The 2026 World Cup — the “world series” of soccer — kicks off in just about a month with the Kansas City Metro hosting six games. But despite millions of dollars spent to bring the games to KC, hotel bookings are a fraction of what was expected.
City projections are for about 650,000 visitors for the World Cup matches, but according to KCUR, hotels at most of the cities where the games will be played are running below projections.
“The [American Hotel and Lodging Association] warned nearly 80% of hotel bookings across host cities are running below initial forecasts, according to its survey,” KCUR wrote. “In Kansas City, 85% to 90% of hotels reported bookings below projections.”
According to the Kansas City Star, Visit KC insists those 650,000 visitors will bring more than $650 million in new economic activity.
Lawmakers in Missouri and Kansas have kicked in public funding for the event.
According to the Star, the State of Missouri has allocated more than $77 million since fiscal 2025 for the World Cup — $35 million to Kansas City alone.
The State of Kansas authorized another $28 million in support of the event.
“In 2024, Kansas authorized spending $28 million in support of the World Cup,” the Star wrote. “The state gave federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act to KC 2026, which must be ‘related to the transportation and security plan’ as determined by the FIFA World Cup 26 Kansas City Committee.”
According to the Star, at least one Kansas lawmaker is unimpressed with the return on investment.
“I think the expectations for the World Cup were overblown, and we’re starting to see evidence of that,” Sen. Mike Thompson (R-Shawnee) said. “I really wish that we hadn’t spent that kind of money on it, to be honest.”
Government spending on tourism rarely pans out
Multiple audits of the Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) Bonds program — a tool intended to help Kansas municipalities finance the development of major commercial, entertainment, and tourism projects — and, theoretically, paid off through increased sales tax revenue generated by the development, simply failed to do what it was designed to do.
In fact, as The Sentinel reported two years ago, a 2020 analysis of STAR Bond projects in Wichita, commissioned by the Sentinel’s parent company, Kansas Policy Institute, found that they mostly shifted economic activity and jobs to other parts of the city rather than create any new jobs or activity.
Now, according to a report from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a follow-up audit finds that — even using the Commerce Department’s preferred metric — the program still doesn’t work.
“The Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit released a follow up to its 2021 audit of the STAR Bonds program, and the findings reveal that even allowing the Department of Commerce to pick and choose its favored metrics — improving local quality of life — doesn’t show a program that benefits taxpayers,” the report reads. “The problem with their favored metric is that ‘Commerce officials expect STAR bond districts to improve local quality of life, but they haven’t defined or measured this.’ The findings add more evidence that the STAR Bonds program should be allowed to sunset in July 2026.”
Commerce has a history of poor oversight of economic development programs
Indeed, the 2021 audit found a startling lack of oversight in STAR bonds.
AFPF’s Director of Investigations, Kevin Schmidt, filed requests for documents relating to the program under the Kansas Open Records Act in November of 2021, and more than a year later, he was still waiting on some of them.
Schmidt said one of his records requests included a follow-up to a request from the Sentinel.
On November 14, 2019, the Sentinel requested reports done internally or contracted out since January 2017, examining the efficacy of Promoting Employment Across Kansas (PEAK), TIF, STAR bonds, and the High-Performance Incentive Program (HPIP). Ryan Brinker, the Public Information Officer for the Kansas Department of Commerce, replied, “We are currently working to identify and review any records which may be responsive to your request and will need additional time to complete that review. The earliest date records may be available to you is November 26, 2019.” Neither AFPF nor the Sentinel ever received a substantive response to our requests.
“It’s not surprising that STAR bonds only exist in Kansas and two other states,” the AFPF report reads. “There is no evidence that the program can achieve any of its stated goals.”
In fact, a records request by the Sentinel found that Commerce either does not have — or refuses to admit it has — a list of recipients and the amounts they received.