{"id":225317,"date":"2026-06-22T22:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T22:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/225317\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T22:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T22:42:12","slug":"shapiro-touts-economic-impact-of-world-cup-coming-to-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/225317\/","title":{"rendered":"Shapiro Touts Economic Impact of World Cup Coming to Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

(The Center Square) \u2013 A few hours before France and Iraq kick off for a World Cup match in south Philadelphia, Gov. Josh Shapiro made an appearance at the\u00a0FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He expects the World Cup to have a significant economic impact for Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at $770 million in economic impact here,\u201d Shapiro said in response to a question from The Center Square.<\/p>\n

In total, there are\u00a016 host cities<\/a>\u00a0for the World Cup across North America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Philadelphia, one of the 11 host cities in the United States, has seen large crowds in attendance for the matches. The fan festival, which is free and open to the public, has already hosted hundreds of thousands of people since the tournament began.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Friday, nearly 55,000 people visited the FIFA Fan Festival in Philadelphia, which the\u00a0Sports Business Journal<\/a>\u00a0reports is \u201cby far\u201d the highest single-day attendance figure for any of the 13 official public World Cup viewing spaces across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The outlet also reports that in addition to setting the single-day record, Philadelphia\u2019s Fan Festival is among the leaders in terms of overall attendance, with 242,883 in attendance through Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Philly, man, we know how to do big things, and it\u2019s extraordinary to see people come out, just happy and joyful, cheering for their team,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the unique things about sports, it can bring different people together, and so I\u2019m glad that Philly is a welcoming city and welcoming people from all across the world to be here and just be here and enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of Monday afternoon, two games have been played at Philadelphia Stadium, with four more on the horizon. Five of the matches will be in the group stage, while one will be a round of 16 knockout match on July 4.<\/p>\n

While Philadelphia is the lone city in Pennsylvania hosting matches for the event, Reading, Scranton, and Pittsburgh will also host\u00a0FIFA World Cup Fan Zones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Each Fan Zone, according to\u00a0Visit PA<\/a>, \u201cblends the tournament with what makes each place its own: Local food and drinks. Live music. Soccer activations. Space to hang out, show up with friends, or make new ones. And, they\u2019re all free and open to the public, with advance registration to keep things comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019re going to see a lot of excitement there too,\u201d Shapiro said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shapiro has lauded the World Cup coming to Philadelphia as a historic moment for the city, coinciding with the nation\u2019s 250th birthday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the world needs some more togetherness, needs some more cheer, and this is a great opportunity for that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While most in Pennsylvania have talked about this being an opportunity to showcase the state, some elected officials outside of the commonwealth don\u2019t think it will provide an economic boost.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rahm Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff and former mayor of Chicago, said\u00a0he declined Chicago<\/a>\u00a0to be a host city for the World Cup, claiming FIFA was asking taxpayers to foot too much of the bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be clear, I\u2019m hoping these are very successful games,\u201d Emanuel said in a recent interview with\u00a0NBC Chicago<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t wish anybody ill; that said, every other city now\u2026got the short straw and is losing money because FIFA weight takes out all the cash and you get all the bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro told the Center Square that he hadn\u2019t seen Emanuel\u2019s comments, but expressed confidence that the tournament will benefit Pennsylvania, citing the record-setting crowds already seen at Philadelphia\u2019s Fan Fest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just people here,\u201d Shapiro said to the Center Square at the Fan Festival. \u201cIt\u2019s people in our hotels, our restaurants, our bars.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He mentioned that a food truck brought in over $100,000 in business at the fan festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an example of the economic impact we\u2019re seeing, and we\u2019ll do a full accounting for this afterwards,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n

During a previous press conference in March,\u00a0Shapiro said that the World Cup<\/a>\u00a0is expected to draw 500,000 visitors to Pennsylvania and create 6,615 jobs in the state.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0FIFA fan festival at Lemon Hill in Philadelphia<\/a>\u00a0opened on June 11 and will last every day until the final day of the tournament on July 19.<\/p>\n

During his visit on Monday afternoon, Shapiro shook hands and met with soccer fans and volunteers from a wide variety of countries. He also said he\u2019d be in attendance for the game on Monday evening between France and Iraq, which would be the\u00a0second match he\u2019s attended in person<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Politico<\/a>\u00a0has described Shapiro as \u201cthe prospective 2028 presidential campaign field\u2019s biggest World Cup fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Pittsburgh, Fan Zone events are scheduled for July 4, 5, 9, and 19 at Acrisure Stadium. Scranton\u2019s Courthouse Square will host fan zone events on July 4, 5, 18, and 19. And in Reading, Santander Arena will host fan zone events on July 3, 4, 18, and 19.<\/p>\n

While the World Cup is currently garnering a lot of attention, Pennsylvania has hosted other noteworthy sporting events in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In April, 805,000 fans attended the NFL Draft that took place in Pittsburgh, which was a record for the three-day draft, according to the\u00a0NFL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In May, the\u00a0PGA Championship<\/a>\u00a0was held at the Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, in the suburbs of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Next month, the MLB All-Star Game will head to Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

In preparation for an influx of visitors,\u00a0Shapiro signed a bipartisan bill<\/a>\u00a0in March that would allow bars and restaurants to stay open until 4 A.M. between June 11 and July 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople predicted the end of the world, man, everything\u2019s going great,\u201d Shapiro said, when asked about that bill. \u201cEverybody\u2019s being responsible. It\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Cole is a contributor to The Center Square<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2013 A few hours before France and Iraq kick off for a World Cup match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-225317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}