Ready or not, the World Cup is finally here.

It's opening day for the FIFA Fan Fest and our first stress test on whether we can handle the crowds, manage the traffic and safely host the biggest event the city has ever seen.

How did we do?

It comes in a violent week that spooks the international press.

Disruption and teen mayhem shuts down the summit.

Downtown DayZ organizers say they're now permanently ending.

The four decade old event is a public vote on the way for a new Royals ballpark, as citizens group gathers enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot.

And we pick apart some of the big political news we missed while we were gone.

Your week reviewed next week in Review, is made possible through the generous support of Bob and Marlese Gourley, the Francis Family Foundation, through the discretionary fund of David and Janice Francis, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Nick Haines, and thank you for joining us on our journey through the most impactful, confusing and downright head scratching local news stories.

We're finally back after our extended membership drive and just in the nick of time we've got so much to talk about.

With us is KMBC nine news anchor Chris Ketz, who has been broadcasting all week long from Union Station right next to the FIFA Fan Festival site.

Also with us, KCUR's chief political analyst Brian Ellison from our metro's newest newspaper, Next Page.

KC Eric Wesson and former star staff, now Mr.

Kansas City.

Stack on Substack.

Dave Helling now ready or not, the World Cup is finally here.

It is opening day for the FIFA Fan Fest next to the World War One museum, and our first stress test on whether we can handle the crowds, manage the traffic and safely host the biggest event the city has ever seen.

Our local World Cup leadership said they would cap daily attendance of the event to 25,000 people.

Chris Katz did they need to worry to that?

Many people come not on day one, but it was day one, so the sample size is still smaller than a few thousand people.

A little bit of a hiccup.

People were late getting in because of the weather.

There was lightning in the area, so that did delay things.

There was a pretty decent crowd once the match.

The opening match in in Mexico City, once that started, once it was shown on the big screens, I think people had generally had a very good time.

There's going to be live entertainment Friday night, so I suspect that attendance number will be bumped.

And the United States is playing Friday night right after the show.

So you can still watch the show Friday and then watch the US game.

The numbers might go up for that, but what are the whole parts of this whole, Fan Fest event was to try and learn the lessons from the NFL draft, which was people complained at the time that businesses outside of the festival site didn't get any business, no foot traffic.

This was designed to be that you'd go to other places.

So I saw, okay, how to watch party for that Mexico game.

You can go to so many other places.

18th and vine.

There are many other places you can see this.

Yeah.

This does seem a different attitude than the NFL draft party, where people just sort of crawled into the space and stayed there.

People could come and go freely.

It was free admission, remember?

You had to register, but it's a free ticket to the fan festival.

Also, I think FIFA was intentional about trying to involve local businesses inside the gates as well.

So local restaurants were represented in that sort of thing.

I think as Chris said, though, it's still early.

We're going to see what the impact is in the long run.

I have heard from local restaurants in the crossroads and around that area that they have not seen any significant difference in their reservations or their business.

It's not worse, but it's not better.

What what was the reaction you been hearing, Eric?

How are they going to get people to 18th and vine?

What's going to be the attraction to get people down there?

Some of the black businesses are at Union Station with the Prospect Business Association.

They have booths down there to attract people.

But what I'm hearing is it's still not a lot of foot traffic.

I've talked to several people that travel fly a lot.

They're saying there's no difference on the planes and those kind of things.

And and interestingly enough, this week they announced that the, FFA was doing away with 5000 hotel rooms during the peak time.

They reserved 5000.

They're doing away with 75% of them.

So they cancel 75% of those hotel rooms.

Yeah.

Which yeah, I could yeah.

Which is why they didn't see as many hotel rooms booked.

Right.

I think the acid test really for the fan Fest will be Tuesday, won't it, NEC when the first game is played in Kansas City, because they want to use that as sort of the central hub to get people to and from the game.

And that will be, that's a an order of magnitude more difficult in some ways than just opening the doors for a concert or a or a game.

So we'll see how that works out.

I do think ultimately the World Cup in Kansas City will be will do better than expected, but worse than predicted, if that makes any sense that you're not going to get 650,000 visitors.

I don't think over the 2 or 3 four week period that you have the World Cup here.

But but I do think they're going to do better, in part because, and it's sort of news striking news to me.

The, the Mexico game showed the ethnicity, if you will, of Kansas City.

The Mexican fans are coming out and the and the Netherlands fans are coming out.

That's mostly hidden in our community.

But and the early being celebrated that we saw orange and even an old laser which has a very large LGBT population.

So they're coming out with pride.

Fun.

Yeah.

But but this event, the Fan Fest, was designed for people who couldn't afford necessarily to go to see all of these games.

They can't afford to go to fans.

Well, that was the deal.

You know, for an event that was supposed to be welcoming to people who couldn't afford those tickets, how did $19 for a beer go down with visitors?

Eric?

Well, that would be off the chain.

We were talking about, you know, people getting sauced.

And I was sitting here thinking, you know, at $20 a beer, they're probably not going to really be in that sauce.

Oh, you're looking at it right now.

It's not just $19 for beer.

It's it's $28 for a mixed drink.

This is an expensive thing to be at.

I asked the producers, though.

We have a lot of young producers.

I asked them, I said, look at these.

You go to a lot of events and they say, well, you know, it is a free event after all.

So, you know, paid to go in and I got to hand it to the crack reporting from the Kansas City Star, which did an ounce by ounce analysis and reported in their reporting that the NFL average beer price is $0.61 an ounce, FIFA only 72 to $0.76 an ounce.

It's not that much more.

And I think that's probably what fans will say is, well, this is what happens when you go out to a big sporting event.

Absolutely.

But I think a lot of revenue is expected for the city in this endeavor.

I think, Mayor Lucas has a lot riding on being able to generate sales tax and revenue.

Yeah.

Okay.

Cool.

And just I think that that may be when we look back on this.

Nick, the biggest messaging mistake of the entire World Cup, if you simply put it in financial terms, then people are going to judge it on how well it was financed because the money come back.

Did we earn this?

Did the businesses get the traffic they expected?

If, however, you sell the World Cup, it's sort of a fun summer party for Kansas City and come join it and have fun.

Then people might judge it on that basis.

So far, that doesn't seem to be where people are looking and that maybe you're missing out on some people, particularly overseas, look at Kansas City differently, and that's certainly happened this week.

It didn't help that Kansas City was welcoming visitors at the same time.

It was experiencing a shockingly high level of violence.

12 people shot in three days, two dead, nine of those hit and another licensed club on Troost Avenue.

Two killed inside a quick trip on Westport Road.

The storyline made global news with concerns about fans and players in Kansas City for the World Cup.

One of the UK's most read newspapers ran a front page headline Footy fears mass shooting just five miles from England's World Cup base camp Matt, which Lucas was quick to declare the tournament's safe, have absolutely no concern about our ability to deliver public safety for visitors and guests during the World Cup.

None whatsoever.

Now, on social media, it seemed like a lot of Kansas City ins were joining with the mayor on this, calling this a clickbait non-news story.

Trust is nowhere near where the England team will play or stay, but how we become accustomed to violence in certain parts of the city.

Do we get indignant when people from other countries are surprised and shocked?

That happens so frequently here?

We know the difference between where these crimes occurred and where the where the UK team is staying.

We know the difference between where it happened and Prairie Village.

The problem is they don't know that at the BBC.

They don't know that some of these other overseas news outlets, which are looking at the story, they're doing the math and saying, yeah, it's it's not that far.

One Argentinian TV crew actually did a whole broadcast from the parking lot where those nine people were shot on Tuesday evening.

Yeah.

And okay, so usually when you have mass shootings like this, you usually have the chief of police out saying, hey, people are going to be safe.

This is our program.

This is our plan to make sure that people are safe.

It's a really bad look to me, and it might just be me to have the mayor do it.

You chief, but she's got plenty on our hands right now.

Host hosting this whole event.

But but let's go back and let's look outside of the the Chiefs parade.

You haven't seen her when there's been incidents like this.

So she does have a lot on her hands, but she's got a big responsibility as well right now.

Both things can be true, Nick.

It can be true that the international press doesn't understand the difference between Prairie Village and Troost Avenue, and that there is also Slope Park, which is where they playing the England team, which is very close.

That's true.

But it's.

But it's still ten minutes.

Five, five miles.

But but here is but here is what is also true.

This city has a gun violence problem that doesn't change that.

It was true before the World Cup.

It's going to be true after the World Cup.

And we shouldn't downplay that or treat this as an insignificant event.

Just because it wasn't near English soccer players.

Now, it was also the week in which Lee's Summit announced it was scrapping its annual Downtown Days event after mass disturbances and property damage.

This is a 40 year old event that was a fatal shooting death.

If you remember it first Fridays and the event still goes on a fatality at the Chiefs parade.

And yet we still host parades in the same location.

What made this so different that they have to scrap the event entirely?

I think it's suburban location.

Probably might have had something to do with it.

Of course, we all know that they had had problems at the two previous events there in Lee's Summit.

Obviously it got far worse this time around, and I think the decision that was made, I think is entirely understandable.

But but changing it around, doing different things with it, canceling it after 40 years entirely.

Yeah, it was pretty.

It was pretty off the chain.

I've seen a lot of video footage of it, and it was really out of control.

Unless they brought the Jackson County sheriff's saying maybe to help contain it or provide additional security, because apparently the least seven police can't do it by themselves.

And they did call in the police, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, even the Missouri Highway Patrol troopers.

But it was already out of hand by the time they did that.

If they had had done that at the beginning, it might have been able to contain it so that it didn't get so out of out of hand.

Don't you think that part of the problem is not just the the fear, the public safety risk that's perceived, but it's the way it attacks sort of the self-image that a suburban community like Lee's Summit has of itself.

Same thing would be true in a lot of Johnson County communities.

A lot of the Northland.

It's not that there isn't crime in those places or that there aren't public disturbances, but they have this image of themselves that this isn't the kind of place where this happens and when it has now happened so publicly and prominently, they feel like they have to respond.

And here community leaders said, we're just not going to do it.

But they have to the parents, the parents, the parents, the parents have to take a lot of responsibility for this, because you had a lot of kids that I saw on those videos, I am absolutely certain their parents weren't there and they were just out of control.

So there has to be a focus on getting parents engaged in these kind of things so that these outcomes don't happen like this.

All the time.

Is there going to be a public vote on the new Royals ballpark?

After all, a citizens group says it has gathered enough signatures to force an election on the $600 million in city incentives for a proposed Royals ballpark at Crown Center.

The activist group Missouri Workers Power says it collected 4500 signatures in just two weeks, more than double the roughly 2000 needed to trigger a citywide vote.

Why should we have to give a billionaire $600 million of our tax money and not have a say in it?

That's what this process in this moment is all about.

The petition signatures are now being counted and verified.

If enough signatures are validated, what happens then?

Dave, let's be clear the petitions would not force a vote on the stadium.

It would force a vote on a vote on the stadium.

Or at least that's the what's the difference?

Well, what it says is what the petition says is, do you approve an ordinance that would prohibit city involvement in a new stadium absent a vote of the people?

And so if they wanted to proceed, then they would have to put the stadium on the ballot sometime, presumably next year.

I think it's safe to assume they have enough valid signatures.

They turned in twice what they really need.

The city has 60 days then to decide whether or not to adopt the ordinance, which they could simply do, and forego the vote.

Or they could put it on the ballot, one assumes in November, if it passes, then you'd have to have another vote on the stadium sometime next year.

Now, Mayor Quinton Lucas has, suggested implicitly, not explicitly, that they can drag this thing out and stall and file court challenges if they want, and make it difficult to pass this initiative prior to a final agreement on the stadium.

I think that would almost certainly force a court battle.

I'm actually really interested in whether the filing of this petition might actually incentivize the city to move more quickly in, closing this deal, there's been concern about the delay or wondering where it is if the vote is going to happen in November, but any contracts that are signed before that vote happens are going to be sort of grand parents.

Can they can they can they work quickly, though?

I mean, we haven't heard a huge amount about the stadium since.

And I you as you mentioned, there are stories this week about how state lawmakers, the governor, that the city hasn't even asked for any state money at this point that's still up in the air.

That's right.

The state money is sort of pending request.

The money has been approved by the legislature, more or less, but there are requirements that have to be met.

And apparently that, that, that, that ask hasn't been made.

On the other hand, the team and the city officials say it just is a long process.

There's a lot of things to work out.

Even though with the Missouri auditor this week was saying there's going to be a $1.7 billion deficit in the state of Missouri next year, it would they have the money to do this?

Is that a concern?

The money the money has been approved.

I mean, there's questions about whether Missouri is going to have the money to do, to fund education with, its surplus dwindling to almost nothing now in the past session.

Can I just throw in very quickly?

Go ahead.

I'm so confused about the 600 million because I'm thinking that is coming from the sales tax revenue around the stadium, and it's not necessarily tax dollars like you pay earnings tax.

And those things.

Let's be let's repeat it as often as we need to.

The sales taxes from a stadium will not pay the city's portion of the construction costs of $600 million.

You'll have to collect it from additional areas in and around the stadium.

And that would be money that would typically go to City Hall for general spending.

So I think the implication of the petition is you've got a hell of a mess on your hands, unless you can sit down with the committee and say, look at some level, we'll have a vote on this going forward.

The other thing to remember is that if there is a vote, if there is that second vote on whether to approve this stadium plan, I don't think there's any reason to assume that will fail.

I think there actually is a lot of public support for the newest plan for the downtown stadium, and that might be the strategy that both the team and the city should think about is right.

Trying to win that public vote instead of trying to avoid that.

Correct.

And I think that's what the airport showed us.

Yes, that there was opposition to it, but that opposition was overcome by a well-run, campaign that explained what was going on.

And it passed overwhelmingly.

And the fear that a stadium downtown would not pass voters muster, I think, is, is counterproductive, as Brian suggests.

Now, while we were gone, there were lots of stunning local election developments topping the list.

Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog announcing he's making a last minute bid to be governor of Kansas.

We needed somebody from outside the legislature.

I said, mayor, it is my job to make sure our city is focused on the things that matter most to our neighbors.

We build consensus and community.

We don't have time to be divisive.

Now.

There are two Johnson County state senators already in this Democratic primary.

What does he think he offers that they don't?

Chris, first of all, the fact that Kurt's got on the race at all, I think was a surprise to a lot of people, though there was talk, a couple of days before the announcement was made that he might be looking at the race.

You have three Johnson County and on the Democratic side now running for governor.

And I don't know that that plays well outside of Johnson County.

So there's that.

But I think there's maybe Kurt Skewed got on the race because he didn't think the other two had a chance to beat at least the front runner right now.

Ty Masterson I mean I think that's right.

Even even if Skoog is correctly diagnosing the problem, though, he said that none of the other candidates were gaining traction.

What is unclear is whether he is the solution to that problem.

The if the problem with their gaining traction is that nobody knows them outside of their Johnson County legislative districts, I'm not sure that the mayor of Overland Park is any better known across the state than they are.

And have you heard Governor Laura Kelly Cinch, another local leader, so brutally issue did Skoog.

She called his candidacy, quote, thrown together opportunistic and foolhardy.

Yeah, because I think she fears that Kurt Skoog and Ethan Corson, who the candidate she has endorsed, will sort of compete for the middle lane in the Democratic Party in Kansas, split that vote and then allow Cindy Hauser, who is more to the left of, most of the people in her party in the state, to so come the nominee, this race hurts Ethan Corson.

Well, that's the theory.

I think the initial theory was.

No, it hurts her because they're both from Overland Park, and.

But I think the theory now is that the middle lane would be split and that would allow, again, a more progressive candidate like Cindy Hauser to win against, presumably if Tim Masterson is the nominee.

A very stark contrast.

And I think that may have prompted Skoog to get into the race, but but, who knows why.

Sometimes candidates decide to run for office, that it's a mystery.

Now, on the Republican side, President Trump has put his thumb on the scale and endorsed Kansas Senate President Tim Masterson decided to go in with the battle tested, proven leader.

I mean, that's that's really what it came down to.

They didn't they didn't want to gamble.

Is President Trump's endorsement enough to propel Masterson to the GOP nomination?

What is really already a very crowded field there?

I think in a multi, person field where it may only take 20, 24% to to win that nomination.

Yes, I think that is probably enough to propel him to victory.

What it is not necessarily enough to do is propel him to victory in the general election, as we've seen in the past, two gubernatorial races in Kansas, where the Trump endorsed candidate did not succeed in defeating the Democrat, I think the bigger question is, will Kansas farmers listen to that endorsement?

Because a couple of them that I've seen on TV and, I've dealt with with emails, they're not really happy about the way the, the field system is going with their fertilizer.

With some of the other things that are going.

So I don't know if that's going to be enough to get him across the finish line in the general election.

The thing that will be interesting in the general will be whether or not the Chiefs stadium is an issue, because there's real disagreement in both parties.

Yes, about whether that was a good deal or not.

Cindy Hillshire is very critical of it.

Ethan Corson and Kurt Skoog have supported it.

On the Democratic side, there was a 2 to 2 split in the debate that was held the other night from the Republican candidates.

Masterson backing it, backing the deal, as did Scott Schwab.

The other two candidates, sorry, Nikki and Charlotte O'Hara, were against it.

So I think the verdict is still out over whether or not people think the chief's agreement was a good deal for the state of Kansas, and that could be if certain the candidates win.

And an interesting exchange in the fall.

Now, Trump's endorsement, by the way, did have a big effect.

It prompted former Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer to pull out of the race entirely.

So who did he what what what did that actually do to that race?

Well, again, Colyer was presumably the middle lane candidate for the Republicans in a, wide field that, involves name recognition.

He had for he had served as governor.

He was well known in the area.

Now he was from Johnson County, too.

So it starts to get a little weird.

The word was that Collier was actually putting the pressure on the Trump people to find him a job in the administration, and he would back out of this race.

There is no indication yet that that's going to be forthcoming.

It could come at some point, but it did clear the field in some ways for Ty Masterson.

If that turns out to be the dynamic on the record, it seems hard to believe they couldn't find a spot for him.

Think about all the local politicians who have already landed big jobs in the Trump administration.

Did you see the man now leading the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which is in charge of America's currency in the new $250 Trump note, is none other than former Johnson County commissioner and Kansas Republican Party leader Mike Brown, who was also a homebuilder.

Don't forget, former Missouri Congressman Billy Long is now ambassador to Iceland and former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is now deputy director of the FBI.

Isn't Collier in the running for something at least as big as that?

Eric?

Come on, at least an ambassadorship.

I mean, come on, he could be in charge of, stoplights or something across the country, but the raid on him, I charge to reflect how and where you go.

I'm sure there's a job for him there somewhere.

Whether or not he accepts that, that'll probably be a whole nother conversation.

When you put a program like this together every week, you can't get to every story grabbing the headlines.

What was the big local story we missed, man, this guy messed up.

A week after Kansas City reinstated bus fares, he temporarily hits the pause button after widespread rider confusion and technical snafu as is Kansas City streetcar line about to grow again.

Streetcar officials host public meetings this week for an extension line to North Kansas City.

That many booze ban finally takes effect this week.

Liquor store owners are still fighting it in the courtroom, arguing the ban unfairly targets only selected areas of the city.

Work is underway to finally relight Kansas City's iconic Western Auto sign, but it looks like it won't be ready in time to greet World Cup visitors.

Anger in Johnson County over a decision to close eight advanced voting locations.

Critics smell politics.

County's top election official says it's about opening up new voting locations in faster growing parts of the county.

And then there's this.

Good morning, Kansas City.

Steven Spielberg's new sci fi thriller lands in theaters across the country.

It's supposed to be set in Kansas City, but despite local touches like Kansas City Royals signs and kcpd police cruisers.

The film was shot in New York and New Jersey, where more generous tax incentives won the production.

All righty, Chris Katz, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

You know, it just dawned on me with this movie coming and this alien invasion presumably coming with the movie.

There's where all the additional fans for the World Cup are coming to Kansas.

They're all going to be aliens.

I love it.

Dave, soccer is huge, by the way.

In other galaxies we find out the hard universal game.

The.

Speaking of soccer and sports in Kansas City, the Kansas City Courant is now asking for enormous tax increment financing help for a $1.4 billion expansion of their stadium with a parking garage and other amenities along the riverfront.

Kansas City's bet on sporting activities as a way to generate interest and revenue in the city.

Not just this stadium, of course, but Royals, Chiefs all the other stuff is an interesting, fascinating story and may be told over the next 10 to 20 years in our community.

Bob, we got the money for it though, Dave.

We'll find out the hard way.

I had to, I have to.

The ribbon cuttings on 18th and vine.

They had them for the 18th and 18th Street at Street Way.

So it's all pedestrian.

The nice parking garage and a boom out there.

And none of those projects were complete.

I don't know why they were having the ribbon cutting, but my other one was the busses.

That's an interesting argument and a conversation among people that ride the bus because they weren't confused.

But today I have a press release in the paper that says Monday better have the bus fare.

You're not getting on the bus.

We also had ribbon cuttings here on East 31st Street for all the improvements they've done right outside of our studios.

And if you notice today how many road closed and things I said that it was not complete.

Yes, Brian, I want to draw attention to the Kansas City Pride Parade and festival that happened last week, and thousands of individuals there celebrating.

There was a tone of defiance, but also a ton of joy at a time when in Kansas and Missouri, the LGBTQ community would say it has not had a lot to celebrate.

Even so, this very week, the Department of Education announced further investigations of Kansas schools over their policies on gender.

That includes Shawnee Mission and also indeed possibly for violating this administration's understanding of title nine.

And on that, we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of Eric Wesson from next page KC and CNBC's Chris Ketz from KCUR News Brian Ellison and news icon and Mr.

Kansas City star back on Substack.

Dave Helling and I'm Nick Haines from all of us here at Kansas City PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.