Murky math in Missouri’s World Cup cannabis calculations

Imagine, one summer day, Kansas City doubled in size. What would Crossroads, Westport, 18th and Vine, the West Bottoms, and all of the beautiful boroughs that make the community one of one look like? Well, on June 16, 2026, Kansas Citians will find out.

It should be no surprise to anyone living in the metro that the 2026 World Cup is approaching. After being announced as one of the 11 U.S. cities to host matches for the event in June 2022, local figures have worked diligently to get the town up to speed in numerous sectors in anticipation of the city’s largest event in history.

As a result, KC2026—a nonprofit set to organize event preparation—was formed. Some of the organization’s work since its formation in 2023 revolves around public transportation, prepping local businesses, obtaining sponsorships, and more to provide a welcoming and engaging fan experience when next summer arrives. But much of the work that the city has committed to has yet to come to fruition.

The streetcar extension still has yet to transport any public passengers, the Barney Allis Plaza redevelopment was just announced to be delayed past the event, construction still stains plenty of areas throughout the city, not to mention ICE has been running rampant throughout the metro. Surely, that will make foreigners feel welcome.

[KC2026 said in a follow-up statement that it is not involved in city-led construction projects such as the construction of Barney Allis Plaza, and claims it is actually ahead of schedule on its many initiatives.]

According to KC2026 COO Lindsey Douglas, the organization expects 650,000 visitors in the city between the first group stage game it will host on June 16 to the quarter final match on July 11. With a total population of just over 500,000 in KC proper, locals can expect the town to be turned upside down as the Heartland drastically increases in size for about a month.

Looking at the other cities who have the opportunity to host World Cup games, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Francisco, it’s pretty safe to assume that Kansas City would be considered the cheapest trip for a tourist wanting to get out to a game or two. Upon reviewing the data, it appears that this factor has been considered, as KC is projected to have more visitors than larger host cities, despite hosting fewer games.

And not all of these tourists will be flying in from overseas. A study conducted by ParkMobile concluded that more than one in six Americans plan on traveling to host cities to attend matches. In a little less than a year, Kansas City as we know it will drastically change for a month, as locals and tourists maneuver elbow-to-elbow throughout the Paris of the Plains. Local industries understand the influx of traffic that the world’s most-watched sporting event will bring to the area and are attempting to take steps to ensure that they are well-suited when the time rolls around, but will it be enough?

The city as a whole seems incredibly behind as far as proper planning goes. And given the fact that some of the sources interviewed for this story had yet to consider some of the obstacles that we questioned, it seems that the Missouri cannabis industry will be in for its own whirlwind of issues.

Welcoming the World

When a municipality is expecting well over half a million visitors, it is also expecting those visitors to spend a little dough while they are in town. Hundreds of millions of dollars are estimated to be spent throughout the metro during the timeframe. Lodging, food and drink, transportation, and community events are obviously going to be the main breadwinners for KC, but the state should also see a large boost in tax revenue during that time due to an already incredibly prosperous market: Missouri’s cannabis industry.

Since Missouri’s medical cannabis program began, and recreational cannabis sales became legal in 2023, the industry has generated more than $2.2 billion in sales, resulting in over $117 million in tax revenue for the state, according to the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Division of Cannabis Regulation’s (DCR) 2024 Annual Report. Now, as the city is set to be in the limelight of one of the most highly anticipated events in the world, Missourians can only expect this number to skyrocket come DCR’s 2026 Annual Report.

But the number doesn’t just magically grow; It is the time and effort put in by your neighbors who provide the product and service to the market. Now, they have their work cut out for them.

With about 40 licensed cannabis facilities around the metro, tourists looking to catch a buzz will have plenty of options based on where they are located during their stay—one of those being less than 10 minutes away from the airport in Platte City.

Jimi Poe, Owner of 816 Dispensary, the first microbusiness dispensary to open its doors in the state, is hopeful that his brick-and-mortar’s close proximity to Kansas City International Airport (MCI) will make his dispensary a desirable destination for tourists when they land up north.

“With the hotels mainly being up by the airport and not a whole lot down by Arrowhead, I feel like we should probably get a lot of that traffic when people get off the plane,” Poe says. “We are the first dispensary that pops up because we’re the closest to the airport.”

And the gears are already turning on how he can drive customers through the front door—quite literally. One of Poe’s plans is to charter tourists to 816 Dispensary from the airport, then to their hotels in shuttle buses.

“So we’ve been talking about maybe getting a shuttle bus to run that three weeks to a month—run them back and forth from the airport up here to the dispensary, let them make their purchase, and then take them to their hotel,” he says.

Members of Kansas City Cannabis Company (KCCC), with two of its five locations in North Kansas City and Kearney, believe they are poised to see a hefty uptick in traffic simply based on travel routes as well.

“If people don’t want to backtrack and then go to Kansas City, we’re the first dispensary going down, so anticipating that one will be pretty heavily hit there,” KCCC Marketing Manager Hugo Ortiz says. “And then, our Kearney location for any folks coming from Iowa, Illinois, any of that area as well.”

Other than driving routes, dispensaries located near tourist attractions, such as the Crossroads, Westport, and the Plaza shouldn’t have too hard of a time alluring travelers into their locations. One of those is From The Earth, with a location in the Power & Light District.

With establishments within city limits and near tourist hot spots, getting people in the door of their shops should not be too big a hassle for 816 Dispensary, KC Cannabis Co., and From The Earth. But not all dispensaries will have it so easy. For others who are a bit more spread out throughout the metro, they understand that they have to think outside the box to spread the word around. One of those would be ReLeaf Resources Dispensary in Grandview.

“We’re going to have to try to get really creative about maybe dropping flyers or promo cards or something into spots in the city,” ReLeaf Resources Dispensary Director of Procurement Josh Ordo says.

However, as a cannabis brand in Missouri, partnering with other local companies can be challenging due to compliance restrictions and the fact that businesses tend to shy away from these partnerships. Fortunately, KCCC says they are seeing that change gradually.

“The more and more people who are open to it, and we’re getting people every other week, really be like, ‘Hey, we’re allowed to do cannabis ads now’ and reaching out,” Ortiz says.

But adapting and overcoming is nothing new to members in the marijuana sector. And KCCC says, even with their easily accessible dispensaries for travelers, advertising will still be a must.

“In the cannabis industry, we’re already kind of regulated on how we can promote, and so we’re kind of used to setting up a table somewhere, pitching up a tent, and then just having information or stickers or swag, and there’s going to be a lot of opportunities for that,” Ortiz says.

All Hands on Deck

Once these cannabis outlets inevitably attract visitors, they will face a set of challenges. One obstacle that all of the dispensaries that we interviewed are hopeful to combat is the sheer amount of foot traffic during that month-long span.

As mentioned, one of From The Earth’s prime locations is next door to the T-Mobile Center and KC Live!, making it an easily accessible spot to pick up some weed for tourists staying in the heart of downtown. And From The Earth Marketing Vice President of Marketing, David Craig says that the company could possibly have an additional two or three dispensaries on top of the seven spots in the metro right now.

Specifically looking at the company’s Power & Light brick-and-mortar, Craig says that the staff will be operating with “all hands on deck.”

“Every single one of the Kiosk stations, which are more often than not staffed, will be full,” Craig says. “We’ll have backup employees, we’ll probably have people from our cultivation facility ready and working. We’ll really be tagging in everybody.”

Considering how quickly downtown hotels are likely to be booked up during that timeframe, Ortiz mentions a possible rise even within the suburbs that others may not be thinking of, which would benefit KCCC’s Blue Springs and Lake Lotawana locations.

“I’m anticipating the suburbs are going to be very busy,” Ortiz says. “I think a lot of people are focusing on Kansas City proper, but I think the prices are going to drive people down to the suburbs more.”

One dispensary says they aren’t too worried about the traffic. ReLeaf already leverages a business model geared toward nonstop traffic. As the only dispensary in the metro operating 24/7, 365 days a year, the team at ReLeaf takes on a load of customers that is unmatched by competitors, simply because they never close their doors.

“We’re kind of built for volume, so we can handle high-volume transactions really well,” Ordo says. “So if it just ends up being a month of 4/20s, then we’ve got this.”

Give Up the Goods

Another hurdle during this window will be having enough marijuana on hand for the scale of demand.

It all starts with the cultivators producing enough biomass, then the manufacturing process of packaging the product, which eventually trickles down to the dispensary counter.

The faces behind the dispensaries that we spoke with say that stocking in the months leading up to the event will be necessary.

“We’ll purchase throughout the months before and just keep adding up our inventory. So whenever the World Cup hits, we should be fully stocked, ready to go,” Kansas City Cannabis Chief of Staff Corey Martin says.

And if the overstocking results in the company having too much backstock at one location, Craig says that they can sell the excess to another vendor.

“We’re planning on building up our vault inventory in the month or two leading up to that,” Craig says. “Normally, if we get excess biomass, we might sell excess biomass to another vendor. Another producer will probably save all that stuff, so we don’t have any shortages on our end.”

But what products are travelers going to want? Are edibles a safe bet, or are high-potency concentrates at the top of their lists? Convenience, accessibility, discretion, experience, and so much more play a factor in how consumers will make their pick. And for dispensaries, what to order is practically unpredictable.

“It’s going to be a first-time kind of thing,” Ordo says. “We’re not going to be able to predict what’s gonna happen.”

And although very capricious, there is an agreement that once the matches are cemented and it is known which countries the city will be hosting, targeting those specific consumers will be key.

Currently, 13 nations, including the U.S., have qualified to compete in the event: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, and Uzbekistan. With an expansion to 48 teams from the previous 32-team tournament, 35 countries still have yet to be named qualifiers.

“Depending on what countries are going to be in this area, if those countries have a high propensity to use cannabis or not, or what I’m thinking about is a lot of people who are going to be excited to try it for the first time, or not have access to it in their countries,” Ortiz says.

“Being that we’re going to have a lot of worldly palates out here, I could see us selling a lot of concentrates, because I think there’s a lot of hash smokers around the world. I think we’ll definitely sell a lot of pre-rolls,” Ordo says.

Considering discretion will likely be a top priority for tourists, and given the limited spaces for private smoking of flower or concentrates, edibles and vape cartridges could experience a significant increase in sales.

“I don’t see people buying tons of concentrates,” Craig says. I don’t see people buying tons of flower more than the baseline. I would expect to see a rush on some of those more handheld, consume-in-public-friendly [products].”

“I do imagine a lot more pre-rolls, cartridges, and vapes will probably be a little bit more of their preferred products with visiting and being out and about on the move, and as far as discretion in general goes,” ReLeaf Resources Dispensary Director Mitch Alexander says.

For microbusiness 816 Dispensary, its shelves will look entirely different come next summer. Since it is the first microbusiness dispensary to open, sales are very limited. This can be attributed to the Missouri Constitution. By law, microbusiness dispensaries can only purchase and distribute cannabis products from other microbusinesses in the state.

“There are no cartridges or edibles in the micro market as of right now,” Poe says. “There’s not a manufacturer that’s commenced. We opened the doors with seven strains of flower, and now we’re up to nine strains of flower and three pre-rolls.”

And although it has been a slow process getting products in stock, similar to when dispensaries first began to open during medicinal years in Missouri, Poe says that by the time the World Cup hits town, he will have plenty for consumers to choose from.

“By the time the World Cup comes, I think that will be very similar to the comprehensive side,” he says.

Linguistic Limitations

Challenges that come with attracting customers and having sufficient product on hand have already been identified. But what happens when a tourist from Uzbekistan swings by to get high? How will this interaction look, given that the majority of Uzbekistan citizens strictly speak Uzbek? Dispensaries acknowledge that the language barrier will be one of the largest hurdles to overcome and are preparing accordingly. It’s safe to assume that usage rates for Google Translate in the metro will immensely increase.

Currently, the members of these dispensaries say they deal with gaps in communication on a daily basis, so they already have some framework in place for their Spanish-speaking consumers.

“Every single day, every walk of life comes through our door,” Alexander says. “For the most part, Spanish is going to be the second language that we get the most through our store, as is. We have several Spanish speakers on staff already, but Google Translate, that’s always going to be and has been just a handy tool for us.”

“We did install a Spanish language widget into our primary dispensary sites where the whole site can be converted into Spanish, but not everyone will speak Spanish, and there will definitely be some barriers there,” Craig says. “That is something that is on our radar to figure out.”

Similar to how these cannabis distributors are planning on going about ordering specific products, knowing which countries will be playing and staying in Kansas City will evidently help influence how they go about catering to linguistic strategies.

“We work through those things now, but it would just be on a bigger scale,” Martin says. “Depending on what groups are here, we’re also talking about having advertisements in multiple languages. Whichever groups come here, we can do advertising in that language to make it feel more comfortable.”

At the end of the day, however, they say that cannabis is a universal language. Luckily for international tourists, the marijuana industry uses the metric system, which will also make the process just a tad bit smoother.

“It’s not really something that I’ve necessarily been worried about,” Alexander says. “I’ve been able to, in the years that we’ve been doing this, make transactions without having to say a single word to customers. I think that cannabis is a universal language that we all speak, no matter what language we speak.”

“I think there’s probably going to be a lot of pointing at something,” Craig says. People know that the pre-roll looks like a pre-roll. People are going to know that the gummy looks like a gummy.”

Establishing The Do’s and Don’ts

Now, say you are a tourist who just landed in town, stopped by 816 Dispensary to purchase legal cannabis for the first time, and are ready to indulge. What are the laws on possession and consumption? While anyone with a valid ID can purchase the products, once a customer has left the shop with their items, there is a set of rules and regulations that must be followed.

For instance, it is against Missouri law to consume cannabis in public. So while there may be a surge in pre-roll sales, it will be important for travelers to understand that lighting that joint up while abiding by the law may be a bit tricky, considering hotels and vacation rentals are usually smoke-free zones.

But the city and state can’t expect foreigners to know each and every law that comes with cannabis consumption. That’s where members of the industry come in.

“That’s kind of something I think falls on us too as a responsibility of the dispensaries to let everybody know what the laws are in Missouri,” Martin says. “What are the rules here? It’s kind of on us to let those customers know that this is where you can and can’t consume.”

“We definitely have some preliminaries of fan information sheets or FAQs, just to kind of bring them up to speed,” Ortiz says. “We kind of have that already with limits and things like that for recreational patient customers, but yeah, especially in different languages.”

Taking into account that these tourists will not legally be allowed to consume in public, Martin mentions the possibility of pop-up smoke lounges becoming more prominent during this time.

“I’ll be interested to see if we have any pop-up consumption lounges for that time frame, just to allow people to come in and smoke,” he says. “In other cultures, even smoking cigarettes is a lot more prevalent than it is in the United States, so just any sort of smoking lounge might be something that people want to take advantage of.”

Designated smoke lounges and smoking districts are an interesting aspect of this entire experience. And because municipalities can legally designate public smoking areas, the Division of Cannabis Regulation Executive Director Amy Moore says that the department struggles to educate consumers on where possession is warranted.

“Local governments can set areas within their jurisdiction for public consumption,” she says. “So it’s kind of complicated and specific to geographic areas, and a lot of times what’s happening with those local governments is not only outside of our jurisdiction, but outside of our knowledge. So we don’t always know when a local government is putting together, say, a festival district, or allowing for production and consumption in a restaurant. So it does get a little complex, and like I said, specific to the geographic area.”

One of the most perplexing components of cannabis tourism in KC is the drastically differing laws between Kansas and Missouri. Obviously, consumption within Kansas borders is completely prohibited, and educating tourists on where this invisible line is located is crucial.

“If somebody comes in who is from out of state, when they go to the budtender, they can see their record in the system, they can see the state they’re from, so usually part of that is some sort of quick conversation. Those people know that already, but we do not encourage anyone to do that,” Craig says.

At the end of the day, these visitors will be here on vacation, or ‘holiday’ as Europeans widely refer to it, and no one wants to get into legal trouble.

“We don’t want anyone to feel like they were duped for any reason,” Craig says.

“We don’t want people coming and purchasing from us and then going and having an issue, getting arrested, or getting a ticket or something,” Martin says.

Hemp Hang-Ups

An impediment that the legal marijuana market faces before ever getting face-to-face with a consumer is the unregulated hemp industry. Without prior knowledge of what a licensed cannabis facility looks like, it can be a struggle for Missourians to decipher whether or not a business is a legally operating cannabis dispensary or an unregulated hemp shop.

Meandering down urban roads, there are plenty of signs that read ‘Legal THC’, ‘Legal Weed’, ‘Cheapest Ounce in the State’. Even some unlicensed hemp shops have ‘dispensary’ in their business name. As a uniformed, first-time cannabis user, it is truly difficult to elucidate the two. And as a tourist, an even tougher battle.

Operating as the first microbusiness in the state has brought its own set of unique challenges for 816 Dispensary—one of which is making customers aware that they are a legal facility.

“With us being as new as we are in a micro, I feel like we have that persona over us right now that people think that we’re a hemp shop and we’re not an actual licensed dispensary,” Poe says.

He understands that this level of uneducation will continue within the state until micros become more widespread and says that informative sales tactics are the most effective way of spreading awareness and putting a halt to the misinformation that surrounds the two closely connected industries.

“I’ve had to do a lot of education with people that come through the doors, or people on our social media, just kind of letting them know what we are and that we are a licensed facility,” Poe says. “So that’s something that we’re definitely going to try to push out there to the public as these tourists come in and just kind of let them know the differences. When you first walk into that waiting room, they’ll have that license hanging up on the wall before you even set foot on the sales floor.”

But one dispensary owner can only do so much. And by the time consumers are in the four walls of a dispensary, odds are they already have carved that information out themselves. Martin believes that clarifying the differences between the two enterprises to Missourians and out-of-state visitors should fall on the shoulders of the DCR.

“DCR is realizing that they need to be the ones educating people about what is a licensed dispensary and what is not,” Martin says. “Right now, that’s not happening. The only group really doing anything is MoCannTrade, our trade organization. They’re the only ones that are really trying to tell people, ‘These are licensed, these are not,’ so I think DCR is coming along with that same line of thinking, which I think is great, because I think that should come from them.”

Moore says that, not specifically in relation to the World Cup, the department has been looking into providing more educational resources to individuals to decode hemp businesses from licensed cannabis facilities.

“We have, included on our website in the past year, a map,” she says. “We’ve always had a listing of our licensed dispensaries online, but now we also have a map so that people can find a dispensary if they would like to visit one, or they can verify that a business that they’re looking at is actually a licensed dispensary. We have also done some education in the past about how to determine if what you’re looking at or what business you’re walking into is a licensed dispensary. And we’re always looking for additional ideas on how to get additional education out about how to identify licensed dispensaries or licensed products.”

With the 2018 Farm Bill set to expire this September, these marijuana merchants are hopeful that the loophole that has allowed hemp shops to sell THCa flower will be closed come next summer.

“Hopefully, by the time this comes around, that loophole will have been resolved, and those stores will be shut down or no longer selling those specific products,” Craig says. “The last thing we would want is for a tourist to come here and get sick because they had a concentrate that concentrated pesticides,” Craig says.

Mayor Quinton Lucas’ office declined to comment on whether the city will provide educational resources on cannabis laws and regulations for tourists during the time period.

The World’s Largest Stage

As mentioned, this month-long range of what will be nonstop events and activities throughout the city should be one thing: fun. Soon, travelers will be booking hotels and flights to KC as a way to escape their daily lives and follow their country’s journey to chase one of the most glorified trophies in all of sports.

And while these dispensaries are eagerly optimistic about the enhanced amount of sales, many of them say that they hope the event will illuminate the community on a stage it has yet to step foot on.

“I’m really hoping that the city shines,” Poe says. “I’m really hoping that we get up on this big stage, and people see that Kansas City is a good place and a good place to live.”

Facilitating this welcoming experience starts with the faces that tourists will encounter when rambling through the city. Pointing them to historical sites is at the top of Poe’s list.

“I’m hoping to educate those people that come in about our city—barbecue, that’s number one in my book. The World War One Museum, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum—we have a lot of history here in Kansas City, and I’m hoping to educate some of those people and point them to the right places that they should try to go to,” Poe says.

All in all, these members of the marijuana market say they look forward to providing an unforgettable adventure for any and all who traverse through town in summer 2026.

“We’re excited to celebrate the different cultures and the different communities that are going to be coming to the city,” Martin says. “That’s what’s exciting to me, is we’re going to have people from all over the world coming here, and we get to showcase our town and our city to them.”

“Our aim is to provide a world-class experience for our world travelers here,” Alexander says.

Jackhammers continue to ramble, KC Streetcar rails continue to get laid, volunteers continue to get recruited, and dollars continue to get raised. In one small corner of Missouri’s economy, edibles continue to get infused, vaporizers continue to get assembled, and pre-rolls continue to get packed.

As the 2026 World Cup grows nearer, cultivators, manufacturers, lab testers, and dispensaries will all be gearing up for the largest test the newly established industry will face. Will the Missouri cannabis market be prepared for the onslaught of challenges that the city’s largest event ever will bring? Only time will tell.