Why the World Cup may not bring big boost to US economy

The 2026 FIFA World Cup was expected to give the U.S. a considerable economic boost, but experts now warn that the financial impact may be far more modest than early projections implied, as hosting costs accumulate and thousands of tickets remain available less than two weeks before the tournament kicks off.

Victor Matheson, a professor of sports economics at College of the Holy Cross, told Newsweek that the economic impact of the World Cup for the U.S. “is likely to be a fraction of what is - was - being advertised.”

In March 2025, FIFA released a joint study with the World Trade Organization that said the tournament would bring in $80 billion in gross economic impact, with $30.5 billion of this landing in the U.S.’s pocket.

However, as new data from Statista has spotlighted, that $30.5 billion output equates to about a $17.2 billion boost to the country’s gross domestic product, which stood at about $32 trillion as of the first quarter of the year. This would put the tournament’s impact at 0.05 percent of U.S. GDP, Statista reported, making it unlikely to do much to push the needle for the economy.

Newsweek has contacted FIFA for comment via email outside regular working hours.

What World Cup estimates leave out

These pre-event estimates could also be “highly exaggerated and should generally be considered a promotional press release rather than a serious piece of economic analysis,” Matheson said.

He added that the estimates did not account for the “substitution effect,” which occurs when locals spend money on FIFA tickets “instead of other goods and services in the local economy.” These estimates also did not account for “crowding out,” Matheson said, which happens when other regular tourists or travelers are “dissuaded from visiting World Cup host cities due to the crowds and congestion associated with the event.”

Still, the Trump administration maintains the World Cup will “no doubt be one of the greatest and most spectacular events in the history of mankind, attracting millions of fans from around the world to 11 host cities across America,” as White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Newsweek.

Ingle said the president is focused on ensuring “this is not only an incredible experience for all fans and visitors, but also the safest and most secure in history - and no amount of ridiculous scare tactics driven by liberal activist groups and the left-wing media will change that.”

Expert warns of limited economic impact

While pre-event promises suggest big things in terms of economic impact, host cities have struggled as bookings have not met initial forecasts. Eighty percent of hotels surveyed by the American Hotel and Lodging Association in a report said reservations were behind earlier predictions.

Tickets also don’t seem to be selling at the rate initially expected. According to estimates from TicketData.com, about 74,000 tickets for the World Cup were available directly through the organization until Saturday. The total declined to 44,000 and then to under 30,000, where it sat as of Monday morning. FIFA has not commented on the decline, but TicketData.com said it was due to an unspecified “sudden inventory removal.”

This suggests that attendance interest for the tournament is not where initial forecasts believed it would be, and this will likely have notable effects on the event’s economic output.

The U.S. was first announced as a host country of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in 2018, and a number of things have happened since then that may have contributed to reducing attendance interest.

The first is that with its “sky-high ticket prices,” there are fewer fans “willing to come to the U.S. for games,” Matheson said, adding that this also reduces the amount that those who do attend can spend once they are there.

Matheson said the “expansion of the tournament to 48 teams has severely reduced the attractiveness of many group stage games,” with more games between teams that are “simply highly unlikely to attract large traveling crowds.”

The sports economics professor also said the Trump administration’s behavior has made the U.S. a “much less attractive tourist destination than in the past,” as “many countries’ fans are outright banned from the tournament while others, until just last week, faced extremely onerous visa requirements.”

He added that the U.S.’s foreign policy and international relations - referring to the country’s actions regarding Venezuela, Iran and Greenland as well as Trump’s tariff policies - may also have prompted certain fans from Europe to “sit this one out.”

How the World Cup usually affects host country economies

The U.S. is not the first World Cup host to confront a disappointing economic output. Dennis Coates, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, told Newsweek that this comes as no surprise as “economists have documented the lack of impact from hosting the World Cup for about two decades.”

One study from 2000 found that the 1974 World Cup in Germany “was not able to generate any short to long-term employment effects that were significantly different from zero.” Another, from 2003, found that host countries experienced “cumulative losses” of billions of dollars rather than reaping economic reward.

“FIFA gets the revenue, host countries get the bill,” Coates said. “In that case, it is no wonder that FIFA produces projected effects that aim to sell hosting as beneficial to host countries.”

Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College, told Newsweek, “There is a substantial scholarly literature that finds hosting mega sporting events is not an economic plus.”

“It is certainly possible that more tourists will be chased away by expected congestion, high prices and security issues than will be attracted by soccer matches,” he said, adding that it is also “enormously expensive to host these events.”

While the White House fact sheet on the 2026 FIFA World Cup says the event will “captivate audiences worldwide” and “draw massive crowds, significantly boosting local businesses, infrastructure development, and job creation,” experts aren’t so sure, and initial estimates of economic impact for the U.S. could fall short.

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