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New York and New Jersey jointly outshine other US states, making more money from the FIFA World Cup as visitors spend heavily on hotels, food, retail and travel, boosting tourism and jobs. New York and New Jersey have jointly outshone the other 48 US states in making more money from the FIFA World Cup. Crucially, the region generated $3.5 billion in economic impact, beating its original $3.3 billion forecast. Moreover, visitors and fans drove $1.9 billion in direct spending across hotels, restaurants, retail, transport and entertainment.
Meanwhile, the tournament supported 27,424 jobs and generated $1.4 billion in labour income. In addition, state and local governments received $414.2 million in tax revenue. Therefore, New York and New Jersey turned FIFA World Cup travel into a powerful tourism and economic opportunity, attracting visitors while strengthening businesses across the region.
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The tournament ran from 11 June to 19 July 2026 and used 11 US host cities across 10 states, creating an unusually broad travel and tourism footprint that extended beyond stadiums into hotels, restaurants, retail, transportation, entertainment and community events.
Indent State / Region Why it stands out 1 New York + New Jersey $3.5B final economic impact, $1.9B direct spending, 27,424 jobs and $414.2M state/local tax revenue 2 California About $1.52B statewide economic activity and 970,000+ match attendances across LA and Bay Area 3 Texas Two host cities, with Dallas alone projected at $1.5B–$2.1B, plus Houston’s major visitor economy 4 Florida Miami-Dade projected $920M–$1.3B, with hotel ADR up 33% during the tournament 5 Missouri $489M economic impact, 650,000 projected visitors and $20.7M state tax revenue 6 Pennsylvania 500,000+ estimated visitors and $770M projected economic impact 7 Washington About $848M–$929M projected impact, with more than $100M projected state/local taxes 8 Georgia Atlanta’s impact estimated near $1B, with major small-business participation 9 Massachusetts 447,283 match fans and 160,000 Fan Festival visitors, but no comparable final dollar impact yet
The FIFA World Cup 2026 has delivered a far larger economic boost to New York and New Jersey than initially expected, generating an estimated $3.5 billion in total regional economic impact. The final figure exceeded the original $3.3 billion projection and highlights the scale of spending created by one of the world’s biggest sporting events. The tournament’s impact continues beyond its economic return. As part of the enacted FY27 Budget, Governor Hochul launched the $5 million NY Kicks program: A World Cup Legacy Investment Fund aimed at building soccer infrastructure in disadvantaged communities across each region of the state to strengthen neighborhoods and bring people together through a shared love of the game even after the World Cup is over. The budget also includes up to $1 million in additional funding to support NY Kicks recipients with equipment, training, and other operating costs to maximize use of these new facilities including uniforms, shin guards, soccer balls and coaches.
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According to the post-event study by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, the tournament generated approximately $1.9 billion in direct spending, supported 27,424 jobs, produced around $1.4 billion in labour income, and generated $414.2 million in state and local tax revenue.
Governor Kathy Hochul said the tournament allowed New York to welcome visitors from around the world while ensuring local communities and businesses benefited from the event. The impact extended well beyond the stadium, with hotels, restaurants, retailers, transport operators and entertainment businesses all recording substantial activity.
The economic impact was powered by an enormous visitor presence across the region. New York and New Jersey hosted eight World Cup matches, including the FIFA World Cup Final, alongside free Official Fan Events and related programming throughout New York City, New Jersey and other parts of New York State.
More than 645,000 fans attended the eight matches, while another 626,300 non-local visitors travelled to the two states for World Cup-related activities and regional fan experiences.
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Together, match and non-match attendees generated approximately $1.7 billion in direct spending, demonstrating how major sporting events can drive economic activity far beyond the primary competition venues.
Operational spending associated with staging the tournament added another approximately $286 million, further strengthening the overall economic contribution.
The tournament delivered significant spending across multiple sectors of the regional economy. Lodging received approximately $653 million in direct spending, making hotels and accommodation providers the largest beneficiary among the listed sectors.
Food and beverage businesses generated approximately $346 million, while retail businesses received around $264 million. Transportation generated approximately $200 million, followed by recreation and entertainment with about $195 million in direct spending.
The economic effect did not stop with those direct transactions. Spending continued circulating through regional supply chains and household economies. The $1.9 billion in direct activity generated another $693 million in indirect business activity and approximately $916 million in induced economic activity, taking the total impact to $3.5 billion.
The tournament also created a major employment boost across New York and New Jersey. The study found that 27,424 total jobs were supported, including nearly 18,000 jobs directly connected to World Cup operations and visitor spending.
Food and beverage businesses recorded the largest employment impact, supporting approximately 4,500 jobs. Transportation followed with around 4,400 jobs, while lodging supported approximately 4,000 jobs.
Those jobs generated roughly $1.4 billion in total labour income, comprising approximately $792 million in direct labour income and another $580 million generated through indirect and induced economic activity.
Government revenues also received a substantial boost from the tournament. World Cup-related activity generated approximately $759 million in combined federal, state and local tax revenue, including $414.2 million for state and local governments.
The total included approximately $174 million in sales tax revenue and nearly $39 million in bed tax revenue, reinforcing the broader fiscal benefits associated with hosting global sporting events.
Tourism Economics conducted both pre-event and post-event analyses using the same methodology. The July 2025 forecast projected a $3.3 billion economic impact, while the August 2026 post-event analysis, using actual tournament data, calculated the final impact at $3.5 billion.
Several factors helped push the result above expectations. These included higher-than-projected operational spending, stronger attendance at Official Fan Events and a larger share of international match attendees than originally forecast.
New York also used the tournament to spread World Cup activity beyond the main host area. A $500,000 New York State Community World Cup Grant Program supported locally organised viewing events across seven Upstate regions, helping bring visitors and spending to communities outside the primary tournament footprint.
Major watch parties demonstrated the strength of this community strategy. Stony Brook University welcomed approximately 6,000 attendees, while UBS Arena attracted more than 13,000 people across two matches. Kensico Dam Plaza welcomed more than 5,500 fans, and a free Central Park screening of the World Cup Final drew more than 30,000 people.
The economic gains are being paired with long-term investment in soccer infrastructure. Through the FY27 Budget, Governor Hochul launched the $5 million NY Kicks programme, designed to expand access to soccer facilities in disadvantaged communities across New York State.
Additional funding can support equipment, training and operating costs, helping communities make sustained use of the new infrastructure.
The World Cup therefore delivered more than a temporary tourism surge. With billions in economic activity, thousands of jobs, hundreds of millions in tax revenue and new community investment, New York and New Jersey have strengthened their position as leading destinations for major international sporting events.
U.S. State / Region Total Economic Output Direct Visitor Spending & Arrivals Labor Impact (Jobs & Wages) State & Local Tax Revenue New York & New Jersey $3.50 Billion $1.90B direct spending (1.2M+ visitors) 27,424 jobs supported / $1.40B labor income $414.2 Million Texas (DFW & Houston) $3.00B – $4.00 Billion $1.50B+ in Houston (500k visitors); 9 matches in Dallas 10,000+ regional jobs supported Tens of millions across local districts Georgia (Atlanta) ~$1.00 Billion 200,000+ hotel room nights booked Thousands of hospitality & event jobs Significant state sales & occupancy tax gains Washington (Seattle) $929.0 Million min. $100M+ local venue/district spending 20,762 jobs supported $100.0+ Million Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) $770.0 Million $160.0M estimated imported visitor spend 6,615 jobs supported $51.0 Million California (Bay Area) $480M – $630.0 Million 400,000 accommodation bookings ~13,000 regional jobs sustained Multi-county hotel tax growth
California emerged as one of the strongest World Cup tourism markets, hosting 14 matches across Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, while also serving as a base for several national teams and attracting international travellers beyond the stadium experience. Official California figures show that Los Angeles Stadium welcomed more than 560,000 fans across eight matches, while the San Francisco Bay Area venue welcomed more than 410,000 across six matches, taking combined match attendance above 970,000.
The state government estimates that the tournament generated approximately $1.5 billion in statewide economic impact, although California notes that final estimates remain pending, while nearly 700,000 transit riders were served during the event and Exposition Park in Los Angeles welcomed more than 100,000 fans. The result demonstrates how sports tourism can strengthen travel demand across accommodation, transportation, food, entertainment and local businesses while also giving California substantial international destination exposure ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Florida’s World Cup impact was concentrated around Miami-Dade, where seven matches and a month-long fan programme created a major tourism surge that reached hotels, restaurants, retailers, transportation operators and small businesses throughout South Florida. Before the tournament, Miami-Dade projected between 600,000 and one million visitors and estimated total economic output of $920 million to $1.3 billion, including supply-chain and household-income effects, while officials also expected higher sales-tax receipts from World Cup activity.
Post-event evidence now shows that the tourism effect was substantial, with Miami-Dade reporting more than 500,000 fans from around the world attending seven matches and more than 600,000 South Floridians and visitors attending the FIFA Fan Festival over 24 consecutive days. Hotel performance also strengthened sharply, with partner properties recording an average daily rate 33% higher than the comparable period a year earlier and hotel revenue per available room increasing 27% during the four-week period.
Georgia used Atlanta’s World Cup platform to connect global sports tourism with local businesses, community events and the wider visitor economy, while the state’s existing travel infrastructure positioned the city to accommodate international visitors and large-scale fan activity. Official state documents recognise the FIFA World Cup as a major economic and tourism event, although a definitive post-event statewide figure for visitor spending, labour income and tax generation has not yet been published.
The Atlanta experience is therefore best understood through its business and event ecosystem rather than an unsupported statewide headline number, because World Cup demand was designed to spread into restaurants, neighbourhoods, retail districts, accommodation and entertainment venues. This distinction is important for travel reporting because projected economic impact, confirmed visitor arrivals and final tourism receipts are different measures, and Georgia’s final post-event economic assessment should be used when it becomes available.
Massachusetts produced some of the clearest post-event tourism indicators, hosting seven World Cup matches while extending the tournament experience into Boston, community watch parties and the FIFA Fan Festival. The Commonwealth reported 447,283 fans attending matches, more than 30 communities holding watch parties and 160,000 attendees from 108 countries visiting the FIFA Fan Festival, with hundreds of thousands more participating in celebrations statewide.
The tourism economy benefited across hotels, restaurants, retailers and local attractions, while Massachusetts also demonstrated how transportation investment can support visitor spending by moving large numbers of travellers efficiently between Boston and the stadium. The MBTA operated 98 round-trip event trains, sold more than 108,940 round-trip tickets and positioned 700 employees across the network on every match day, creating a major travel operation that supported both visitors and residents.
Missouri stands out because its official figures combine visitor volume, economic impact and tax generation in a single state-level assessment, making Kansas City’s World Cup one of the clearest examples of sports tourism translating into measurable public-sector benefits. Missouri estimated $489 million in economic impact, approximately 650,000 visitors to the Kansas City region and $20.7 million in state tax revenue generated by the tournament.
The state’s final messaging also emphasised the international visibility created by hosting the tournament and the opportunity to position Missouri as a place to visit, live, work and invest. That combination of travel demand and destination marketing is strategically important because World Cup visitors can become future leisure travellers, business visitors and repeat tourists after first discovering a destination through a major sporting event.
New Jersey hosted the New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, including the FIFA World Cup Final, giving the state an unusually powerful global tourism platform and a concentrated period of demand for hotels, restaurants, transportation and hospitality workers. Before the tournament, New Jersey was already reporting record tourism fundamentals, with 123.7 million visitors in 2024 generating $50.6 billion in visitor spending, $80.4 billion in total economic impact and $5.4 billion in state and local tax revenue, creating a strong baseline for measuring the additional World Cup effect.
The state’s Treasury later said July sales-tax revenue growth was partly associated with FIFA World Cup-related economic activity, while the New Jersey Department of Labor reported significant demand for workers across hotels, restaurants, transportation and hospitality. Because the final economic study combines New Jersey and New York, state-specific World Cup economic impact, labour income and tax totals should not be separated without an official allocation.
New York’s World Cup impact cannot be isolated cleanly from New Jersey in the final official study, because Tourism Economics assessed the two-state region as an integrated travel and tourism economy centred on the eight matches, including the Final. The combined region generated $3.5 billion in total economic impact, exceeding the original $3.3 billion forecast, with approximately $1.9 billion in direct spending, 27,424 jobs, $1.4 billion in labour income and $414.2 million in state and local tax revenue.
More than 645,000 fans attended the eight matches, while another 626,300 non-local visitors travelled to New York or New Jersey for World Cup-related activities, generating approximately $1.7 billion in direct visitor spending. Hotels captured about $653 million, food and beverage businesses $346 million, retail $264 million, transportation $200 million and recreation and entertainment $195 million, illustrating how deeply tourism spending moved through the regional economy.
Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia host city attracted more than half a million estimated visitors for six matches, producing a major increase in travel activity for the Commonwealth and strengthening demand across accommodation, hospitality, retail and tourism businesses. The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development said the matches were estimated to inject $770 million into the Commonwealth’s economy, while earlier projections indicated 6,615 jobs and $51 million in tax revenue.
Pennsylvania is another state where editorial precision matters because officials have stated that final visitor and economic-impact calculations were still being completed, meaning the $770 million figure should be described as a projection rather than a final audited result. The state nevertheless used free fan zones in Reading, Scranton and Pittsburgh to extend World Cup tourism beyond Philadelphia, giving communities across Pennsylvania an opportunity to benefit from visitor interest and sports-related travel.
Texas had two host cities, Dallas and Houston, giving the state one of the largest World Cup footprints in the United States and allowing visitor spending to flow through two major metropolitan tourism economies. Houston was projected to attract more than 500,000 visitors and generate more than $1.5 billion in regional economic activity, with spending expected across hotels, dining, retail and local businesses, while Dallas was projected to generate approximately $1.5 billion to $2.1 billion in regional economic impact.
The scale of Texas also meant that tourism benefits extended beyond match venues into surrounding communities, including areas such as Sugar Land that positioned themselves to capture overnight stays, dining and off-match-day experiences. Texas has not yet published one comprehensive statewide final figure covering visitor arrivals, visitor spending, labour income and tax generation, so the Dallas and Houston estimates should be presented as regional rather than statewide totals.
Seattle entered the tournament with a strong tourism proposition and an official estimate of $848 million in regional economic impact, alongside expectations of record-breaking visitation and increased opportunities for neighbourhood businesses. The city’s official business programme focused on helping small businesses prepare for World Cup-related procurement, visitor demand and neighbourhood activations, reinforcing the role of tourism beyond the stadium itself.
Visit Seattle’s earlier projection was even higher at $929 million, including more than $100 million in direct state and local tax revenue and support for 20,762 full- and part-time jobs. Those figures were preliminary projections rather than final post-event results, so they provide important context for the scale of the opportunity but should not be presented as audited 2026 outcomes.
The state-by-state evidence shows that the World Cup worked as a tourism accelerator rather than simply a sports event, because visitor demand moved through hotels, restaurants, retail, transport networks, entertainment venues and community attractions before, during and after matches. The most important long-term benefit may therefore be destination visibility, as international travellers who discovered California, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas or Washington through football may return for future leisure, business and cultural travel.
“The FIFA World Cup 2026 has demonstrated the extraordinary power of major sporting events to transform travel and tourism into broad-based economic opportunity. Across the United States, visitors have supported hotels, restaurants, retailers, transport operators and local communities, while the global visibility generated by the tournament has strengthened the country’s destination appeal; the most valuable legacy will be the future travellers who return after discovering these states through the world’s biggest football stage.” — Anup Kumar Keshan, Editor-in-Chief, Travel And Tour World
The most credible conclusion from the available official evidence is that World Cup tourism created a broad economic ripple effect, but the quality of available data differs significantly by state, with some jurisdictions publishing final results and others still relying on forecasts or early indicators. California and the New York-New Jersey region have reported particularly substantial economic outcomes, Missouri provides a strong tax-revenue benchmark, Florida shows clear hotel performance gains, while Massachusetts provides compelling visitor and fan-festival numbers.
For the US travel industry, the tournament’s importance extends beyond one summer because destination awareness, improved transport operations, stronger hospitality capacity and international media exposure can influence future tourist arrivals and visitor spending. The World Cup has therefore strengthened the argument for sports tourism as an economic development strategy, particularly when host states connect major events with community programmes, small-business participation, tourism marketing and infrastructure investment.
The reason New York and New Jersey outshone other US states is simple: the region combined major matches, international arrivals, fan events and an enormous tourism economy. More importantly, eight World Cup matches, including the Final, attracted more than 645,000 match attendees, while another 626,300 non-local visitors travelled for related activities. As a result, visitor spending reached approximately $1.7 billion, while total direct spending reached $1.9 billion. Furthermore, hotels, restaurants, retailers, transport companies and entertainment businesses all benefited. Therefore, New York and New Jersey made more money because FIFA World Cup travel spread spending across the wider tourism economy, creating jobs, income and tax revenue.
Ultimately, New York and New Jersey jointly outshone the other 48 US states in FIFA World Cup earnings, based on the strongest final economic figures currently available. The $3.5 billion impact exceeded expectations and showed how global football can transform travel, tourism and visitor spending into substantial economic returns. Meanwhile, 27,424 jobs, $1.4 billion in labour income and $414.2 million in state and local tax revenue underline the tournament’s wider value. Consequently, the FIFA World Cup did more than fill stadiums; it powered hotels, restaurants, retail, transportation and entertainment. For New York and New Jersey, the tournament became a remarkable tourism and economic success.
The largest confirmed regional result among the researched official figures was the $3.5 billion combined economic impact across New York and New Jersey, although it cannot be allocated accurately between the two states without an official state-level breakdown. California reported approximately $1.5 billion in statewide economic impact, while Texas had major regional projections for both Houston and Dallas.
Missouri provides one of the clearest state-level figures, estimating $20.7 million in state tax revenue generated from its World Cup activity. The combined New York-New Jersey region reported $414.2 million in state and local tax revenue, but that amount applies to the region rather than either state individually.
Visitor measurement varies by state and methodology, but official figures include more than 500,000 fans in Miami-Dade, 650,000 visitors projected for the Kansas City region, more than 500,000 visitors estimated for Philadelphia and 626,300 non-local World Cup-related visitors across the New York-New Jersey region. These figures should not be added together because methodologies and geographic boundaries differ.
Yes, although final job data is not available uniformly across all 10 states, the strongest official figure comes from the New York-New Jersey regional study, which recorded 27,424 total jobs supported and approximately $1.4 billion in labour income. Pennsylvania’s projection estimated 6,615 jobs, while Seattle’s earlier projection anticipated 20,762 full- and part-time jobs.
Hotels, food and beverage, retail, transportation, recreation and entertainment were among the major beneficiaries, with the New York-New Jersey region recording $653 million in lodging spending, $346 million in food and beverage spending, $264 million in retail spending, $200 million in transportation spending and $195 million in recreation and entertainment spending. The pattern is broadly consistent with the wider travel economy, where major international events generate demand across accommodation, dining, mobility and visitor experiences.
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