Kansas City bars can serve booze 23 hours a day during World Cup. But will they?
The booze will be flowing and bars will be rocking all night in Kansas City and across Missouri during the 2026 World Cup.
Well, in theory.
A new law signed by Gov. Mike Kehoe allows Missouri bars to stay open 24 hours a day and serve alcohol from 6 a.m. until 5 a.m. the next day from June 11, 2026 to July 19, 2026, while cities across North America, including Kansas City, host the World Cup.
While Missouri’s decision to relax its alcohol laws has evoked excitement as the city prepares for the international spotlight, it’s also sparked hesitation among some Kansas City bars and restaurants that will decide over the next few months whether to extend their hours.
“I don’t think most businesses know yet and probably won’t really become aware (of the law) until we get into January, when we start talking about what games are going to air and what times,” said Buddy Lahl, the CEO of the Missouri Restaurant Association.
Lahl, who helped craft the language of the new law, cautioned that he doesn’t expect bars to stay open 24 hours a day during the entire period of the World Cup. He said some bars may want to host late night watch parties on Fridays and Saturdays for certain matches.
“Some of those games will be airing late at night,” Lahl said. “So I would see this benefiting mostly the sports bars or the people that are in a district where a lot of the fans are that, at two in the morning, when the game’s still going on, they can still be open.”
But some bars in Kansas City remain skeptical of the impact of the new law.
“What is the advantage of staying open that late if there’s no one watching, if there’s no games going on?” said Charlie Clarke, the area director for Charlie Hooper’s Brookside Bar & Grille and Lew’s Grill and Bar in Waldo, which are both open until 3 a.m.
Clarke said his team has had some discussions about the new law, but it’s hard to determine whether they will change their hours until World Cup schedules are released. There’s a possibility that his bars would open a few hours earlier for morning matches, but he said it was too early to tell.
“We already deal with the late-night crowd pretty well,” Clarke said.
Over on West 39th Street, Bill Howgill owns Hi-Dive Lounge, a laid-back bar known for its “mystery beers.” Howgill said his establishment could open its doors early for an early morning match, but he cautioned that it’s hard to predict the plan so far in advance of the World Cup.
“We’re not a huge place and we don’t have a huge staff, so, you know, we’ll be limited somewhat by availability of staff to extend hours that much,” Howgill said.
In the Northland, Faith Crosby echoed some of Howgill’s concerns. Crosby is the general manager of Chappell’s Restaurant & Sports Museum in North Kansas City.
“I would say I don’t believe we would extend any of our hours based upon that this time,” said Crosby, who added that she would talk with the restaurant’s owner. “I don’t know, you know when the game times are and stuff like that, if he would want to stay open later, but then you got staffing issues.”
Others, however, appeared thrilled about the temporary change.
“Holy camoly,” Steve Stegall, the owner of The Blue Line Hockey Bar in the River Market, said when informed about the law. “That is phenomenal news for us.”
Stegall said that while he and his employees were just learning about the law, they were excited about the possibility of staying open later. He compared it to bar hours in places like Las Vegas and New Orleans.
He said he might have to hire more staff and make sure his bar is stocked up on enough liquor.
“We’re going to try to stay open as many of those days as we can,” he said. “We really want to try to stay open for…the whole freaking month if we can, if our employees got it in them. I mean, we plan on doing this thing.”
For Sean Conroy, his business was also already planning to expand its hours to accommodate the expected influx of soccer fans in Kansas City. Conroy is the co-owner of International Tap House, which has locations in the Crossroads and Lee’s Summit.
“I mean, absolutely, we would take advantage of it,” said Conroy, who wasn’t aware of the new law until contacted by The Star. “I don’t know, 23 hours, though, is kind of a bit of a roller coaster. But, yeah, depending on games, I’m sure we would openly, you know, discuss that.”
Conroy said he found the possibility of serving alcohol for 23 hours a bit perplexing. But he said he viewed the law as a ceremonial nod to the importance of the World Cup coming to Kansas City.
“Just having that many more people in Kansas City is obviously going to bring more business,” Conroy said. “Collectively, it’s much more fun in these situations…that you watch it at a bar with, you know, hundreds of other people, versus in your basement with your buddy or by yourself.”
While the state law allows restaurants to expand their hours, it also gives local governments the ability to exempt themselves from the new alcohol hours. A spokesperson for Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether he supported the new law.
As bars and restaurants prepare to host thousands of soccer fans from across the globe next year, Lahl with the Missouri Restaurant Association emphasized that the state’s new alcohol law will be “very game-centered.”
Establishments could stay open for 24 hours, but he said he doesn’t see that happening.
“If on a Tuesday night there’s a game going on in Spain at one o’clock in the morning, they may choose to stay open, but if there’s no games on Wednesday night, they probably wouldn’t stay open for that,” Lahl said. “A lot of these folks that are coming to town, they’re not just coming to watch the game here. They want to see all the games that are on anywhere in the world.”
This story was originally published July 31, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
