World Cup threat to $30bn America boom with one million tickets still unsold and hotel and flight sales ‘underwhelming’

The Sun ^ | May 5, 2026 | Henry Ollis-Brown

[MinorityRepublican]

THE 2026 FIFA World Cup is posing a threat to the United States’ expected $30 billion boom.

Hotel and flight sales have proven lacklustre with one million tickets still unsold ahead of the World Cup.

Overseas soccer fans appear uninterested in attending the upcoming World Cup in the USA.

International fans are choosing to boycott the tournament, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s US Hotel Outlook Report.

Nearly 80 percent of hotels in nine American host cities claim that they are operating behind initial projections.

It has been suggested that FIFA releasing 70 percent of its room blocks has led to mass cancellations from fans.

Kansas City, Missouri, appears to be the worst-affected city with up 90 percent of respondents reporting figures below their expectations.

In fact, some hotels have even reported that bookings are below what they would expect during a typical summer without a major tournament.

Another issue has been concerns regarding immigration, visa delays, and a rise in airfares.

A hike in public transport costs is also thought to be putting some fans off attending as flight sales have been branded as “underwhelming.”

---

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Sports
KEYWORDS: soccer

[dfwgator]

Well it’s because we make a touchdown worth 6 points.

If touchdowns were scored like goals in soccer, the scores would be similar.

[ridesthemiles]

REMIND ME AGAIN: HOW MUCH IS GAS?????

[Organic Panic]

America might have liked soccer but a purple haired America hating little boy looking lesbian hijacked any hope of that.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

That's really funny. LOL.

[Hyman Roth]

😂

[Fresh Wind]

ROFL!

[Fresh Wind]

For those who don’t know, “ROFL” stands for “rolling on the field laughing”.

[zeestephen]

Why would any one spend thousands of dollars to watch a soccer game in a foreign country?

[Svartalfiar]

They'd rather overlook a steroid or doping scandal than watch a 0-0 game, especially in the final.

A 0-0 game could be exciting, if it's because you have one or two badass goalies constantly making saves. If it's just a tennis match in the midfield, no one cares. Which is what most of soccer is, 0-0 or not.

A goalie fight is just like baseball, a 0-0 game is relatively exciting because you have a duel between pitchers and any single pitch can end it.

[T.B. Yoits]

A goalie fight is just like baseball, a 0-0 game is relatively exciting because you have a duel between pitchers and any single pitch can end it.

A soccer "goalie fight" is NOT just like baseball. Most baseball fans couldn't tell you the name of either pitcher in such a duel but they can tell you all about the home run hitters, especially if their home run won the game or tied it up and the game was later one. A pitcher might have a duel once in a career while a home run hitter could hit multiple home runs in a single game for a great win.

And it's not a goalie duel since it could go 0-0 without either goalie making great saves. It could be a defenders' duel instead. (Unlike hockey where a 0-0 game might have dozens of great saves on both sides). And at some point one of the pitchers will lose in baseball whereas in soccer it goes to shootouts which might as well be rock-scissors-paper.