Study Shows Future U.S. World Cup Could Have $5B Economic Impact

The organization behind the U.S. bid to host the FIFA World Cup today released an independent study estimating that hosting the event in '18 or '22 could have an economic impact of $5B and generate 65,000-100,000 new jobs. The economic impact estimate, which is in '09 dollars, represents at least a $1B increase from the estimated economic impact of the '94 World Cup, said USA Bid Committee Exec Dir David Downs. Downs added, "I would say that's on the conservative. It's somewhere north of $5B and maybe approaching $6B." The study was commissioned to give the 27 cities still interested in hosting World Cup matches a sense of the impact of those games. AECOM's economics research arm, formerly Economics Research Associates, conducted the study and based its research on three potential markets -- Phoenix, Atlanta and DC. The findings estimated that each city would generate $400-600M by staging five to six matches. The city that hosts the Int'l Broadcast Center would generate an additional $80M. The study estimates that tickets will cost $125 for regular seats and $187 for premium seats, and that each venue will generate a concessions per cap of $22.50 and a parking per cap of $30. The study estimates that the World Cup Organizing Committee would spend $10M per stadium on everything from putting down grass fields to setting up accreditation booths. There are 27 cities from Miami to N.Y. to L.A. being considered as hosts for World Cup matches. Downs said, "Any cities we're in discussions with will take this over and do this themselves, but we do feel like it's a very representative look of what's going on." The U.S. is bidding for the '18 or '22 World Cups against Australia, England, Indonesia, Japan and Russia, as well as joint bids by the Netherlands and Belgium, and Portugal and Spain. Qatar and South Korea have bid to host the '22 tournament only. FIFA will name the hosts of both the '18 and '22 World Cups in December '10 (Tripp Mickle, SportsBusiness Journal).

FEELING GOOD ABOUT THEIR CHANCES: U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati said while it is presumed Europe "will get one of the two World Cups" up for bid, the other event "has to go somewhere else and we're confident we have a terrific bid." Gulati: "The interest level in the U.S. is beyond anything we experienced in 1986 and 1987. Going to the various bid cities in the U.S. we had to explain what the World Cup was and that it was not all played in one city. This time around the leadership group meets with governors, mayors and sports commissions and they know the event and its magnitude. We don't have to explain it. It's a sea change from 20 years ago" (NYTIMES.com, 10/27).