Greetings!,

Have you become a football (soccer) fan since the World Cup is being played in north America? 

It would have been nice to see the United States team qualify for the finals to be played this Sunday. But it is a world game, and does not have the interest or draw that American football does. 

From an economic side, a few years ago Chad and I looked at the impact of hosting a World Cup has on the host country. While our data set was minimal, we found too many factors really came into play to make this a worth while regional investment opportunity. 

That is not to say there is not money to be made. FIFA, which stands for Fédération Internationale de Football Association, which translates in English to the International Federation of Association Football restructured the World Cup into a franchise model this year. For the first time, FIFA runs the tournament directly instead of through a local organizing committee, keeping the ticket, sponsorship, and media revenue while host cities cover the security and infrastructure bills. The result? FIFA is projected to pocket close to $8.9 billion, while the 11 U.S. host cities could be left holding a collective shortfall of up to $250 million (Fortune, June 19, 2026).

Card swipes tell a different story on the ground. Bank of America data shows overall consumer spending across the 16 World Cup host cities up 6.3% year over year, with spending from visitors traveling in from out of town surging 16.7% (Forbes, June 26, 2026). 

Here's the twist economists keep finding... hosting the World Cup doesn't move the needle on GDP, but winning it does. It turns out that a country's GDP growth rises by at least 0.48 percentage points in the two quarters after winning the tournament, driven almost entirely by a bump in exports (Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, February 2, 2024).

FIFA also rolled out dynamic ticket pricing for the first time in World Cup history. Face values start at $60 and climb as high as $7,875 for a Category 1 seat at the final. Industry trackers have already crowned this the most expensive World Cup ever, no contest (Fortune, June 19, 2026). 

Finally, nowhere has the price swing been stranger than Guadalajara, Mexico. Hotel rooms that averaged $90 a night last summer are now listed at $511, the single biggest jump of any host market in the tournament. (Newsweek, May 25, 2026).

We will try to keep these details in mind and make comparisons when the Super Bowl comes around in 2027.



As always, thanks for reading.

Bernie & Chad