World Cup: Economic impact equation includes displaced regular tourism

By Kim Jarrett
The Center Square

Putting a dollar figure on the economic impact of the FIFA World Cup games scheduled for Atlanta is not an exact science, economists say.

Eight World Cup games will be played in Georgia’s capital city, beginning with a June 15 match between Spain and Cabo Verde.

While soccer, which many European countries refer to as “football,” is less known in the U.S., where the National Football League and college football dominate, it is the most popular sport worldwide. And the World Cup is expected to draw thousands of visitors to Atlanta and the 10 other U.S. host cities.

Dr. Jerry Parrish, chief economist for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, authored a 2024 analysis estimating a $503.2 million impact on the state of Georgia based on out-of-state visitors alone.

The report said that the World Cup is a unique event that attracts a “wildly enthusiastic” fan base. It’s difficult to predict the economic impact, especially with the uncertainty of who will play in some of the advanced rounds that will be played in Atlanta.

“We’ll get to see the return on the investment numbers later based on the folks that came here and the businesses that moved here, or what helped in the recruitment of the businesses that moved here,” Parrish said in an interview with The Center Square. “But earned media, there’ll be a ton of it. Putting an estimate on that, that’s very difficult for an economist to do before an event.”

The future economic impact is also cloudy for Dr. Victor Matheson, a sports economist and a professor of economics and accounting at the College of the Holy Cross. The experience fans will tell their friends will be about the game, he said.

“And you tell your friends, and they say, ‘That sounds great, I want to go to the next World Cup,'” Matheson said in an interview with The Center Square. “They don’t say, ‘I want to go to Atlanta.’ It’s not generating a huge tourism legacy for Atlanta. It’s generating a huge tourism legacy for the World Cup.”

Matheson said the massive economic boom will be for FIFA, which stands to make $10 billion to $11 billion on the event.

“It’s tempting to think, well, you have all these people, you have stadiums that are full, you see people pouring out of the stadiums,” Matheson said. “But economists who’ve actually looked back at big events that have been hosted, Super Bowls, World Series, All-Star games, World Cups, when we go back and look at the economies that hosted these, we can never pick up a large economic impact for these events.”

One reason is that most of the people in that stadium will likely be local, Matheson said.

“The money that gets spent there is not increasing the size of my entertainment budget, which means I have to cut back on Braves tickets, on Atlanta United tickets on hot dogs at this great place,” Matheson said.

Ticket prices are also steep when compared to other sporting events.

Matheson said the prices are not unreasonable or uncommon for the world’s most popular event.

“The worry is at $400 a ticket you don’t get those pockets of superfans in every game because they can’t afford to be there,” Matheson said. “There’s little to say that look, every game in the World Cup is worth going to, because it always was, but the question is whether it will be if you price out all the real fans.”

The World Cup also cuts into regular tourism, according to Matheson, which Parrish also noted in his report.

“There are essentially no conventions or conferences scheduled for Atlanta during this time period because with games coming every three days, there’s no window you can do a regular vacation without bumping up against sky-high hotel prices,” Matheson said. “So it crowds out all the other economic activity that happens.”

The stadium costs are one of the reasons why economists don’t see sporting events as an economic driver, Parrish said in his report. Atlanta had much of the infrastructure in place, including the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Matheson notes that makes the event less expensive for Atlanta when compared to others.

“Atlanta didn’t need to build a new airport. It didn’t need to build new hotels, didn’t need to build a new metro system,” Matheson said.

The World Cup is likely to make Atlanta happy but not really rich, Matheson said.

This is not Atlanta’s first time on an international sports stage.

The 1996 Summer Olympics raised Atlanta’s worldwide profile, Parrish said. The World Cup will bring more global recognition to the city, he said.

“They’ll get to know Atlanta better and certainly Atlanta with all the improvements we’ve had downtown and all the things that have been done getting ready for the World Cup, it’s going to be impressive,” Parrish said. “And it will help us land more companies in the future.”

The city’s walkable downtown and MARTA, its rail transportation system, will help improve traffic flow, according to Parrish. MARTA officials are charging $2.50 for a standard fare with four free transfers, according to its website.

“It’s going to be a more pleasant experience for a lot of fans here than they would be in other cities where they’re charging much more for transit to the games,” Parrish said.