Henry Epp

Susan Brown, head of the Kansas City Short Term Rental Alliance, wants them to be prepared.

Her group is holding crash courses to get new hosts up to speed.

The city of Kansas City, Missouri, usually charges $200 to register a short-term rental.

For the World Cup, it's cutting that to $50.

Brown says getting more hosts up and running will help spread around the hundreds of millions of dollars expected to flow into the region.

The average homeowner, that is.

Michael Frisch is an associate professor of urban planning and design at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

He thinks some property owners might not renew leases in the spring so they can rent out their units to World Cup fans, even though he says there isn't enough housing in the region.

Advocates for renters are bracing themselves.

Tara Raghavir heads up the local tenant union KC Tenants.

She says she hasn't seen many renters getting pushed out yet.

But the Cup is also pushing some developers to bring new housing online.

Bob Mayer is a senior partner at Exact Architects in Kansas City.

His firm is converting an old office building downtown.

The plan is for the 49-unit building to be open by April, a few months ahead of the World Cup.

Mayer says half of those apartments will be available short-term during the Cup, then turn into longer-term rentals.

In suburban Parkville, Roxanna Chaffee is waiting for soccer fans to start reserving her place.

So far, she hasn't gotten any World Cup bookings, but there's still six months to go.

I'm Henry Epp for Marketplace.

IS whispers.