Good morning. So far, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is a win: record-breaking TV audiences, sellout crowds, exuberant tourists, and solid performances from the three host countries despite them all losing in the round of 16. The games are a boon for the players, too, with FIFA set to distribute a record $871 million to the 48 competing teams. The question is what it will do for the economy of the host cities, for sponsors, and for a sport that’s surpassed baseball in popularity in the U.S. but remains far behind basketball and football.
Global events, however fleeting, can create a turning point for a destination, sport or product. The 1988 Seoul Olympics famously showcased Korea as a fast-growing Asian Tiger economy while development for the Barcelona Games four years later is credited with transforming the Spanish city from an industrial port to a tourism hub. As the world’s most popular broadcast sport, with some 3.5 billion fans, World Cup soccer could be a similar opportunity. The question is how to capitalize on it.
One leader who’s trying to use this moment to transform the sport is Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, the CEO and founder of Next 3, which invests in a range of sports properties. Among them: Gotham FC, a professional women’s soccer team based in New Jersey and New York that’s currently the reigning champion of the National Women’s Soccer League. “The World Cup has been a massive success in getting the country to care about soccer,” she told me during last week’s Aspen Ideas Festival. “What we don’t know is how much that will translate into fandom for local teams.”
