World Cup success masks challenges off the pitch

The World Cup has been high on sporting successes so far, fueled by the expansion of the event to 48 teams. However, some of the forecasts made about the football tournament’s global economic impact are unlikely to be realized.
Take the prediction from FIFA, the football federation organizing the event. Before the first ball was kicked, it claimed the competition could generate a stimulus shot of well over $40 billion to the global economy, a total larger than the economies of many countries taking part.
Some big tournaments, including soccer World Cups and Olympic Games, prove to be not only sporting successes, but also economic ones. A good example in North America was the 1984 Summer Olympics hosted in Los Angeles.
Despite political challenges, such as the boycott by the Soviet Union, the LA Olympics was the first to be privately financed and generated a significant profit for the time. In so doing, it became a model in the decades afterwards for the financial discipline required to run major sporting events.
Fast forward four decades to 2026, and there are potentially many positives about this year’s World Cup being hosted in North America. One widely perceived success has been the decision to expand the tournament to 48 teams.
So despite the political squabbles between the US, Canada, and Mexico, over issues such as tariffs and the future of the USMCA continental trade deal, the three hosts have so far staged a highly professional tournament. Hosting 104 matches over almost six weeks in 16 cities is no mean feat.
The scale of the World Cup is only one facet of what US President Donald Trump promised when he said it would be “an event the likes of which maybe the world has never seen.”
However, while the event will unquestionably be profitable, it is unlikely to fully realize its economic potential.
For one, many international fans did not make the journey to North America. In large part, this was because of high ticketing costs — this is the first World Cup to use dynamic pricing — and the challenges of getting through the tightened US immigration regime of Trump’s second presidency. In Mexico, there are also concerns for fan safety, including from drug cartel violence. This has added to costs of trying to ensure security for the event.
The net impact of this has been to reduce the tourism boom that would have accompanied the big event. More tickets have been sold to fans within North America, reducing the potential economic multiplier effect from the spending of many visitors from host countries with wider tourism, including hotels. 

The hosts have staged a highly professional tournament.

Andrew Hammond

The World Cup is far from alone in facing such non-sporting challenges. Recent Olympics have also faced extraordinary problems. Japan’s Summer Olympics were postponed for a full year from the original date in 2020, because of the global pandemic, with overseas fans barred from attending. Meanwhile, China’s 2022 Winter Olympics also faced a pandemic challenge, plus a diplomatic boycott by multiple countries, including the US, UK, and Australia because of human rights concerns.
So despite the fact that hosting major sporting competitions continues to be seen as a source of national pride, the events do not always provide the economic boost promised from capital investment and tourism.
A number of North American cities have flagged these concerns in recent years in the build-up to the big event. Local populations in Toronto and Vancouver in Canada have questioned whether co-hosting the competition would be worth the estimated $1 billion cost in these two major urban areas.
Moreover, the legacy value of hosting major sporting tournaments can be limited, too. Many facilities tend to have significant maintenance costs, often leading to them becoming burdensome, or being dismantled after the event.
Despite all these pitfalls, there remains no shortage of states that have expressed interest in bidding for other sporting events. There is already a battle underway to host the 2038 World Cup, with Germany and England known to be interested.
Moreover, many nations have indicated they may like to host the 2036 Summer Olympics, including India, Indonesia, Poland, and Mexico. Switzerland and Canada are among the countries expressing interest in hosting the 2038 Winter Olympics.
For the foreseeable future, at least, the perception that hosting such events is a major symbol of national prestige will continue to outweigh the sometimes huge headaches that can come with them. So far, at least, the sporting success of the big event in North America has done little to change this calculus, despite the unlikelihood of it fully realizing its economic potential.

• Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.