Lodging

There are several hotels within walking distance of Children's Mercy Park:

Best Western Premier
Candlewood Suites
Country Suites
Hampton Inn
Holiday Inn Express

Great Wolf Lodge
Residence Inn

Comfort Suites - close but not walking distance

If you have kids the Great Wolf Lodge has an indoor water park attached to it. Great Wolf can be rather spendy. Another option is CoCo Keys @ Adams Mark. It is on the other side of Kansas City (about 30 min from Children Mercy Park) and is right across the street from Arrowhead and Kauffman Stadiums.

The teams will be staying at the Marriott in downtown KC.

If you chose to stay around the Plaza, here is a list of hotels.

If you can't find a room in the Legends area (the area around KC Speedway that includes Children's Mercy Park) and don't want to stay in downtown Kansas City, I would recommend getting a room near the Overland Park Convention Center. That link provides a bunch of hotels in the area. It is about a 15-20 minute drive to the stadium.

So this is a map of areas that I would stay away from when looking for a hotel. Obviously there are probably some nice areas within those highlighted areas and as well as some crappy areas that aren't highlighted. These are to give you just a rough idea. I know when I go to a new metro area its nice to know what areas to stay away from. The black star is Children's Mercy Park, the blue diamond is KCI airport, and the green circle is the Overland Park Convention Center. The Downtown Marriott, Power & Light, and the Plaza are all pretty much right in the center of town - about the "a" in Kansas City that you can see on this pic.