The World Cup held this summer in the United States, Mexico, and Canada had an economic impact of $2 billion in New York City, according to what its mayor, Zohran Mamdani, reported on Wednesday.
According to an analysis released by the mayor's office, the World Cup generated $2 billion for New York City, which hosted the final, among other matches, as well as more than 12,000 jobs, mostly in the hospitality, restaurant, and retail sectors
Across the New York and New Jersey region, where MetLife Stadium is located, the impact reached $3.5 billion.
Customer traffic at the city's sports bars increased by 16% year-over-year during the tournament, driving up profits in the Big Apple
"This summer, we showed that the people's sport can still belong to the people: to the deli owners, taxi drivers, and cooks who welcomed visitors from all over the world to New York and made the World Cup possible," Mamdani said.
The mayor celebrated the fact that the benefits of the tournament did not "stay at the gates of the stadium," which he described as "a victory" for New York's five boroughs.
Since the beginning of the year, the mayor has promoted measures aimed at democratizing the World Cup: he has launched fixed-price food menus to encourage visits to small businesses in order to distribute the revenue generated by the tournament, set up viewing festivals in different parts of the city, and raffled off tickets for New Yorkers to attend matches at the stadium. EFE
