KANSAS CITY, Mo — The FIFA World Cup brought tens of thousands of soccer fans to Kansas City, and communities north of the river felt the impact.
Go North KC organized traveling watch parties across the Northland — from Gladstone and Kearney to North Kansas City and Zona Rosa — turning streets into gathering places for families, soccer fans and people who simply wanted to be part of the atmosphere.
"It was always a mission. How do we highlight our communities? How do we bring people and showcase the best and unique and what's really special about each community? The traveling watch parties did that," Megan Sahlfeld with Go North KC said.
Crowds came from near and far to attend the events, and many stopped at local businesses along the way.
"We can see that folks are coming from you know 10 and 30 miles away to go to these watch parties, and then they're going to local businesses beforehand and afterwards. So it definitely did have a local impact," an organizer said.
One of those businesses was Team Cocktail in Zona Rosa. Owner Lyndsey Fliehs said the watch parties delivered a significant boost in traffic and revenue.
"We definitely that day saw a huge increase in traffic and sales, which was awesome," Fliehs said.
Fliehs said many of those first-time visitors have continued to return since the tournament ended.
"There were a lot of local shoppers there that now have been coming to our store locations, which is exactly what we had hoped for people to do, and so now we've seen an uptick in sales in both of our retail locations," Fliehs said.
With the World Cup now over in Kansas City, Go North KC says it plans to continue building on the momentum with future events designed to bring the Northland community together.
"It's very sad that we're over, but it'll be nice to you know look forward to the next plans and how we can continue to work together," an organizer said.
Make sure to check out their website for future events happening in the Northland.
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