Kansas Senate takes shot at coaxing House to endorse 23-hour alcohol sales for World Cup

Sen. Adam Thomas, R-Olathe, persuaded a majority of the Kansas Senate to vote for a bill allowing Kansas liquor stores, restaurants and bars to remain open 23 hours each day during the FIFA 2026 World Cup soccer events in the Kansas City area. The legislation needs to be endorsed by the Kansas House before submitted to Gov. Laura Kelly. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — A bipartisan majority of the Kansas Senate made a legislatively tricky shot on goal before passing the ball to the team in the Kansas House.

On a 21-19 vote Thursday, the Senate approved a bill allowing cities or counties to use a temporary law enabling licensed restaurants and liquor stores to sell alcoholic beverages 23 hours a day, seven days a week, during the FIFA 2026 World Cup extravaganza. If the House concurred with the legislation, the window for sales of beer, wine and liquor would stretch from 6 a.m. to 5 a.m. the following day from June 11 to July 19.

“We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here,” said Sen. Adam Thomas, an Olathe Republican who helped sell the bill. “How do I know that? The last time the World Cup was in America was over three decades ago. You can only assume it will be another three decades before it comes back.”

Sen. Doug Shane, a Louisburg Republican, urged the Senate to reject the legislation because there could be unintended consequences of watering down laws designed to curtail traffic accidents associated with late-night consumption of alcohol.

“I don’t want to wake up during the FIFA World Cup and hear about some child’s parent being killed in a car wreck on their way work from somebody leaving a bar at 5 a.m.,” Shane said.

Under Senate Bill 393, businesses selling alcoholic beverages could be open an additional three hours each day during the 39-day span of the international soccer tournament. The idea was endorsed by hospitality businesses in the Kansas City area keen to serve a much larger customer base during the summer. In Johnson and Wyandotte counties, the state has issued 760 liquor licenses to businesses that could benefit from the special law.

The impetus for tweaking Kansas law was approval by Missouri of a statute enabling a 23-hour business cycle for retail stores, bars and diners in the Show Me State.

In Missouri, the law automatically authorized establishments to grant patrons more time to soak up beverages of choice but included provisions for cities or counties to opt out through passage of an ordinance. The original Kansas bill was comparable, but it was modified by a Senate committee to require municipal governments to pass ordinances opting into the special regulatory arrangement.

“We always talk about local control,” Thomas said. “This leaves it up to the locals. This is not a vote for us to specifically mandate it. We are doing what we should do more often, which is leaving it up to the locals.”

Argentina and Algeria plan to set up soccer operations in Kansas, while England and the Netherlands would stake out locales on the Missouri side of the state line. Hundreds of thousands of soccer fans are expected to pour into the metro region when these clubs arrive in Lawrence or Kansas City, Kansas, and in Riverside or Kansas City, Missouri. The FIFA tournament includes six matches at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.

Overall, the World Cup men’s competition was set to take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In the 48-team format, 16 cities would host 104 matches.

Shane, who helped persuade three senators to switch their votes from “yes” to “no” on the bill, said most DUI crashes occurred between midnight and 3 a.m. The period corresponded to the timeframe in which people left parties, bars and social events where alcoholic beverages were available, he said.

In 2024, the senator said, there were 83 deaths and 1,100 injuries linked to DUI accidents in Kansas.

“Even though alcoholic beverages can be refreshing and enjoyable, they also carry a risk,” Shane said. “There are things in life more important than money.”