By the time the first whistle blows this World Cup season on June 11, many will have already begun a different competition altogether. To grab the perfect spot at a restaurant or a classy pub to catch football matches.
As much as soccer remains the headline act this year for millions of fans across the globe, many of the die-hard fans of soccer may not go for the live event.
In 2022 FIFA president Gianni Infantino said that "the world will be invading Canada, Mexico and the United States [with] a big wave of joy and happiness," as the FIFA World Cup 2026 was promised to be held in North America.
However, The Athletic recently reported, "the long-promised World Cup boom hasn’t yet materialised" for U.S. tourism industry. There ws a lot of hype in the tourism industry around this year's FIFA World Cup that would take place in major cities across North America.
What this meant for businesses is that there would be a rapid uptick in the number of guests booking hotels and seat at restaurant in North American cities. But the numbers suggest otherwise.
In fact, a study by King's College London by Professor Sally Everett highlights "the tournament exposes deeper questions about who global sporting events are really designed for."
The soaring costs associated with the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico indicate they are designed around high-value visitors than ordinary football fans.
Speaking on the latest episode of Office Hours, Everett, author of Decolonising Tourism Education said “There is something problematic here in the idea of value. You are actually shifting from fans of a World Cup to high value visitors that the destination is after.”
And the expectation that the 2026 World Cup would bring millions of visitors and billions of dollars to North America which resulted in massive pricing surges during the months leading up to June have been reported to be below the estimated projections in reality.
When FIFA last year released a Socieconomic Impact Analysis report and boasted that the World Cup “could help drive up to $40.9 billion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP)” in the U.S., its analysis included an assumption that “40% of the total stadium attendance [would] consist of foreign tourists.”
Turns out, foreign travellers heading to North America to attend FIFA World Cup 2026 is softer than anticipated. Unlike the 2 to 6 million international visitors estimated to visit the countries, current U.S. and Canadian travel data reveals inbound travel demand has not accelerated t expected levels.
FIFA World Cup 2026 that is kickstarting on June 11 and will run until mid-July is expected to have far less foreign travellers than expected due to several reasons.
Thanks to the current geopolitical concerns pertaining to on-going tensions in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, as well as visa constraints for many soccer fans from countries with low-visa approval statuses, there is a shift away from massive overall volume.
Moreover, high costs of hotels and flight bookings along with high ticket prices indicate the shift is toward highly concentrated spending by a smaller but more affluent pool of tourists.
So, for many of the original fans of Soccer, the competition is against the small pool of tourists who may not even be die-hard fans of the sport. This is much like the concert economy in India that is currently booming, where the rise in demand for concert goers sits perfectly with those who can afford to buy tickets to see an artist live.
Of course, purists might roll their eyes, but football itself has created this phenomenon. Sporting events have evolved much into lifestyle festivals over the years. The Super Bowl, Wimbledon, Cricket and even F1 now operate as cultural ecosystems rather than standalone events. Fans are now travellers attending these events as much for the game as much for the atmosphere and the competition in terms of who gets to live the moment. FIFA's stretch particularly across three countries alone this year, transforms the travel.
Perhaps, also why the stretch between a fan and a wannabe feels increasingly obvious.
So, if you to end up going to a local pub for a screening of the match and happen to feel like you are at the stadium, don't worry. They are all here for the love the sport.