Posted Sep 27, 2022, 5:59 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Philadelphia
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Behind Philadelphia's 'spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity with 2026 World Cup
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When Philadelphia leaders in tourism, sports and politics look to 2026 and playing host to the FIFA World Cup, they see opportunity. Opportunity to grow the game of soccer, opportunity to advance the city's reputation in front of a global audience and opportunity for local businesses to capitalize on the hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Tim McDermott, the president of the Philadelphia Union; Michelle Singer, senior vice president of political engagement at Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA); and Angela Val, the CEO of Visit Philadelphia, recently took part in a panel hosted by the Philadelphia Business Journal dubbed "World Cup 2026: Philadelphia readies for spot on global stage" to discuss the chance to affirm the region as a global destination.
It's a rare opportunity. Philadelphia is one of just 16 North American cities — including 11 in the U.S. — awarded 2026 World Cup matches by FIFA. The event in the Philadelphia region alone is expected to draw 500,000 visitors and generate $460 million in economic impact over the course of a month, organizers estimate.
"We have the ability to pull off a spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime, not only World Cup, but the 250th birthday of America in Philadelphia in 2026 at the same time," said Singer, who is a senior advisor to Philadelphia Soccer 2026, the local organizing committee. "We have the opportunity to dovetail it beautifully and become a real center of the country. I think that's an incredibly unique opportunity for not only Philadelphia, but the business community particularly to lean in here."
They received that affirmation from FIFA officials in the weeks and months following, Singer said.
"The refrain we continue to hear from FIFA. . .we got a lot of 'Go Philadelphia' or 'We were rooting for Philadelphia,' which was so cool," Singer said. "We had a hyper-organized bid because we are the underdog but we've done these events before. Why shouldn't we lean on our amazing business community and our experience in doing these events? We've done this."
People outside of the City of Brotherly Love are starting to take notice. Visit Philadelphia, in concert with the city and the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, puts bids in to host various events. Val said that everything the group has put in a bid to host in recent years, it has landed. Those events include the MLB All-Star Game in 2026, Wrestlemania in 2024, multiple NCAA championships and 16 conventions already on the calendar for 2026.
Singer hopes the monthlong event will "put Philadelphia on the world stage permanently. This is this is our opportunity to do it, this is the way we get back to that place and we stay there on top."
Val said that 2026 will be a sort of vindication of how far Philadelphia has come in the past two decades.
"One of the biggest things that I hope that we achieve, and we have over time been getting there, is that Philadelphia is known on an international stage," she said. "We were in the bid process in [2006] for the 2016 Olympics. And we didn't make that bid, and one of the things they said to us was 'Nobody really knows Philadelphia.' But here we sit today, about to get international World Cup games in Philadelphia. You can see us moving the mark."
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Article behind paywall here:
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...Pos=1#cxrecs_s
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Unless, of course, it WAS you who I ran into buying popcorn and Milk Duds in the lobby of the Stanton back in '52. 
Also, my subscription to newspapers.com is worth every penny.
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