Mayor Adams touts World Cup’s boon to local economy with more than 1M tourists, $2B in revenue expected
What a score!
New York City’s unparalleled “fan experience” was one of the driving forces behind it and neighboring New Jersey being selected to host the next World Cup soccer final, Mayor Eric Adams said Monday — as he predicted more than 1 million tourists will flood the region for the 2026 event.
“This was huge for us,” Adams told reporters at City Hall.
“Over 1 million tourists. And the beauty of that, not every tourist or visitor goes to the game [is] something that many people don’t realize when you talk about the World Cup,” he added. “It is the fan experience.”
The influx of visitors is expected to bring about $2 billion in revenue to the city, whether they attend the game at MetLife Stadium or not, Adams explained.
“The fans are faced with joy to come out to spend money we want them to go to Broadway to visit some of our beautiful sites,” the mayor said. “They need to interact with our city, so we are really, really excited.”
In addition to billions in revenue, Adams said the event will bring about 14,000 jobs to the region.
Though the game itself will be held across the Hudson in East Rutherford, New Jersey and New York City are hosting the event in conjunction with one another as was done nearly thirty years ago for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
The Garden State and the Big Apple were one of 23 cities and regions across the US, Mexico, and Canada vying to hold the event, but Adams said organizers were blown away by the local bid.
“They made it clear that they wanted to be here, this region. They were extremely impressed with our law enforcement apparatus of the… fan experience here,” he said.
Adams also thanked New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy for his part in preparing their bid.
“Hats off to a good partner across the bridge, to Governor Murphy. He has been an amazing partner throughout this entire venture,” Adams said.
“Both sides of the Hudson could not be happier,” said Murphy during a morning appearance with Adams on Fox 5 New York, before describing himself as “a lifelong soccer fan.”
Costs to prepare the metro area to welcome guests from around the world will be split between the city and New Jersey, but “the good news is most of this will be from private funds,” Murphy insisted.
Adams, meanwhile, said it should not be a surprise that FIFA would choose Met Life despite earlier rumors that the mammoth event was heading for Texas.
“We knew we had the best product,” the mayor said. “No one puts on a show like New York-New Jersey.”
He noted that soccer has grown in popularity across the Big Apple, with the influx of migrants from South America and Africa as well as immigrants from the former Soviet-bloc countries.
“As mayor of the most diverse city in the United States, we cannot wait to welcome the world for the 2026 World Cup,” he said in a video posted to social media after Sunday’s announcement.
“New York-New Jersey is ready for North America to be the center of the soccer world, and the history we’ll be making in 2026 will create lifetime memories for fans, provide new opportunities for our communities, infuse billions into our economy and help shape our region and propel it forward for decades to come,” he also said in a statement.
Murphy called it a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our entire region.”
“Hosting the final provides New York-New Jersey [with] an unparalleled platform to brilliantly showcase what we stand for — diversity, equity, access and inclusion,” he said.
MetLife Stadium seats 82,500 fans and since opening in 2010 has hosted numerous large-scale events, including Super Bowl XLVIII.
Tickets for the World Cup Final have yet to go on sale, but fans can register with FIFA to be kept up to date on information about ticket sales.
