At 2 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon during the last week of the World Cup, Varsity Club was packed.
And while some patrons had their laptops open next to a sweaty cocktail glass, all eyes were glued to the television screens as the FIFA World Cup semifinal match between Argentina and England played out.
It’s a familiar scene for Reggie Berry, who sat at a table with two friends. Berry caught World Cup matches at other spots in Kansas City, but he’s consistently returned to this River Market pub.
“Great drinks, great vibes, great atmosphere,” Berry said. “It's been like this every time we've been here.”
The successes of the World Cup were not spread evenly throughout the Kansas City area, and not every business saw a boost. But some, whether by location or ingenuity in planning, benefited greatly from the tournament.
Varsity Club was consistently packed during the six-week-long World Cup with soccer fans from near and far cheering on their favorite teams — or groaning in despair. The bar’s owner-operator, Caleb Roye, made slight adjustments, like being open for and showing every match and hiring a temporary bartender, but nothing drastic; no staying open until 5 a.m., no automatic gratuity and no major increase in staffing.
“We had a couple Tuesdays that were really big games,” Roye said. “They were like weekend sales — on a Tuesday — which was cool. In general, we've seen an uptick in business just from people, and it is very much driven by the game.”
‘Our passion is being embraced’
Since Varsity Club opened in summer 2024, it’s become a local spot to catch games in the Premier League, the top-flight professional soccer league in England. So Roye said it felt natural to show every World Cup match this summer, too.
“We're not like a tried-and-true sports bar, but we do show sports events,” Roye said, “so we're almost kind of becoming an alternative sports bar.”
Roye said Varsity Club’s international watch parties attracted out-of-towners and locals, and their proximity to the Kansas City Streetcar helped boost business too.
“They like the culture of the bar, (it’s) kind of driven by that, and that's why they come here to watch,” Roye said. “There was a week where Mexico was playing on Tuesday and the U.S. were playing on Wednesday, and Fan Fest wasn't even open. So we saw huge increases there.”
Given the gains, Roye said he hopes the excitement around soccer lasts long after the tournament is over.
“I think it feels a lot like our passion is being embraced by the whole city right now, which is really cool,” Roye said. “We all just really hope that the passion for the sport grows, and I think it will.”
Success at a small-business marketplace
To spotlight local businesses during the World Cup, city officials and the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City hosted more than 100 vendors in its City of Entrepreneurs marketplace inside Union Station. Officials say the market attracted more than 120,000 visitors in its run.
Annie Austen, owner of Annie Austen Jewelry, sold her wares at the event and even added World Cup-themed jewelry to her selection, like charms representing different nations and a bracelet with a soccer ball and “KC 2026” engraving.
“It was really cool from an entrepreneurial standpoint to be able to connect with people and know that your jewelry is going back to Germany, it’s going back to Algeria,” Austen said.
Her brick-and-mortar shops in Zona Rosa and Overland Park, far from the World Cup action downtown, experienced lower sales during the tournament, Austen said, but she made a profit by being included in City of Entrepreneurs.
“I do think it helped make up for some of those sales that we may otherwise have missed out on because we’re right in the action,” she said.
An experience unlike any other
Dulcinea Herrera, CEO of the Latin American and Indigenous coffee shop Café Corazón, started preparing her team for the World Cup a year and a half ago.
The stakes were elevated when Herrera, who is from Argentina, learned in May that the Argentine national team would stay in the metro and play at least one match at the renamed Kansas City Stadium.
“I was with my mom, and she was lighting the Messi candle that she has in her house and praying that we would get it,” Herrera said. “And when we did she started crying.”
The coffee shop translated its menu into multiple languages, including Spanish, French, Arabic, and Portuguese, and leaned into its roots, with menu additions like Argentine empanadas and a traditional shortbread sandwich cookie called alfajores. It promoted its yerba mate, a South American drink that’s popular with Lionel Messi himself. (The cafe is one of the few places in town to serve the drink traditionally.)
The cafe also hosted two Argentine banderazos, traditional Latin American pre-game celebrations — one before Argentina’s group stage match against Algeria, and the second before the team’s quarterfinal match against Switzerland. Both drew around 2,000 people, Herrera said — a crowd big enough to block off a portion of Southwest Boulevard.
“People were sweating, they were drinking, they were dancing, they were laughing, they were throwing the flags around,” Herrera said. “I remember just crying a little bit because I was so happy to see that everybody was making these memories in our spot. That meant a lot to me.”
Herrera said all the cafe’s events translated into a boost in business for the location on Southwest Boulevard, while other locations in Brookside and Westport were steady.
She said the success comes down to the team’s careful preparation, their familiarity with soccer culture and going all-in on the special events.
“You almost have to give people something that they're not going to receive anywhere,” Herrera said, “like an experience.”
