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

By Tim Carpenter - | Mar 26, 2026

The Kansas Statehouse in Topeka.

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.” Two people were arrested and multiple people were ejected as they shouted profanity during an hour of public comments and 30 minutes of discussion before the city commission voted 4 to 1 to approve the permit. CoreCivic and the city of Leavenworth have been fighting for a year as the company sought to reopen the prison it closed in 2021. With a $60 million U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement annual contract in hand, the Nashville-based private prison company tried through the courts to reopen without going through the city’s development process. Brian Todd, a CoreCivic spokesman, said in a statement that ICE officials would decide when the Midwest Regional Reception Center will begin housing detainees. “As we have from the start, CoreCivic remains committed to operating a safe, transparent and accountable facility,” he said. “We look forward to our continued partnership with the city and to the benefits the MRRC will bring to Leavenworth and the surrounding communities.” The vote was a second — and final — consideration of CoreCivic’s special use permit, which sets regulations for how the prison will operate and oversight the city will provide. Commissioner Rebecca Hollister was the sole vote against the permit, as she was during the first consideration on Feb. 24. How they voted Hollister said specific issues outlined in the permit caused her to vote no, including a clause that requires breaches of the agreement to continue for 30 days after a notice before termination could occur. “There have been valid concerns regarding potential violations that occur intermittently, but not necessarily for 30 days continuously,” she said. Hollister said CoreCivic officials answered her questions and invited her into the facility, but that she believes the company’s promise of transparency and cooperation “requires a high level of trust” that is difficult for her to have, especially given the company’s problems at other facilities. “With the knowledge I have right now, I just do not have sufficient faith that their operation would meet all the ‘golden factors’ in development regulations,” she said. “I hope to be wrong, and I think that’s possible based on my last positive conversations with staff.” Two commissioners made it clear their positive votes swung on fiscal responsibility. “This has been an agonizing process,” said Commissioner Joe Wilson. “Everybody wants to make this morality over fiduciary responsibility, but I think there is a real risk to the future of the city, based on how the vote turns out that has to be considered, that could have long-term ramifications for our children, for our tax base, for our law enforcement and our firefighters and the services that we can provide.”