On night Messi lights up Kansas City, another icon also shines: Western Auto sign
As Argentina soccer legend Lionel Messi lit up the record books on Tuesday night — scoring three goals against Algeria at Arrowhead Stadium, thus tying the all-time men’s FIFA World Cup scoring record at 16 goals — another icon also unexpectedly illuminated Kansas City’s night sky:
The downtown Western Auto sign.
Dark since July 2025, the 70-foot-tall sign also sparked to life — although not completely as it should or will soon look.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas announced the relighting on Instagram.
“An old friend is showing out for Kansas City’s first World Cup match ever,” he wrote Tuesday. “Check the illumination in the skies tonight.”
From Tuesday forward, it will be lit from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. as work proceeds.
Not quite finished
The Western Auto sign has been a downtown fixture, towering atop the curved Western Auto building, now the Western Auto Lofts at 2107 Grand Blvd., since 1952. Whereas it normally gleams in neon red, with thousands of white fluorescent bulbs creating the arrow, the sign on Tuesday was relit only in red because the white bulbs are still being replaced.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done — this is just the neon. But the mayor and Infinity Signs were so excited to offer up a little surprise last night in honor of the first FIFA World Cup game in KC,” said Jessica Best, president of the Western Auto Lofts HOA.
That the sign is lit this early is a surprise.
For more than a year, the city of Kansas City had been working with the tenants of the Western Auto Lofts and its Homeowners’ Association to find a way to relight the sign prior to the start of World Cup festivities in Kansas City.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup officially began on June 11 and ends of July 19. Tuesday’s match, played at 8 p.m. Central Time between Algeria and Argentina, the defending World Cup champions, was the first held in Kansas City.
As recently as June 4, the city had said that the Western Auto sign likely would not be lit by the start of the games, but, if all went well, it might spark back to life by the time the last game, a quarterfinal match, was played in Kansas City on July 11.
City invests $100,000 into sign; HOA agrees to maintain
The city had already agreed to invest $100,000 in the effort, using funds earmarked in its Illuminate KC initiative.
The sign is in need of significant repairs to its neon tubing, its bulbs and to the structure’s metal frame and electronics. In March, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 124 in Kansas City, together with the National Electrical Contractors Association, made an offer to the loft’s homeowners’ association.
They offered to completely repair the sign and its structure, work they valued at about $600,000, at no cost. They also offered to maintain the sign in perpetuity. There were two conditions: First, that all the lighting be replaced with LED lights. Seconds, that the union and the contractor’s association be allowed to place a smaller illuminated sign near the base of the Western Auto sign noting that the organizations had done the work.
The HOA, however, turned down that offer, primarily because they wanted to maintain the historic integrity of the neon and not have it replaced with LED lighting. Under the agreement with the city, announced in June, the city would pay for the work to repair to the neon and replace the white bulbs.
In return, the HOA agreed to pay for the maintenance of the sign over the next 10 years.
The repair work is being conducted by Kansas City-based Infinity Sign Systems, 4900 Lister Ave.
This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 12:10 PM.
