he barreled to the crease in an attempt to stuff the puck across the goal line. The only puck that did cross Gibson’s net was when Scott Laughton was left unattended, giving him time and space to redirect Calle Jarnkrok’s pass into the net for a 1-0 lead five minutes into the game.

The Wings had a couple quality chances during a power play a minute later, but they didn’t break Joseph Woll until the final minute of the first period. Lucas Raymond transported the puck up ice, briefly passing it to Dylan Larkin before getting it back. As Raymond skated backwards towards the goal line, he fired a pass out front that Edvinsson turned into his sixth goal of the season, with 17.7 seconds on the clock, one of 15 shots on net by the Wings in the first period.

The rapid back-and-forth continued in the second period, with Gibson making five saves just while Jacob Bernard-Docker served a penalty for tripping. He made another three when James van Riemsdyk was also called for tripping.

The Wings were called for a third penalty in the second period when officials deemed Edvinsson hooked Laughton on a breakaway, leading to a penalty shot, at 16:41. But Laughton – who has 15 goals and 22 points in his last 21 games against the Wings – fumbled the chance, with the puck slipping off his stick as he approached the net and sliding softly into the paint and into Gibson’s hands. The period ended with a scrum, as the Wings took offense to Simon Benoit knocking over Lucas Raymond.

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. 

David Stearns first brought Freddy Peralta to the Milwaukee Brewers as a teenager in a trade in 2015.

Now, he’s traded for the right-hander again.

The New York Mets acquired Peralta from the Brewers along with right-hander Tobias Myers on Jan. 21 in exchange for prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat. The final deal was first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The Journal Sentinel confirmed talks were in advanced stages.

Peralta, 29, is in the final year of his contract and is coming off an all-star campaign in which he went 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA. The Brewers cautiously shopped Peralta all off-season, holding out for what they felt like was the proper return for a top-line starting pitcher.

On its face, it’s an attention-snatching deal from Milwaukee’s perspective, one sure to raise eyebrows in parts of the league. The Brewers are coming off a franchise-record 97-win regular season and were one series away from the World Series. Elsewhere in the division, the Cubs, who were the closest in the NL Central to the Brewers’ heels last year, have made some splashy additions, most notably third baseman Alex Bregman and starting pitcher Edward Cabrera.

It’s not the typical move a team in the Brewers’ position makes. Then again, the Brewers don’t view their position in baseball’s ecosystem as typical.

Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold has repeatedly stated publicly he cannot shy away from dealing away any player because of Milwaukee’s position in the league’s smallest market.

Arnold’s blueprint is to hold onto his best players until the final year before they reach free agency, then shop them earnestly with other teams. This has borne itself out in the recent past, as the Brewers have traded away all-star pitchers Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes and Devin Williams over the past four seasons.

This is the constant balance the Brewers feel they must strike in order to remain perennially competitive – being willing to utilize their top players as trade chips in order to restock their cupboard of young talent. In receiving Williams and Sproat, both considered top-100 prospects, they hope to have done so once again.

But just because it’s part of the modus operandi doesn’t mean trading Peralta was an easy decision.

Peralta, more than maybe any of the three marquee pitchers traded before him, has earned status as a franchise pillar, beloved teammate and fan favorite. He has spent the entirety of his eight-year MLB career with Milwaukee, which acquired him on Dec. 9, 2015, from Seattle for Adam Lind in what was the first big move as newly-hired Brewers general manager for Stearns, now president of baseball operations in Queens.

One of only three pitchers in baseball with at least 200 strikeouts each of the past three seasons, Peralta is second in franchise history with 1,153 strikeouts. He was likely to break Yovani Gallardo’s record this season.

But for as good as Peralta’s year was last season – he finished fifth in Cy Young voting – the Brewers are also surely operating from an understanding that his surface numbers don’t quite match some of the underlying data.

His FIP (fielding independent pitching) was 3.64, nearly a run higher than his ERA and right in line with his career mark of 3.66. Peralta’s whiff rate actually declined from 2024, when he finished with a 3.68 ERA in 32 starts, and has been on a downward trend since 2020.

Brandon Woodruff, who accepted a qualifying offer to return to Milwaukee in November, will lead the rotation, but Brewers will try to backfill Peralta’s spot in the rotation with a slew of young arms, including Sproat, Jacob Misiorowski, Quinn Priester, Chad Patrick, Logan Henderson and Robert Gasser. The team could use Aaron Ashby or DL Hall in a starting role, as well.

Sproat, who made his MLB debut last September and worked four starts for the Mets, came in at No. 81 on Baseball America’s top 100 prospect list published hours before the trade. Sproat’s best pitch is his likely his slider, which grades out as a plus-plus offering by some analytical models. He also features a heavy sinker that averages 96-97 mph, four-seamer, biting swing-and-miss curveball and changeup.

The 2023 second-round pick was considered to be among the game’s elite pitching prospects following the 2024 season and still is considered a high-upside arm by evaluators, but a decrease in swing-and-miss in Class AAA last year led to Sproat’s stock cooling a bit.

According to Baseball America’s report: “Sproat was the last of the Mets’ talented trio of pitching prospects to reach Queens in 2025 and has one of the deeper arsenals in the system. He works with a robust six-pitch mix and has elite power across his arsenal. While there’s some reliever risk, his ability to make adjustments in Triple-A in 2025 was encouraging.”

Williams, meanwhile, stands at only 5-foot-7 but packs more punch than you’d expect in that frame. His calling cards are an electric power/speed combo as well as defensive versatility that could allow him to play both shortstop and center field.

Williams, 22, dominated Class AA last year, batting .281 with a .477 slugging percentage before a promotion to Class AAA where he struggled a bit more to make consistent quality contact, though he still popped seven homers in 34 games.

The loss of Myers throws a bit of a dent into the Brewers’ starting depth. The 27-year-old right-hander was a breakout rookie for Milwaukee in 2024, pitching to a 3.00 ERA in 27 games and throwing five shutout innings against the Mets in Game 3 of the Wild Card series, but fell out of the rotation last year.

This story will be updated.