Coming up, the World Cup hits the halfway point with three of our six games now complete.

How are we measuring up and are our local businesses seeing a World Cup boom or bust?

Our patio has been for the whole time, extremely busy at times.

We're not normally busy.

It's been dead in a ghost town.

We even close early on Tuesday because that was it was it was bad.

Also this half hour, the signatures have been verified this week for a public vote on a new Royals ballpark at Crown Center.

What happens now?

And is Kansas City maxing out its credit card as City Hall opens its wallet again, this time for a big expansion of the new CPK Stadium?

And could this be right?

More on the big headlines in Kansas that claims this year's contentious U.S.

Senate election could be postponed if Roger Marshall resigns to take a rumored new job with the Trump administration.

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 Marlese Gourley, the Francis Family Foundation, through the discretionary fund of David and Janice Francis, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Nick Haines and we are thrilled to bits to have you with us 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 Kshb.

41 political reporter Charlie Keegan from the anchor desk at KMBC nine News Chris Ketz just inducted into the Missouri Newspaper Hall of Fame.

The star senior opinion columnist Mara Rose Williams.

Thanks for being with us and former star staffer now Mr.

Kansas City Star on Substack, Dave Helling.

Well, Kansas City's contribution to the World Cup reaches its halfway point this week.

We now have three games of six under our belts, making it a natural time for a progress report.

How are we doing?

That was the that was the most atmosphere I've ever been in for a sport.

There's a. Already?

Yes.

The Netherlands played Tunisia at Kansas City Stadium this week, but events downtown seem to capture all the headlines and the attention of the global press.

Was it because Chris Katz, we broke the world record for the most people wearing an orange shirt at the same time?

It was probably hard to get an orange t shirt anywhere in town this week, but Thursday's march to the match probably between 20 and 22,000 Dutch soccer fans from here in this country, but certainly from overseas as well, marching down grand from the piano to the FIFA Fan Fest set up there.

What a sight.

What a delight.

What a joy to be in the middle of that.

And for Kansas City to be center stage for something like that.

That's big.

And we saw you.

You were the 79 throw back there, Maria, because you you wearing an orange shirt.

I was not wearing an orange shirt, but I was there.

I wanted to be in the middle of all of that.

But you know what I think was really wonderful about that?

A lot of the people who were there were not necessarily Netherlands fans.

They were just Kansas City and who wanted to be a part of the whole thing.

And so they got their orange shirt and they came out there and it was just it was fantastic.

This is be a lot of things on social media.

Oh, it was not as big as a Royals parade.

Oh, it wasn't as big as a Chiefs parade.

But remember they haven't won anything.

This is just a group game in the World Cup.

But the other thing that struck me, Charlie, was the fact that if you go to a Royals or Chiefs parade, you're there to watch this in this sense, you are the parade.

You are participating in it, which was different.

This had a much different feel than a Chiefs Royals parade because of that participatory nature of it.

You were encouraged to get behind that big orange bus and follow it down, and they're playing songs and there's dance choreographed dances to the left, to the right they want you to participate in.

And that brought a whole new energy to it.

Who knew that you were supposed to parade before the championship?

And you know, in Kansas City, we always believe you parade after you win the championship.

That didn't happen in this case of soccer.

But the photographs, the video was just astonishing, wasn't it?

Nick and I do think that the nation, was tuning in to see these, displays and really reacted positively to what happened in Kansas City.

We want to dial things back, though.

We know that with us, obviously, everybody is absolutely in love with it.

Some people don't like it.

Let's cut to somewhere in the middle here.

First of all, did we solve the traffic problems?

At this point in time, it appears we have, from Thursday night's match, we talked to a bunch of people at Union Station who had come off the bus at the game.

They had no trouble getting into the sports complex.

They had no trouble getting into the stadium.

Now, the crowds were probably a little smaller than maybe opening night against with with Argentina.

Still, I think they have that figured out.

What about our local businesses?

Are they cashing in?

If you watch our local TV news, it looks like their response is all over the map.

None of us really knew what to expect with the World Cup.

We had one party that had 70 people.

We had another party that was Argentina that had 20.

And then in addition to that, this whole place was full and our patio has been full the whole time, extremely busy at times.

We're not normally busy.

And then so it's it's definitely a net positive when you compare, you know, the past three weeks to last year, same time we're down about 7%.

I mean, we're even close early on Tuesday because that was it was it was that there was a lot of hype behind it.

And like the result is polar opposite.

It's been dead and a ghost town.

Normal people that would be here I think are scared to come down because they think it's going to be no parking and just people all over the place, and it's just not happening.

All right, Charlie, these are some extreme reactions here because we hear things like Joe's Kansas City barbecue closing because they want to give their staff a rest, because they're so busy.

And yet we have so many other places feeling, hey, is there a World Cup going on?

And I guess we maybe should have predicted that they were going to be the barbecue spots would be the big winners, right?

And a big tourist driven event like this.

We've seen maybe a win for Kansas City.

Is that it's adjusted its transportation here halfway through.

Is there anything that FIFA and KC 2026 can do to help businesses out halfway through and turn it into an overall win?

I'd be interested to watch that.

It all seems so very anecdotal, though.

These reports, we're not seeing any hard data on what's actually happening.

Marie.

Right, but listen, there are so many restaurants and businesses in Kansas City, this 650,000 people who are coming through, they're coming in ways they're not all here at once, and it's location, location, location and word of mouth.

Right?

So if you're in North Kansas City and everything's happening downtown, you're traveling into Kansas City, you're not going out to North Kansas City to hit a business unless word of mouth has told you that's the best barbecue in town and you've got to get there.

So that's I mean, I think that Kansas City is doing really well with this and that businesses are the businesses that are doing well, are doing very well.

No one's coming to Kansas City to buy plants.

The economic boom has been uneven.

There are the stories of the bar in Parkville.

They did more business in a week than they did in a month.

And then there are stories.

The restaurant owner in Lawrence, who early on went to all the seminars, followed the advice, invested in additional inventory, hired additional people, and they got nothing in return.

And that's where I think the hype is something to again, focus on.

Not that it hasn't been focused on at this table, but people bought into the fact that there might be hundreds of thousands of people coming to Kansas City.

And while all of this evidence right now is anecdotal, I think it's been very uneven.

There was concern early on, about half filled stadiums.

So in last week's show you talked about, for instance, you know, it'll be interesting to see how the momentum will we keep that energy up.

And yet I saw for even this week's game that we had between the Netherlands and Tunisia, it was only about 506 hundred people less than it was for the first opening game with Argentina.

Well in the rain too.

But you thought the rain might cut into attendance and did not.

And that seems to be the case, Nick, for all the stadia across the country that are hosting World Cup games, they all seem filled with a lot of excited fans.

I do think we're learning now relative to the business, reaction to the World Cup.

We're learning that it's doing a little bit better with visitors.

A lot of people coming to see our community, see games, rent hotel rooms, but maybe the locals are staying home a little bit more than was anticipated.

A lot of folks saying, we just don't want a hassle, we don't want to.

And that's why businesses, bars, restaurants on the periphery may not be doing as well as those centrally located convenient to the fan fest, convenient to the power and light district where a lot of the visitors would go.

What about scoring?

On the issue of security for this World Cup, Charlie?

Well, I feel like things have been pretty well secured at the Fan Fest at the stadium.

You know, we haven't heard about many issues.

It's that, you know, highway shooter aspect that's still happening outside of Kansas City.

That's a little bit more of that wild card.

And that's exactly what, you know, has been this violent period.

We had the shooter, as Charlie pointed out, sending bullets through random vehicles, including another car filled with Argentinian fans on the way to the stadium, a fatal shooting at the 18th and Vine Jazz District, a double murder at a Westport Road QuikTrip, and nine people shot at an unlicensed club on Troost.

The mayor called them routine law enforcement incidents.

It seemed to me that we're trying to keep our image really high, that we're killing this, we're rocking this world Cup and that these are just sideline issues that are just part of life in Kansas City.

Murray.

Well, I'm not sure I disagree with that.

I mean, that is Kansas City's Kansas City is a violent city and we just need to embrace that.

I mean, we have a shooting like every day in Kansas City.

So that's not I mean, why would we think that?

Just because the world is in Kansas City, all of a sudden everything around Kansas City is going to change.

It's not.

And so, yeah, I mean, Kansas City is violent and I knew there would be violence when the World Cup was here.

We put out this image that we're so perfect.

We're not that's not right.

It could have been a lot worse.

A manhunt for a week for the guy who was shooting randomly at vehicles.

It could have been a lot worse.

And why did it take a week to find him when there was certain evidence that where they knew where the body was.

And a lot of people asking that question right now, not I'm not sure we have a concrete answer to that other than maybe it was a situation where, for whatever reason, because of the, the, the house, the shape of the house, what that it was found to be in with water in the basement, that maybe that's why somebody somehow missed discovering the remains.

But, or maybe it was just maybe a little bit of a lack of communication between law enforcement departments as well.

Some, some reports claiming that, well, the police and law enforcement were too distracted with the World Cup and FanFest.

Maybe so.

But from what we're hearing now from the Kansas City Fire Department is they're saying that we had the soft scent of our cadaver canine dog recognizing a body inside that house, and then it was just too flooded and collapsed to to follow up, complete the sentence for me.

Kansas City scored its biggest winning goal during this World Cup tournament when it blank Dave Helling yeah, I think, the appearance of Arrowhead Stadium.

We talked about this a little bit last week.

Once it's filled and once a lot of happy fans are watching soccer, which is, let's face it, for a lot of people, I was just explaining soccer rules to my wife last night that I don't even understand.

Yeah.

She says, what's offsides?

I don't know, it's just a bad thing.

But I think the city has shown out well, that's what the winning development has been for me, that when you watch it on television, you see the reaction.

And by the way, on social media, in news coverage, despite the problems, real problems with crime in our community, Kansas City appears to be getting very high marks for the, how much drier the fans would have been and how much less sweaty the players would have been if it was in the covered stadium in Kansas that's being built.

We don't care about sweaty, okay?

That's what it is.

They want to be, the biggest winning goal for Kansas City.

So far in this tournament has been blank.

I have to be with David.

I think that when Kansas City turned out for the Netherlands orange, fan walk, showing that they were embracing this, they wanted to be a part of it and they wanted to have the biggest, best walk ever that they they really showed out.

I have lost count of the number of times that people, not just from this country, but from overseas.

And we've run into dozens of them at Union Station who had this idea, this false idea, I think of what Americans were like.

Midwesterners were like Kansas City fans were like, and they're just absolutely blown away with the courtesy that they've been shown throughout this tournament.

I do think that that's the biggest benefit.

I think it's all those three soft drink refills.

Well, I don't know if it's I don't know if it's that, but but Kansas City's image, as Dave said, this is a city that has shined brightly.

Charlie, I would go back to the orange walk when I was out there walking with folks, asking them, how did this compare to other walks?

They all said, oh, blows it out of the water, this is amazing.

Kansas City's rolled out the orange carpet.

Ooh.

All righty.

Well, fill in this blank Kansas City gets a red card Dave Helling during the World Cup full blank.

Well a couple of things.

First, the Netherlands spelled orange with a J. I think that we could be pretty clear that we're in America now, but the, I think the biggest, criticism after this is over will be the investment in a city jail, temporary city jail, which isn't ready.

And yet there were only apparently, according to case, you are only two real, soccer related arrests.

And those people are stealing the England gear.

Well, I think we tried.

I think we were all worried about hooliganism and brawls and bars.

None of that happened.

And more broadly speaking, of red cards more broadly.

Nick, one of the biggest legacies of the last ten years is how Kansas City and Jackson County has ballocks to its jail problem, and that continues and will continue long after the World Cup.

The biggest red card that Kansas City got to in this tournament so far is blank.

I think the first day of traffic, yeah, that was just horrible with people walking miles and miles going through wooded areas, trying to get to the jumping over fences.

It's crazy.

Yeah, yeah, obviously it took them some time to figure that out, but I think they have and I agree.

But didn't you say other cities had similar problems.

So New York had the same problem with transportation but built far better for mass transit.

Yeah, I would only say the other red card might be the hype, the 650,000, whether it's visits or visitors.

Granted, it's a two year old number.

Things have changed, but nothing was done to dial that bad.

Might have set up the businesses for maybe.

Hey, what happened?

Maybe what is it a mistake to even put a number out?

Well, I think by the time it got out, it was hard to put that genie back in the bottle.

Honestly.

Yeah.

You got to put a number.

I suggest you to investigate.

Right?

Yeah.

All righty.

I would say maybe the it might be a maybe a futuristic red card, but, we talked so much about legacy from this World Cup, and right now I don't see us keeping, like, a shuttle system to the World War One museum.

Like transportation.

Probably not gonna.

We're not getting any long term benefits.

Missed opportunity there.

Let me just add this very quickly.

Charlie said something very important about the investment, taxpayer investment in this.

We still don't know what that number is.

Not even close.

I've suggested 200 million.

It might be more.

We need an honest accounting of what the support has been for the World Cup when it's over, so that you can make an honest decision about whether it was worth it.

Well, believe it or not, there are other stories happening in Kansas City this week beyond orange shirts.

In other news, it's official the signatures have been counted and verified, but a new Royals ballpark to a public vote.

So have the tables turned on the project.

And can we expect this to be added to the ballot soon?

Charlie no, I wouldn't expect it added to the ballot soon.

I guess the council got the signatures, the verified has got 60 days to figure out which ballot they want to put it on.

Okay, so I mess this up on my Substack, so I want to make sure I'm clear here.

We don't want to give you a red card on this.

Exactly.

Charlie is right at 60 days.

But if you read the charter, it's 60 days from the time the council is notified of the sufficient petitions at its next meeting.

Okay.

The council didn't meet this week because of the World Cup.

So the next meeting of the city Council isn't until July 2nd.

60 days after that is August 31st.

The deadline for putting something on the November ballot is August 25th.

So if they take the full 60 days, which they don't have to, but if they do, it won't be on until sometime next year, maybe February, more likely March or April.

They can't ignore this.

Nick.

They can't.

These petitions just won't be wished away.

But a vote to take a vote may not happen until then.

Some people though viewing this, by the way, though, that with the world Cup they're all in the very same vicinity that we would have this Royals ballpark that will actually elevate the chances, and the public viewpoint on this stadium being there.

Well, I listen, I love the idea of having the the stadium right there at Crown Center.

I think it's a beautiful location.

I think it's going to add to the city the look of the city.

I just think that, our leaders are terrified about putting this to the vote of the people because of what happened last time.

They're terrified and let me just that's why the World Cup, again, they don't take my advice very often.

But the good feelings of the World Cup and the World Cups presence downtown might encourage the council to go ahead and put this thing on the ballot in November, so that that feeling washes over the electorate and you have a better chance of passing than if you wait until next spring.

Now, with enthusiasm for soccer at a record high in Kansas City, City Hall is trying to capitalize on the moment by backing a plan to expand the new CPK Stadium on the riverfront.

The owners of the KC current want to boost capacity from 11,500 seats to 18,000 seats as part of a new financial deal.

The city would greenlight $235 million in bonds to make it happen.

Well, first of all, Charlie, are they really packing the place now?

We've only just opened.

Oh, yeah.

This the current are incredibly popular, and I, I'm under the impression they're close to a sellout at every game.

And it's not about just those games.

Are they trying to bid on things like the Women's World Cup for as well as the Rugby World Cup?

You know, my question would be at this point, the current wants this.

The Royals want something, the infrastructure problems on the plaza still need to be addressed, and that's going to require public assistance.

And there's a lot of stuff going on.

And.

Right now, the current isn't exactly number one on the list.

You know, we also given the impression that this is only bonds.

It's not real money.

But the proposal lands at City Hall at the very time they're asking voters in just a few weeks on the August ballot to authorize up to $1.7 billion in borrowing or sales tax increase for the Eastside is on I think the are we flexing the credit card a little too much?

Well, yes.

And we're flexing it.

I must say, Nick, I wrote about this for sports and we're making a huge bet on sports in Kansas City.

The Chiefs, the Royals, the current what we do for sporting KC, the racetrack, whether that bet is wise or not is something to be determined in the weeks and months ahead.

But it is a very sports centric attempt to build development in Kansas.

And let's not forget this.

Also, I saw on channel nine, on 41, I saw you doing the story about the plaza that's still out there.

They still want huge amounts of money, and now they're are they trying to, get this over the finish line by saying we're going to fund all of these things from affordable housing.

We're going to be involved in domestic violence issues and putting money there, and we're going to be putting money into, mentorships and internships for young people.

They made the Plaza, made their Plaza promise this week to do a lot of those things and invest in the community and show they're good community partner.

And yeah, you'd have to think that that's probably to to put out a little good faith effort to you scratch my back.

I'll scratch you.

It may be harsh to say it's a bribe, but certainly does, lubricate the process.

If it's a bribe, it's not much of a bribe.

I mean, my colleague, David, Hudnut said.

Yeah, he called it a pizza party.

So I need I mean, it's not much of a bribe.

I mean, it's a pittance in terms of what they're getting for the Plaza in terms of the incentive that they're getting for the place.

But they certainly opening up their wallet state at City Hall.

And the mayor will be out of office by that point in time.

Yes.

And the next council and mayor.

And by the way, the school board and others who depend on tax revenue will have to deal with the consequences of the decisions we're making now.

For example, if the referendum on the Royal Stadium is delayed until next April, that's the primary for the city council and the new mayor.

And so the new mayor and council will have to deal with the effects of whatever is decided in terms of the ballpark, downtown and the plaza, to some degree, and all the other projects that are under discussion and, that will dominate Kansas City politics, I think, for the next 5 to 10 years.

At the beginning of the program, maybe one week, I always say we're going to look at the most confusing and head scratching stories.

How about this one in political news is Kansas U.S.

Senator Roger Marshall headed for a new job in the Trump administration.

And if he resigns, does it mean this year's big Senate election will be postponed until 2028?

Can they really be right?

Apparently, a little noticed change in Kansas law changes the way U.S.

Senate vacancies are handled in Kansas, limiting the governor's power to appoint a replacement of someone of this of a different political party.

It also gives the new appointee a two year period before having to face voters.

So no election till 2028.

Is this a legitimate concern or a far fetched political scenario?

A pretty far fetched.

And if you talk to people, close to the election, they don't really think it's going to happen.

But the chances are not zero that Roger Marshall would quit.

And then throw into this mix this law about appointing a replacement from a panel from the same party as the victor and then delaying the election.

However, you can hear people tell you that the surfacing of this story at this point suggests that Roger Marshall is in more trouble than people now, is he is he thinking of a job in the Trump administration and is one being off it?

One thing that I would wonder if I was Roger Marshall is if I really want a job in the Trump administration.

It seems pretty volatile.

He's only got two and a half years left on his term, but you might not have a choice if Trump says you need to step aside and take this appointment because we have a better chance of someone else in the Senate, usually an appointment only happens after somebody loses and they're in the right party of the white House.

But I'm with, say, the fact that we're even talking about this, and I don't think people recognize that this situation even exists even, but they do it even if it doesn't happen.

This is what the governor, could have vetoed it.

And she didn't do that.

She did not.

Which is another yet another evidence of Laura Kelly's profile and courage dealing with Republicans.

What I think it's more likely, if this scenario sort of plays out is that Roger Marshall runs.

He's either elected in November or he isn't.

If he loses his right to govern, the president would presumably appoint him to something.

If he wins, he could then wait for a Republican governor.

If he assumes one gets elected in November, resign in January, then you would appoint a Republican and this whole thing is avoided.

We'll see.

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?

They finally got the votes.

Jackson County approves a six month moratorium on data centers.

It comes as a growing number of Republican lawmakers call on governor Mike Kehoe to call a special session to issue new limits on AI centers in the state.

That was fast absentee voting now underway in Missouri ahead of the August primary.

And an APB is out for Godzilla.

No, not this one.

This one, a 25ft tall inflatable that's been a local landmark for 20 years at Godzilla fireworks at independence.

A brazen theft now prompting a $1,000 reward for his return.

All righty.

Charlie, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

Kind of.

On the reptilian theme of Godzilla.

Longview.

Lou.

An alligator was captured at Longview Lake this week, and so what?

What the heck?

A sign of changing weather?

Yeah, climate change.

Nothing's kind of captured my imagination.

Yes, Chris.

Alligators.

I have nightmares about alligators because I play golf a lot.

And the thought of an alligator on my golf course, like in Florida, I'm with.

We're all starting to do the story now.

We're a little bit late because of the World Cup, but al yeah.

On view Lou Morais well, I love the alligator story, but, I'm interested in what's happening in western Missouri.

They're doing a lot with black history.

And at a time when you know, that's under attack right now, I think we should be following what's going on in Western.

Thank you very much.

And, Dave Helling, there was a poll released in the last week, apparently reliable, that suggests that Cindy Halter has an important commanding lead in the Democratic primary for governor, leading Ethan Corson and Curt Skoog substantially.

Now there are a lot of undecided.

Still, about 50%, 44% still haven't made up their mind in the Democratic Party.

But given what happened in New York, the idea that Democratic primary voters are looking for change and anti-establishment candidates may be helping halter and may make her now the favorite to win that.

But isn't it because cut School and Ethan course there are splitting each other alive.

And that was another conclusion from the people who published the poll that maybe they're splitting the Anti-Hillary vote, and it needs to be consulted, of course, and just got on TV in this market for the first time this week.

So maybe those.

But, but but wait, we will be looking for the headlines that the election could be delayed for another time.

Yeah.

No, I think it's going to happen.

I don't know what we will say.

Our week has been reviewed courtesy of the stars Mara Rose Williams and Charlie Keegan from KS HB 41 news from the anchor desk at KMBC nine news.

Chris Ketz, a news icon and Mr.

Kansas City Star on Substack.

Dave Helling and I'm Nick Haines as America marks 250 years of freedom from the British.

Next week there will be no show.

Next Friday night will return bright eyed and bushy tailed the week after, and till then have a safe and celebratory 4th of July.

And of course, be well, keep calm and carry on.