The FIFA World Cup is coming to Boston in summer of 2026. Most of the information surrounding it focuses on its benefits. I’ll admit I didn’t really know much about the FIFA World Cup previously, so of course I was excited to have a chance to do some research.
I started by looking at the appeal of hosting the FIFA World Cup. The organizing body promotes the World Cup as having dramatic economic and social impacts. This is due to the international attraction of the sport; it’s a chance for a country to show off to the rest of the world. They state on the Inside FIFA website that 3 million people attend the World Cup, which means opportunities to improve the country’s image as well as developing infrastructure, adding revenue and creating jobs. Interestingly they do acknowledge there are negative impacts to hosting. Specifically, increased use of the existing infrastructure, depletion of natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions. They acknowledge these issues can negatively affect the people living in the host city. With the exception of acknowledging the negatives, this information is very similar to what the organizing board of the Olympics uses, which made me suspicious about the actual impacts.
I looked into the economics of FIFA; guess what, there is no consensus related to the revenue or the costs. Some sources predict 6.5 million in attendance, which is significantly higher than the 3 million that FIFA predicts. The cost of hosting previous World Cups ranges from $4-$11 billion. This is dependent on what the country has to construct or renovate to meet FIFA standards. For the 2026 World Cup, FIFA is predicting revenues of more than $10 billion. When you also consider the number of visitors that will spend money hotels, transportation, food, and souvenirs, it makes the World Cup very attractive.
This seemed too good to be true, I know I have trust issues. It took some digging, but I found information that suggests the individual host cities for the 2026 World Cup will receive a net impact of between $90-$480 million. The $480 million is based on 450,000 visitors attending. The cost of hosting the World Cup in Boston is estimated between $75-$100 million. This still looks positive, until I found an article about British Columbia, one of the Canadian cities involved, and they are predicting costs of $532-$624 million. It makes me wonder if this could/is happening in other host cities and not being reported. There were also a few articles about a request for $625 million from the federal government to cover security costs, which will be paid for by each host city. Finally, any revenue from the World Cup will be split between the host cities as well as a large percentage that goes to FIFA.
Okay, I’ve been throwing a lot of numbers at you. It probably has your head spinning a little. Let me look at the World Cup from another perspective, the allure of increased visitors. While Mega Events definitely attract large numbers of people, there is some disagreement as to the benefit of this increase. Some experts argue the impact of these visitors can be devastating to the daily lives of residents. I live in Salem, which attracts roughly 1 million visitors throughout the month of October. Like most Salem residents, I avoid the downtown area until the month is over. Now consider three times that number of people in a 2-week period. Everything will be overflowing, especially transportation. We all know how bad traffic is in Boston; now picture what it’s going to be like with people travelling to Foxborough every day.
There are some researchers that suggest that a Mega Event can discourage people from traveling; they don’t want to deal with the large crowds so they pick somewhere else to go. There is evidence that the number of visitors actually decreases when a Mega Event is held.
Finally, I want to talk briefly about the job creation that is used as an incentive. There will definitely be a need for more employees; however, this will be limited to the time of the event. Likely people will be hired 1-2 months before the World Cup to accommodate training, work through the event, but with the drop off at the conclusion these people will be let go.
While the World Cup is an exciting event, and offers global attention for Boston, I wonder if it’s really a win.
The Barefoot Event Professor 
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