Is the World Cup filling up Westport? What businesses say about foot traffic

A week into World Cup games taking place in Kansas City, businesses in Westport are having mixed experiences with tourist traffic.

“It’s been busy, it’s not like Power & Light crazy, but we’ve been getting stuff late nights,” said Ryan Blann, general manager at Char Bar.

The Star is surveying neighborhoods throughout Kansas City to get a sense of how local businesses are feeling and whether tourist traffic has met their previous expectations. This comes after owners like Caitlin Benedict, the owner of Bisou, a French coffee shop off Southwest Boulevard, took to social media last week saying they are struggling.

“For months, small businesses across Kansas City prepared for FIFA. We were told to expect hundreds of thousands of visitors, so we hired staff, increased inventory, adjusted schedules, and invested heavily to be ready. Instead, many of us are experiencing the opposite. Our sales are down more than 50%,” Bisou said in an Instagram post.

Char Bar, a local barbecue chain at 4050 Pennsylvania Ave., extended its hours by one hour to close at 1 a.m. on weekends and midnight on weeknights. The past weekend has been good for business, but nothing they couldn’t handle.

“It’s been good but not crazy,” Blann said.

Bunker, a store at 4056 Broadway Blvd., said it had also extended its hours and asked for temporary workers to come in.

“I would definitely say the Westport area has been getting a lot of foot traffic, especially outside of when the games are happening,” said Jaxson Sutter, manager at Bunker.

During the games, foot traffic is rather dead, but during other times the shop is seeing lots of out-of-towners who are shopping for similar things.

“A lot of FIFA stuff, but they are also looking for some Kansas City stuff,” Sutter said. “And then shoes were the other thing we’ve seen a lot of.”

Kelly’s Westport Inn, a local Irish bar staple to the neighborhood at 500 Westport Road, is already open until 3 a.m. every day, so management decided against extending hours further.

“One week in, we have been a little busier than normal during the week, but nothing significant,” said co-owner Colleen Kelly. “It’s kind of nice to have a week under us, because now I feel like I get the flow of what’s happening.”

Kelly said they reached out to previous employees to ask when they could be available to pitch in. During the Argentina versus Austria game Monday afternoon, there were six patrons in the bar.

There haven’t been a lot of international visitors inside Kelly’s. It’s mainly been people from across the U.S. flying in to watch a game.

“We have not had massive daytime foot traffic,” said co-owner Colleen Kelly. “This past Friday I would say would be the first big influx, we saw there was a lot of people here.”

Noelle Alviz-Gransee

The Kansas City Star

Noelle Alviz-Gransee is a food, arts and business reporter for the Kansas City Star. She studied journalism and political science at MU and has previously written for the Des Moines Register, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, The Missourian, Startland News and the Missouri Business Alert.