Kansas City recorded the highest consumer spending growth of the 11 US host cities, above 6% year on year between 10 June and 5 July, on Bank of America card-transaction data reported on 13 July1. The bank measures point-of-sale credit and debit transactions across its own customer panel, which captures restaurants, retail and bars across a whole metropolitan area rather than a single sector. Mayor Quinton Lucas used the finding directly, saying the city's consumers, community and workforce "continue to lead during this World Cup, increasing spending and sales revenues more than any of the 11 U.S. World Cup host cities".
This briefing reported on 10 July that hotel occupancy had fallen year on year across most host cities through the tournament's first half, with Kansas City down 24% and only San Francisco, Dallas and New York gaining. Kansas City is therefore both the city that fell hardest on rooms and the city now leading all eleven on card spending. Its beds emptied and its tills filled in the same weeks.
Neither dataset is wrong, because they are counting different populations. A hotel occupancy series counts people who slept in a paid room in the city. A card panel counts everyone who tapped a card inside it, which includes residents staying home and spending on match days, day-trippers driving in from Kansas and Nebraska, and visitors sleeping in short-term rentals or with family. Arrowhead Stadium sits in a metropolitan area within a day's drive of a large part of the American Midwest, which is exactly the geography that produces spending without room nights.
The practical consequence falls on the people who bet on the room nights. Hoteliers who priced for a tournament influx carried the shortfall; restaurateurs and retailers did not. A single verdict on whether Kansas City did well out of the World Cup requires choosing whose books to read.
