On June 13, the 2026 World Cup’s Bay Area games will kick off at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara County with a match between Qatar and Switzerland. Early financial estimates remain uncertain whether the World Cup will bring projected economic benefits to the Bay Area or fall short of expectations.
This is the first time since 1994 that the Bay Area has hosted the World Cup. The six World Cup matches in the Bay Area will be hosted at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara County, home to the San Francisco 49ers and a major concert venue. Levi’s Stadium will host group stage games between Switzerland, Qatar, Austria, Jordan, Paraguay and Australia, as well as a playoff game on July 1.
Some fans were disappointed by the lineup of teams visiting the Bay Area, as some well-known players such as Lionel Messi will be playing at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City rather than in the Bay Area.
Nevertheless, all six matches are expected to fill up Levi’s Stadium’s 75,000-person capacity, drawing around 260,000 visitors to the Bay Area. Visitors are expected to contribute an estimated $480 million to $630 million to the Bay Area economy. “There will be a lot of tourists, leading to increased profits for local businesses and hotels,” Lachlan McConnell ’27 said in an email interview.
Some believe this could be an opportunity to boost San Francisco’s downtown economy. Currently, foot traffic remains at about half of pre-pandemic levels on weekdays. “People are working hard to revitalize commercial spaces [and] downtown pedestrian areas,” said Jeremiah Rosenfels, service learning teacher. “The benefits to San Francisco won’t actually be during the World Cup; the benefits will be the long-term image of this being an international destination for tourism.”
However, hotel bookings have so far tracked below expectations. Rising fuel prices making international flights more expensive or concerns with U.S. policy could be reasons for low hotel bookings. “Is it really worth it to spend $10,000 to fly here when you could experience problems, or to support a country that is looking uglier and uglier on the world stage?” Rosenfels said.
Alternatively, some attribute low levels of hotel bookings to the lower-ranked slate of games in the Bay Area. “The games that are here are not major games, so I don’t know how many people are going to actually be coming here,” Maddox Kashuba ’27 said.
The only two cities where hotel bookings have exceeded expectations are Atlanta and Miami. These cities are hosting teams such as Brazil and Spain, which are historically viewed as top teams.
The Bay Area game getting the most attention is in the knockout round, which would feature the United States if they won the first stage of the tournament. “[That] would create some hype in the Bay Area that might otherwise be missed out on,” Kashuba said.