Long Term Effects for World Cup Host Cities

[mhays]

As of early July the World Cup appears to be a success, with every stadium mostly full, generally positive reviews, and no major host-city snafus. But what will be the effects on these cities long term?

Will the visibility increase international visitors, particularly from the countries your city has hosted?

Did your city build or clean things that might help in the future as well?

Have locals bought into soccer more deeply, possibly affecting local teams, stadiums, or kids' sports?

If your city hasn't hosted games, do you wish it had or are you glad it didn't?

(No politics please, just cities and their populations.)

[mhays]

My short answer for Seattle, BTW, is that the PR is probably worth several times the actual visitor count. TV coverage to millions per game is useful, both in the countries playing and the other countries where even smaller games still probably get good numbers. A lot of that will be people who aren't familiar with the city.

Actual hotel numbers have been down compared to our always-busy summer tourist season.

That said, we've hosted a lot of people from Australia, Belgium, and around the US, plus I image mostly US diaspora from Iran, Egypt, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Qatar, and Senegal. A lot of these are people who might have never been here but might come back again. People who come here in the summer tend to say nice things about coming back.

I don't know whether soccer will gain popularity, as it was already doing pretty well here. The excitement probably has legs. Some will depend on whether the Sounders do well, whether the US team does well in the future, the UW, Seattle U, same on the women's side...

[xzmattzx]

On social media, the positive reviews for Boston, Philadelphia, and Houston and Texas in general seem to be through the roof. Those are the 3-4 places I have seen lauded more than any others so far.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by mhays

My short answer for Seattle, BTW, is that the PR is probably worth several times the actual visitor count. TV coverage to millions per game is useful, both in the countries playing and the other countries where even smaller games still probably get good numbers. A lot of that will be people who aren't familiar with the city.

Seattle's soccer fever and hospitality got glowing coverage in the Los Angeles Times. Also, anecdotally, most Americans don't know it, but Seattle was already soccer-crazy (as is Portland) compared to most US cities. The hubs and I were making our way back to our car on one visit, and we saw and heard a huge contingent of local soccer fans parading toward the stadium--with our parked car along the route. We raced ahead of them to get out of the parking spot in time!

As for Los Angeles, again anecdotally, I have encountered far more tourists than usual both downtown, in West Hollywood, and on the B Line subway on which I commute.

[dave8721]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

On social media, the positive reviews for Boston, Philadelphia, and Houston and Texas in general seem to be through the roof. Those are the 3-4 places I have seen lauded more than any others so far.

Every review I have seen of Boston's stadium situation I have seen from visitors has been overwhelmingly negative. They love the city, they hate that they have to travel out to the middle of nowhere to watch the game (and pay ridiculous gouged rates to do so).

[mhays]

One outcome for a lot of cities must be a lot of first-time transit riders. Seattle has certainly blown the doors off normal ridership on game days and even adjacent days (peaking around 700,000 vs. 500,000), and it's not just visitors.

Once people ride once, they're probably fairly likely to ride again at some point. Whether you're LA, KC, or any other city that could be a big effect.

[dave8721]

For Miami in the long run and I cant imagine any lasting impact. No improvements were made especially for the event (we hold big sporting events all the time) and I doubt anyone who attended wasn't already familiar with the city.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by mhays

As of early July the World Cup appears to be a success, with every stadium mostly full, generally positive reviews, and no major host-city snafus. But what will be the effects on these cities long term?

Will the visibility increase international visitors, particularly from the countries your city has hosted?

Did your city build or clean things that might help in the future as well?

Have locals bought into soccer more deeply, possibly affecting local teams, stadiums, or kids' sports?

If your city hasn't hosted games, do you wish it had or are you glad it didn't?

(No politics please, just cities and their populations.)

In my own observation, I've seen people wearing various countries' soccer jerseys. Our go-to pub in Pasadena has seen different waves of crowds and not so crowded occasions, depending on which team was playing. On my way to Union Station the other weekend, while waiting for the train at the South Pasadena station, a guy came up to me and asked how many more stops to the Fillmore station, and I told him one, but that he needed to go to the other platform because he was on the wrong side and would be going the wrong direction. And I guess some other people overheard, because other people with different accents then came up to me and started asking questions about getting to Hollywood and to Little Tokyo, and of course I gave them directions.

Los Angeles gets a lot of tourists anyway, domestic as well as international. I don't think the World Cup will have any long-term effects on SoCal, but I don't doubt that there have been some economic benefits. There's only one match left at SoFi, too, so once that happens, I can see the number of World Cup visitors will start to dwindle.

[Shawn]

I've been following Scottish press coverage of Boston and wow has it been effusive. They really liked it. Getting to Foxboro? Not so much. But they liked Boston so much that Glasgow and Boston signed a Sister City agreement last week in a public ceremony during which a large crowd of 11:00 AM-drunk Scots chanted "No (Mayor) Wu, no party!".

A side observation from someone who grew up with lots of exposure to it: the national press coverage the MA/RI Cape Verdean population is getting has been a lot of fun to see. AJ Dybantsa (who is Cape Verdean) goes #1 in the NBA draft, shouts out his home town Brockton in his first presser, and then CV makes it out of group play. The party in Brockton hasn't stopped.

[iheartthed]

It's mostly turning into a bust for NYC. Tourism numbers were down YoY during the group matches. Apparently hotel bookings have picked up lately so there might be some recovery, but it's unlikely to get anywhere close to FIFA's projections per the NYC comptroller:

“Hotel bookings are *lower* here than this time last year. Bookings into JFK are down from last year,” he wrote. “FIFA had projected 1.2M visitors to NY/NJ. We will be lucky to hit 1/3 of that. Huge disappointment.”

source: https://nypost.com/2026/06/25/real-estate/nyc-hotels-see-sudden-surge-in-bookings-for-world-cup/

[mhays]

Cities that normally peak in the summer appear to have similar experiences. Hotels doubled their prices, which scared off the normal tourists. Also, any stadium or fan zone in the center of town probably created a small WFH trend as well. Hopefully the office workers come back (again) and the tourists just decided to come at other times.

For NY, LA, and Miami I can buy a minimal PR effect. But for most cities it should be a useful boost. The less known you were, the bigger the effect. Kansas City probably scored big. The game coverage, the tourist/news stories in visiting countries, and the simple name recognition can be significant.

Seattle is somewhere in the middle on that. We're not in the top handful but seem do ok in the second tier. Getting to the second tier -- and staying there -- requires a constant flow of mentions between news stories, movies, sports, etc.

[AviationGuy]

The Swedes lost to the Netherlands 5-1 in Houston on June 20. Pre-game, the news coverage seemed to be mostly on the parade the Swedes organized from Rice University stadium, through Hermann Park and the medical center, and on to Houston Stadium (NRG stadium). There were thousands in the parade and people had a great time. Unfortunately, after the match that they lost, they had to get back to wherever their post-match destinations were in a long lasting rain event. Didn't hear many complaints, though, as the temperatures cooled to the 70s that afternoon. I didn't watch much coverage otherwise, but hoping there was also a lot of attention on the Netherlands, considering that they won the match.

Some of the Swedes interviewed in the parade said the US gave them a much better impression than they had from international news coverage. As for Houston, the talk was largely about the tall buildings all over the city as well as the food from all over the world.

[Crawford]

I cannot imagine it makes much of a difference either way. When I'm watching a match I typically don't even know where they're playing. Have no clue where Mexico just played outside of obviously in Mexico. And most of the NFL stadia look pretty similar inside.

Also, the U.S. is so rich compared to elsewhere that locals are likely gobbling up the absurdly pricey tickets rather than foreign visitors, who also face the border issues. I have seen the foreign fans in Manhattan, and they're enthusiastic, but not sure if they're outbidding locals on tickets.

Also locally, the Knicks championship, the TS wedding and the Tall Ships for the 4th seem to be bigger events. When the championship arrives, I'm sure the area will be more fixated on the WC.

Maybe tiny economic and PR boost, but is anyone planning on visiting Qatar now that they've hosted?

[mhays]

But now most people know Qatar exists.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I cannot imagine it makes much of a difference either way. When I'm watching a match I typically don't even know where they're playing. Have no clue where Mexico just played outside of obviously in Mexico. And most of the NFL stadia look pretty similar inside.

As I understand it, Mexico has played all of its 2026 WC games in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey.

Maybe tiny economic and PR boost, but is anyone planning on visiting Qatar now that they've hosted?

Short term, I don't think the WC has made much of an impact on Los Angeles at all, beyond bringing in identifiably soccer-oriented tourists. If they weren't wearing their team jerseys, then they would blend in with the rest of the summer tourists. Long-term, I don't expect any impact, except that the games are seen as a dry run for the '28 Olympics in terms of transportation, crowd control, and law enforcement.

[dimondpark]

I think it's been very minimal for SF, mainly because the stadium is like 50 miles south of the city, yes there are some large watch parties in the city and a lot of international visitors have come through but SF largely seems like business as usual. Otherwise we went to the USA-Bosnia-Herzegovina game and it was an amazing experience, 10/10.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Also locally, the Knicks championship, the TS wedding and the Tall Ships for the 4th seem to be bigger events. When the championship arrives, I'm sure the area will be more fixated on the WC.

Her wedding is not a public event. She's completely blocked everything off from view, closed streets, everything on lockdown. Just making resident's lives miserable for a day.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by The North One

Her wedding is not a public event. She's completely blocked everything off from view, closed streets, everything on lockdown. Just making resident's lives miserable for a day.

Eh, this is totally wrong. There's nothing on "lockdown". Penn Station is operating normally, and you can walk down all streets. It's more the Swifties outside creating gridlock. There's no more public disruption than any big event at MSG.

It's actually the WC, the Knicks championship and Tall Ships that are far more disruptive to the public. And the first two were wildly expensive, non-public events. And Tall Ships is limiting waterfront access across much of the NY-NJ area. They're even shutting down the SI Ferry, which normally runs 24/7, 365.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Eh, this is totally wrong.

You are delusional. Go there there now and get swept away by security attempting to get near the closed streets.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by The North One

You are delusional. Go there there now and get swept away by security attempting to get near the closed streets.

I'm obv. not trying to crash a private event. Do you have a pressing need to enter MSG? As long as Penn Station is unaffected it isn't an issue.

It's nice to have a positive event this 4th taking the focus off from the sordid fascist carnival on the National Mall. They seem like good people, and I wish the couple all the best. And the city bills private entities for 100% cost recovery for any police or road needs.