As the FIFA World Cup came to an end Sunday with the Spain-Argentina final match, so too did the temporary, extended operating hours for bars in Kansas City.
And though The Blue Line on Walnut Street in River Market traditionally operates as a hockey bar, co-owner Letty Stegall said they saw an abundance of out-of-town soccer fans.
“We connected with a lot of customers,” said Stegall. “If we’re talking about the World Cup, we have a lot of Colombians at The Blue Line — like before they played, after they played and before they left.”
At the Laila Lounge on West 9th Street in the West Bottoms, co-owner Farhan Sheikh said the 5 a.m. extension during the World Cup helped business. His establishment made a point of playing a lot of international music, including from countries in the tournament.
Sheikh said having bars open such late hours was one of the best moves the city made during the World Cup, and the biggest crowd he prepared for was the one from Argentina.
“I brought the biggest Argentinian DJ in the world, Hernan Cattaneo,” he said, “and we had a packed house of 500 people upstairs.”
Sixteen bars were granted permission to sell alcohol and remain open until 5 a.m. during the World Cup, thanks to an ordinance passed in May by the Kansas City Council.
Now that the tournament is officially finished, Sheikh and Stegall are wondering about the possibility of a permanent extension of hours. Both businesses, and many other Kansas City bars, currently close at 3 a.m. during regular operations.
Stegall said, though the bar doesn’t receive many visitors during the day, staying open an extra two hours at night helped them achieve significant gains.
“Literally, it’s like 40% more (foot traffic) in the extra two hours,” she said. “I would say, during the week before the two extra hours, we were busy around one morning.”
Sheikh said part of the reason may be because many people from other countries go out later at night than Americans tend to.
“The bars and the clubs don’t even open until midnight; most people show up around one o’clock,” he said. “So they are used to this late-hour culture.”
And if the extended hours don’t become permanent, Stegall wonders about bringing the policy back during major events like the Big 12 basketball tournaments, future All-Star games, and other grand-scale events.
“Maybe not during the week, but the weekend will be great — why not?” asked Stegall. “Chicago has those extra hours, Vegas has those extra hours, we will not be the only one.”
She and Sheikh said it was easy to schedule staff during the extended hours, and their bar security is top tier, which was one of the determining factors for the city to grant the extension.
“My partner and me and (our) attorney, we’ve been talking about it,” said Sheikh. “We were planning on pursuing it by approaching the city and the appropriate parties to discuss this; how we can make it happen.”
Westport Regional Business League Executive Director Kerrie Tyndall said bars in that district were granted the city’s temporary extension, and bargaining for a permanent extension isn’t off the table.
“Our organization exists to support the businesses in Westport,” said Tyndall, “so if our establishments are interested in looking at that, certainly we would be willing to do whatever we can to support the businesses in our district.”
A spokesperson from the Kansas City Mayor’s Office told KCUR in an email that the city wouldn’t be opposed to the idea, if proper precautions were made — just like for the World Cup.
“Extended bar hours were always designed to be temporary,” they wrote, “and any conversation about extended hours in the future, whether for major events or otherwise, would go through that same process: listening to our businesses, our neighborhoods, and our first responders before making any decisions”
