Kansas City was supposed to complete the construction of a new $25.8 million jail in time for the World Cup. It’s still not ready, and people are upset, for numerous reasons.
According to The Athletic, both the original proposal and the eventual legislation for the new jail in Kansas City stated “the expected surge of visitors for the upcoming World Cup may further strain the city’s limited rehabilitation and detention resources.”
Kansas City leaders frequently stated that they primarily intended the temporary jail complex, originally planned to be used for up to five years until a $151 million permanent site could be built, to accommodate the expected surge in World Cup visitors.
Since Kansas City hasn’t had a municipal jail since 2009, police patrol stations either detain offenders who violate the law or send them to jails in Johnson County or Vernon County, both of which are located more than 50 miles away.
City Manager Mario Vasquez, Assistant City Manager Jeff Martin, and Councilman Wes Rogers all made statements in the lead-up to the World Cup that the jail needed to be operational by the time the soccer tournament came to town.
“The World Cup’s coming whether we are ready for it or not, so we’ve got to get this built,” Rogers said at a city council meeting in July 2025.
The ‘World Cup’ jail won’t be ready for the World Cup
The facility’s planners scheduled the 100-bed facility to open on June 1, fifteen days prior to Argentina’s match against Algeria in Kansas City. It’s still not ready, and it won’t be ready in time for the soccer tournament.
A representative for the city manager’s office informed The Athletic that the city would no longer keep detainees at the facility during the games. They said that the manufacturer’s supply timeline for certain parts has delayed the $25.8 million project, and the center is also running its staffing behind schedule.
City officials are now walking back their statements that they intended to use the new jail for the World Cup.
Councilman Rogers told The Athletic in the final week of May that it “really is maybe loosely tied to the World Cup, but this is stuff we had to do regardless.” He now describes the World Cup as a “footnote” in the broader story of Kansas City being “the biggest city in the country without a jail … and we need a jail.”
He acknowledges the local jail would be used for “low-level misdemeanor and ordinance violations, whereas a prison is for somebody committing a felony,” which means it would have been “nice to have it open” for the World Cup.
“They used the World Cup as an opportunity to get buy-in from the public,” said Dylan Pyles of Decarcerate KC. “If they had to use the World Cup as an excuse to get it going, then they’re fine with that. Most of the city was sold on the idea that it was for the World Cup. So it does now feel like a little bit of a waste of everyone’s money, time and energy.”