Turn out the lights.

The party's over.

We issue a final report card on the biggest event in Kansas City history.

And if you're already missing the World Cup, we look at what you can get excited about next in Kansas City.

Plus a giddy man, Lucas, now pushing a sweet car stop at KC airport.

And as many people have now made data centers public, enemy number one, we look at plans for this 20 story data center downtown.

Those stories and the rest of the week's news straight ahead week in review is made possible through the generous support of Bob and Marlys Gourley, the Francis Family Foundation, through the discretionary fund of David and Janice Francis, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Anyway, I'll explain later.

Hello, I'm Nick Haynes, glad to have you with us again on our weekly journey through the Metro's most impactful, confusing and downright head scratching local news stories.

Hopping on board the Weekend Review bus with us this week is Mr.

City C Casey Kevin Collison, former development reporter for the Kansas City Star.

Also with us, KC one senior political analyst Brian Ellison from our Metro's newest newspaper.

Next page, Casey, Eric Wesson and former staff staffer, now Mr.

Kansas City stack on Substack.

Dave Helling, turn out the lights, the party's over.

After hosting six World Cup games, 19 days of the FIFA Fan Fest and for base camp teams, it's the week of the great dismantling as the teams and fans leave, the signs come down and crews at Arrowhead start converting Kansas City Stadium back into Chiefs Kingdom, a process apparently that could take up to a month.

But as we consider the events of the last five weeks in Kansas City, has it become a treasonable offense to say anything other than we were the best host city in the country?

Even the New York Times getting in on the act, declaring Kansas City the most.

It's the smallest city, but it has the world at its feet.

And then there's this from Chiefs owner Clark Hunt.

I think the thing that Kansas citizens can take away from this World Cup is this is no, no longer flyover country.

Kansas City is on the map, both nationally and internationally.

Wow.

So we've been flyover country up until this point.

So everything else we've done, Kevin has never quite registered anywhere.

Yeah, those Super Bowls all over us, that stuff just kind of was forgotten by the world.

I mean, you know, everybody has a right to be proud of how the community did, and did it put it on the global map?

Of course it did.

But had we never been on the global map before?

No.

And to be honest with you, when Clark Hunt decides to relocate from Dallas to Kansas City, then maybe we know we're no longer flyover country.

Yes.

Yes.

Is it becomes a treasonable offense to say that this was anything other than we were the best at doing this.

Eric.

Yeah, we were you know, the mayor was, head and shoulders above other mayors with the dancing and the interacting with, fans from other parts of the country.

But I agree, you know, we've had World Series games here.

We've had all star games.

We have hallmark cards, so to say, and we've got his football team that's won three Super Bowls.

But, I think we've done remarkably well during this period.

I do think that, Clark Hunt and others who are making that argument are saying something important, Nick, which is as we sit down as we will and add up the costs and the benefits of the World Cup, and we should do that and will do that.

You you have to count in some way the intangible benefits of having, this, five week party in our part of the country in, in pride and energy and momentum and all these other things that are extraordinarily hard to quantify and put on a balance sheet, we spent 230 million.

We got 200 million that that work will go on and needs to go on.

I've said that on this show for months, as you know, but there is a benefit of some sort that needs to be, contemplated as we decide what the World Cup.

But a lot of it seems to be still anecdotal vibe.

We don't have all of the reporting, really, given how much we spent, what, what this actually means.

But we did get one clue.

This week we saw the Bank of America survey that said we in Kansas City topped host cities.

Brian is the place with the largest increase in credit card and debit card spending during the World Cup.

Is that a solid indicator?

I think it's one indicator among many others.

And I think, like my colleagues, I think we should be very excited and proud of the work that Kansas City did.

You know, the question isn't really whether a city is on the map or off the map.

I think Kansas City was on the map.

It's whether it's, being getting on the map in, in larger print.

I think it's a gradual process that is going to happen over this event and other events in the future that will determine what Kansas City's profile on the national and international stages.

Here are some of our other top civic and elected leaders on their victory lap this week.

I think we've done a very good job of establishing on the world stage that Kansas City is a soccer destination worthy of the world's attention.

Was it successful?

Absolutely.

Today, this week.

This month is a time for our entire city to take a breath and realize what just happened and realize for the rest of our lives, we will cherish these memories.

We will always say, remember when the World Cup was in Kansas City?

I can say that we have successfully pulled it off.

The next time we have one of these, how do we make sure we get people to even more areas of our city?

How do we highlight even more businesses?

So the mayor says, next time we need to find ways to ensure more businesses feel the love is not the lesson we were supposed to have learned already from the NFL draft.

There was so much hype portrayed to so many different businesses.

Expectations were raised far beyond how they should have been raised.

And to be honest, this is the first time.

From what I understand, you've had multiple cities hosting this.

You had a phenomenon where people just would come for the game, and then they would leave and they'd come back for a game.

They did not communicate that to a lot of folks, because they were expecting people who were going to stay along.

The whole, the expectation was 650,000 people were going to camp out here for three weeks, which was completely unrealistic.

How you change that?

I think you basically giving more clear message to the people where the business is likely to go and not raise expectations in the West Bottoms, that people are going to come down there and buy house plans.

Yeah.

Eric, and in the 18th and vine area especially, I know there were the Black Business Association or Prospect Business Association had a booth set up in Union Station.

They had customers there.

But one of the interesting things was that in on the 18th Street, they spent $80,000 to do promotion.

When they did the ribbon cutting, the mayor and other city leaders were talking about, when the World Cup comes here, how you bring people down on 18 divide.

Let them see, the black archives, let them see the Negro Leagues.

Baseball people come to Kansas City just to go to 1810 vine and take a picture under the 18th and vine side.

But none of that was promoted.

There was no scheduling.

There was nothing to drive people to that area.

And I think that was an opportunity missed.

Yeah, I think that that is one of the parts of the calculus that will engage in how much money did we spend in energy, did we spend in trying to expand the World Cup audience to other parts of the community on this show and in other places?

Reporters have said, look, this is always spotty, conventions are spotty.

All these in that the NFL draft was spotty.

It may be spotty in this case as well.

So I would just repeat that, that I think we're engaged in an extraordinarily important endeavor here because we we do need to know what this cost and what we get back, but we also need to judge it, I think, in a broader context of something beyond money.

Otherwise.

Otherwise people are going to say, no, it was not worth the effort.

And, and, and we should not try it again.

It could get spotty in a different way.

Brian, I went for a physical on Monday at Saint Luke's, and as soon as I got in there, the one of the questions for screening was, did I go to any of the World Cup games and I go to Fan Fest?

Was I around international fans?

Are we expecting this explosion of health care conditions now as a result of this?

Well, I'm not a doctor.

Oh you're not, but but I will say, I think that those are the kinds of things that happen when you host major international events.

So I wouldn't be surprised.

I mean, to Dave's point, though, I do think this will be an ongoing assessment.

One of the realities, though, is that we I think we have to go back to some of the things we said before in the initial week or two of the of the events, and even before that, where we thought things were going to be way below expectations.

A lot of that did recover over the course of the last few weeks.

Hotels actually did fill up.

Businesses said, actually, we have we have.

Maybe our expectations were too high.

But it's not that our businesses have completely fallen off.

So it will take time to assess all of the results that will come up.

Another impact.

We got this email from viewer John in Party Village who writes, apparently the murder rate is down in Kansas City, ostensibly influenced rates by the World Cup on the elevated happiness of the city.

I would appreciate any observations you and the gang have on this topic.

Did it go down?

Yeah, it was at the at first there was a couple of homicides and shooting, but I think other crimes like trafficking, I think some people got arrested and charged with or trafficking and some other things.

But yeah, overall the homicide rate did go down during that.

According to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office, 21% decrease in case referrals and Kcpd data shows nonfatal shootings during the time was down by 49%.

That is right.

I mean, certainly those are encouraging numbers, though, as I've said before on this program, I think we need to be very cautious about looking at any one month or six weeks of data and comparing it to the previous year and thinking that that actually shows us something.

It's a small sample.

So now, one thing that's not going away after this World Cup is the massive red heart at the entrance to Fan Fest.

Even though we were told it wasn't built as a permanent structure and couldn't withstand the worst of Kansas City weather, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas is adamant it will stay, and he's looking at using the city's public art budget to make it a lasting legacy of the World Cup.

Well, where should it go?

Should it stay where it is?

Or would it have more impact somewhere else?

Kevin?

You know, I do think it's a marvelous sculpture.

It's kind of ironic that it was done by an architecture firm and not an actual fine artist.

And, you know, I if I would think of some of the ideas that I've heard about where it could be permanently located, I would vote for the riverfront.

We've got a beautiful riverfront starting to develop down there.

There is a new piece of sculpture that just got put up not too long ago.

It would be a wonderful accompaniment also, because we've got this great women's soccer program down there.

If we want to, I do think it should stick around.

I think it's a it's a very monumental, fun thing.

That is a nice reminder of a, of an important moment in our city's history.

And I think the riverfront would be a good place for it.

And it's going to cost, over $1 million, apparently, to make this a more permanent addition to the, landscape of Kansas City, Brian, to move it, to make sure it's weatherproof.

My, my pick would be up by the airport.

I think that and the, the median, of that drive to and from the airport would be a lovely entrance or.

Farewell to the city.

You go with our love for that big picture of the mayor is right there and on top of it.

How rude.

All righty.

Now that the World Cup is over, some people are already missing the energy and excitement it brought to town.

But what's the next big thing we can look forward to now?

Kansas City is already looking ahead.

The city is pursuing bids for the 2031 Women's World Cup and the 2031 Men's Rugby World Cup, and if the bids are successful, they'd be the last big events at Arrowhead Stadium before the Chiefs move to Kansas.

And don't rule out another men's World Cup, either.

The United States has already signaled interest in hosting again in 2038, and Clark Hunt says at its new Kansas Stadium, they wouldn't have to make so many changes because it's going to be designed with big soccer events and basketball events in mind.

With its domed roof.

They're also pumping the venue as a site for the Super Bowl, the NCAA men's final for a college football game.

WrestleMania.

Is it actually possible in the next decade?

I'm hoping we have all of those things, but I'm waiting for the World Cup of WrestleMania.

That's what it's actually.

It's a humongous event.

Yeah, no, I think I wrote a column about this.

Kansas City is making a huge bet on sports.

Huge bet.

I mean, not only in seeking these events, but of course, subsidizing the new Chiefs Stadium, and potentially the Royal Stadium downtown.

If those, TS can be crossed and I's dotted.

So, I, you know, I think we are in for a decade or more of sports being the the center, if you will, of attention in Kansas City, which again, makes it important that we sort of know what we're doing and how we're doing it.

But isn't that the only way it makes sense to the amount that we've invested already?

Why just let it sort of drift away?

I mean, I think it only makes sense if it's going to be something the city says.

This is going to become part of our identity.

This is going to be a driver for the future if we believe that can happen.

I agree with that.

But I would say that you there are trade offs, you know, there you you say, okay, we'll focus on sports.

We will not focus on schools.

We will not be able to focus on crime or whatever it is.

I mean, I'm just sort of picking around the question whether we should go half way choose to govern is I in that sense?

I love that you mentioned this because actually, when we think about it and it was great that we were hosting it with the only people in the Midwest, but the Denver's of the world in Minneapolis, Chicago either didn't submit a bid or pulled their bids because of the huge financial obligations.

They didn't want to pay for doing that, certainly.

I mean, each individual community made a choice about what they wanted to commit to this.

But you just mentioned several cities, and I could mention another menu full of cities that are doing the same thing is Kansas City.

We are not in a bubble.

They're building new stadiums and new arenas throughout the country.

That battle got lost a long time ago in the United States of America.

There's one I want to lift up of those events that you mentioned, Nick, which is the Women's World Cup in particular.

That event, among all of those possibilities stands out to me as a as a no brainer for Kansas City.

We've promoted ourselves as soccer city, USA women's sports and and and our absolute pioneers with the building of the current stadium.

It seems to me that that's one that if Kansas City were not part of the Women's World Cup in the U.S., that would be a huge disappointment.

I love coming up, by the way, Beyond Sports in Kansas City, which is going to be the biggest game changer.

Take a look at this.

After a Sparky store opens next year next to the Kansas Speedway, the new 4000 seat Kansas City Symphony concert space is set to open in 2028.

Just off the plaza.

The Roy Blunt Luminary Park, formerly known as the South Loop Project, is scheduled to open in 2029.

Barbie World will welcome its first visitors in 2030 next to the Legends in Wyandotte County, and the new Royals ballpark is set to open in late 2030 or early 2031.

Which one will have the biggest impact on Kansas City?

Which is the one you're looking forward to?

Kevin, no question, the Royals Stadium is going to have the biggest impact on the downtown and the city in general, and I'm definitely I've been more than the Buc-Ees store that's in, you know, Buc-Ee's if I'm on the road from Cleveland to Denver and I'm looking for a great place for a yogurt, I'm going to hit Bucky's.

A lot of people go to Bucky's for yogurt.

Yes.

And don't forget the wall of beef jerky.

Yeah.

I'm saying yeah.

No.

I agree with Kevin that I think the Royal Stadium has the most, possibility for profound impact, which is not to negate the fact that there are still serious questions that that Dave and others have raised about whether it should go forward.

I'm sure there's still serious questions about the South Loop project now called the Roy Blunt Luminary.

Yes as well.

Yes, yes, we'll see if there's funding for that.

One of the things I did want to mention that you talked about the women's World Cup and rugby and other things, and there's discussion of trying to keep Arrowhead Stadium open after 2031, to host events like this.

That discussion bears a lot of scrutiny because of the expense of maintaining a stadium that you don't use very often.

So let's keep our eye on what happens to the Truman Sports Complex as the new Royal Stadium and as the Chiefs, stadium open.

Giddy with enthusiasm about how Kansas City hosted the World Cup, met Quinton Lucas is dreaming big.

He's now calling for expanding the streetcar line to KCI airport.

He says it's one of the top three items on his wish list, declaring that a streetcar stop to the airport.

The grand Kahuna that would make Kansas City a real place, is that the new definition of what makes a great city?

Kevin?

I think rail transit certainly helps define a great city.

And I'm very happy we had our streetcar line in, in for this World Cup, because it showed that this city is offering the same kind of rail transit options that other cities that many of these fans came from.

As far as no more conversations about streetcar until we figure out a way to pay for it, everybody keeps throwing out ideas.

Quinton is the latest in number.

And number two, streetcar is not the way to go to the airport.

If the billions of dollars for race.

We've got to figure out as a community how to pay our local share.

And that's assuming there's a federal government that's going to be ready to match what we did.

But Quinton, if he really wants to leave a legacy, he should start the heavy lifting of trying to assemble the kind of, public, effort to come up with a local matching source.

Right.

There is absolutely no way the federal and state funding will be there for that.

However, there was a really reliable, well planned bus service from the airport to Midtown, throughout the World Cup.

And, busses are not so different from streetcars and are in fact not limited to one lane.

That's essentially because there was also a push to have that continue.

And I see Johnson County has already said they're going to pull back much earlier than they thought on, that they didn't have the money to make it happen.

So the legacy of even that service is not going to last for much longer is to choose you choose where you spend your money and what the benefits are.

There's already discussion.

You talked about it, rail transit to the airport in other places.

There's discussion of building rail to the new Chief Stadium at the legends all the way through Kansas City, Kansas.

Who in the hell is going to pay for that?

I mean, that is billions of dollars.

Yeah.

And so, you know, eyes get big, but wallets get thin, and we, we need to pay attention to these discussions and use the World Cup as a measuring stick in terms of what we spend, what we get, and what the benefits are.

Yeah, I agree, that's way and never, never land.

Where you dreaming about going to the airport or, you know, a East-West line is probably going to be a challenge to figure out how and if people in New York had said that, there wouldn't have been an Empire State Building if in Saint Louis there wouldn't have been a Saint Louis arch people dreaming big.

Well, but you know, the big the deal is and I think, Brian was correct.

If you really want to get a good start, get a bus rapid transit every 15 minutes, half hour between the airport and Union Station.

We can't even get the money together for that.

And it again, it's it's just we need to have an important conversation about how we're going to try to raise the money if we really want to get serious about this.

Well, I mentioned earlier some of the projects you can expect coming up, none of you mentioned another local landmark that could be opening soon, a 20 story data center downtown.

Yes, it's planned for 10th and central, two blocks north of Bartle Hall.

It's getting a bit of national attention this week.

Matt Lucas says he's always interested in welcoming new businesses to town, but how is the plan going down when the public seems to have made data centers public?

Enemy number one there, he better talk to those elected officials and independents before he goes and promotes that idea.

They're not gaining a lot of traction.

Jackson County is trying to do put things in place to prevent it.

And a lot of places within the state of Missouri, that's probably not a good idea.

You're basically putting a dead space in the center of downtown.

I mean, there are many arguments that everybody put out, puts out about data centers, but we've already got an AT&T building.

We got my old newspapers printing plant that's being converted into this.

There's another building called the Brisbane Darling.

It's a big dead space.

There's no people there.

There's nobody shopping there.

There'll be a cafe on the first floor.

All right.

It's just to me.

Not the right thing, because everything, it's just it's Dave Helling and coffee drinkers, okay?

And you know what?

Actually, there is a quite nice historic building that they want to knock down for this, too.

So I just think it's a bad idea all around.

Yeah.

And if it's going to move forward, the city should not offer them a single incentive of any kind.

But, you know, people complain about them if they're next to the houses that Holden finally lose, they concerned about the noise.

So isn't it make more sense to be in a downtown area like that where it wouldn't have that same impact?

If you think the downtown area is supposed to be dead and is parallel to, you know, out in the middle of nowhere, but that's not been Kansas City's approach to its downtown for the last couple decades.

It's actually coming alive in a lot of blocks.

So it's a little surprising, lavender latte possibilities aside, it doesn't it doesn't seem like a big contribution.

Okay, well, here's an interesting story from the world of politics this week.

Missouri Republicans recently redrew the boundaries of Emanuel Cleaver's congressional district in hopes of turning a reliably blue seat red.

But here's a twist of the six Republicans now running for the seat, only one actually lives in the district, and he's considered a long shot candidate who moved there 18 months ago.

Is there a local, Dave Helling, that says you have to live in the district you represent?

The Constitution simply says you have to be from the state, and there was an age qualification, but you can live wherever you want within the state of Missouri and represent any district who won.

And we know that in part because, in the fourth district, there has been a residency issue for many, many years with Mark Alford.

So, he wasn't living in the district when he ran it, but he did move there.

Yeah.

Yeah, I thought you had to move on.

Some of these candidates, some of these candidates are saying they are going to move there.

You could get every member of the House from Missouri live in Kansas City if that's what voters wanted.

Now, the politics of it are very complicated.

And you don't live in the district.

People have a right to say, how are you going to run?

But but, you know, the fact that all politics today seems to be nationalized.

So does it really matter?

Because if there's all the national issues, if you're living a few miles from the boundary of the congressional district, well, it matters less and less.

I think that's an honest assessment that that folks are going to to care more about, whether you're, a Trump supporter or not, a Trump supporter.

But, but but David's right.

The law doesn't require it.

I think the politics will make it necessary for whoever does win to, to to at least pretend to set up residency in the district.

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?

Woman 600 sticks of nitroglycerin taking down the Embassy Suites Hotel off the Country Club Plaza.

The 50 year old hotel is being cleared to make way for a parking lot for Saint Luke's.

This is big.

It's going to be chaos.

MoDOT dropping a bombshell that closing down I-70 for 11 months starting in January, you'll have to find a new route or a three mile stretch of the highway east of downtown and close to the Truman Sports Complex.

In order for workers to add another lane in each direction.

The Blue Valley School District considering getting into the homebuilding business as teachers say they can't afford to live there.

Some educators already leaving, and the new College Baseball Hall of Fame finally opens this week inside the Museum of Prairie Fire in Overland Park.

Some are puzzled by the location, but it's a financial lifeline for the museum that struggled to attract out-of-state tourists.

Brian, did you pick one of those stories on something completely different?

I did pick one of those.

I think the I-70 closing is a massive story.

I can't imagine the impact that's going to have on the surrounding highways, the surface streets and all of those commuters.

But this is the other shoe dropping from what was a big, joyful announcement a couple of years ago when Governor Parson and others promoted the statewide expansion of the lanes of I-70.

A huge expenditure.

And everyone said, this is so good for development in the state.

It comes with a cost in terms of convenience.

And this is a ripping off the Band-Aid rather than just do it in a piecemeal way, let's just close it for 11 months and get all the work done at once.

Well, you know, when it comes to the bridges and there are so many bridges on I-70, you simply can't fix them without closing the road.

Eric and I drive I-70.

I agree with him.

I drive at 70.

Go on to work and coming home and that will be extremely inconvenient.

Speaking of of continuing to mess up things, the mayor of Kansas City said this week in an interview, I think, on Kcrw, that the next mayor and council may want to consider making the temporary jail that they built for the world Cup the permanent city jail and get rid of the idea, which, by the way, they sold to voters that we need to build a new municipal facility, Kansas City.

As I've said before, has ballocks beyond belief it's jail or, responsibilities both at the city and the county level.

And this is another example, Kevin, you know, I the I it was interesting to see the implosion of the hotel.

The reason I bring it up is Saint Luke's Midtown in general has been acquiring lots of properties, but they've not done anything with them.

But put parking lots in there.

And it's very similar to what Kansas City life has been doing.

Tearing down lots of stuff, but not replacing it with anything.

So I think this is a symbol, again, of where our major institutions, when it comes to reinvesting after they've torn all this stuff down.

And on that we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of Mr.

City.

Seen Casey, Kevin Collison and the head of next page, Casey Eric Wesson from Casey.

You on news Brian Ellison and news icon and Mr.

Kansas City stack on Substack Dave Helling.

Next week we move into election mode as we bring you on the ballot, an hour long edition of the program where we dissect the biggest issues you're deciding in the August election, a debate we have on the constitutional amendment to elect Supreme Court justices.

You'll see on that show, Attorney General Kris Kobach and ACLU leader Micah Kubik will face off in the studio.

And we look at the tradeoffs and consequences of some pretty consequential issues in Missouri, including eliminating the state's income tax.

Please join us for that.

And a quick housekeeping note.

We're now making it even easier to catch weekend with you with our new KC Weekend Review YouTube channel.

Subscribing gets you new episode reminders and on demand streaming.

Check it out at the address on your screen.

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

Be well, keep calm and carry on.