{"id":360698,"date":"2026-09-30T11:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T11:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/360698\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T11:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T11:42:12","slug":"world-cup-delivers-2-billion-in-economic-activity-for-nyc-drew-180k-fans-to-queens-fan-festival-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/360698\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup delivers $2 billion in economic activity for NYC, drew 180K fans to Queens Fan Festival \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced that the 2026 FIFA World Cup delivered $2 billion in economic activity to New York City this summer, with more than 180,000 soccer fans attending the Queens Fan Festival at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center during the World Cup group stages in June.<\/p>\n<p>Over 150 Queens bars and restaurants participated in the city\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/qns.com\/2026\/06\/world-cup-26-for-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Five Boroughs Winner Special,<\/a>\u201d offering either $26 for 2026 meal deals or a collectible Queens cup, while international Visa spending increased by 6% across the borough during the tournament, according to the Mayor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-614783\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_7804.jpeg\" alt=\"Ecuador fans at a Soccer Sundays watch party for the World Cup clash between Ecuador and Ivory Coast on June 14.\" width=\"700\" height=\"525\"  \/>Ecuador fans at a Soccer Sundays watch party for the World Cup clash between Ecuador and Ivory Coast on June 14.Photo via Queens Night Market<\/p>\n<p>Numerous Queens organizations participated in the city\u2019s cultural passport program, including the Queens Botanical Garden, Queens County Farm Museum, Queens Museum, Queens Public Library, Queens Theatre, Lewis Latimer House.<\/p>\n<p>Mamdani said in a statement that the impact of the World Cup stretched far beyond MetLife Stadium in Meadowlands, New Jersey, which hosted eight games during the tournament, including the World Cup final.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis summer, we proved that the people\u2019s game can still belong to the people \u2014 to the deli owners, cab drivers and line cooks who welcomed visitors from around the globe to New York City and powered the World Cup,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want the benefits of this tournament to stop at the stadium gates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe worked to bring fans into our neighborhoods, onto our blocks and into our local bars, restaurants and watch parties. And the result was more than $2 billion flowing through our city\u2019s economy \u2014 a win for working New Yorkers across all five boroughs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The tournament generated an estimated $3.5 billion across the New York-New Jersey area, with New York City capturing roughly 56% of that impact and 70% of all visitor spending.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-614945\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG20260627011251.jpg\" alt=\"Egypt fans celebrate after their country's 1-1 tie with Iran in the World Cup.\" width=\"467\" height=\"700\"  \/>Egypt fans celebrate after their country\u2019s 1-1 tie with Iran in the World Cup.Photo via Mohamed AlMannai (@mmannai)\n<\/p>\n<p>The city has reported over $1.3 billion in direct visitor and operational spending, which it says helped support more than 12,000 jobs across a range of sectors, including hospitality, food service, retail and other industries. The city further reported a 16% increase in year-on-year foot traffic in bars across the five boroughs when compared to June and July 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Anthony Shorris, president and CEO of the city\u2019s Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), said the World Cup translated into a \u201cmeaningful economic win\u201d for New York City.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese matches brought visitors, spending, and\u00a0 opportunity to neighborhoods across the five boroughs, supporting local businesses and the workers who power them, while showcasing New York City as the ideal place to do business,\u201d Shorris said in a statement. \u201cFrom restaurant servers and bartenders to hotel workers and small business owners, New\u00a0 Yorkers helped turn a global sporting event into a meaningful economic win for our city.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nancy Mammana, chief marketing officer at<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyctourism.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> New York City Tourism + Conventions<\/a>, said the World Cup \u201cdemonstrated in a powerful way\u201d how tourism drives spending at local businesses. She said the experiences visitors encountered across the five boroughs will inspire them to return to those communities for \u201cyears to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur World Cup programming, made possible by the support of\u00a0 the Mamdani administration, helped bring visitors into neighborhoods across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island, resulting in meaningful economic impact throughout our city\u2019s communities and helping to create positive, joyous experiences to inspire visitors to return for many years to come,\u201d Mammana said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced that the 2026 FIFA World Cup delivered $2 billion in economic activity to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[5805,83733,32971,9,24,134050,63,41794,122,124,123,14771,82],"class_list":["post-360698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-billie-jean-king-national-tennis-center","tag-edc","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-economic-development-corporation-edc","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-tourism-conventions","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-world-cup","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}