As World Cup spending increases, BofA's year-round vendor preparation is paying off.
Exorbitant ticket prices must be condemned. Soccer fans flocked to host cities in the US, Canada, and Mexico in the first tri-nation tournament in FIFA history. And they prove to be the biggest spenders.
The Bank of America Institute – a division of the research firm – dug into credit and debit card data and found that the 2026 FIFA World Cup is bringing a huge economic boost to the host cities, driven largely by high-spending, out-of-town tourists.
During the tournament's opening days from June 10–21, overall consumer spending in host markets increased 6.3% year-over-year. “Non-local” cardholders – a category that tracks foreign visitors and US citizens traveling outside the state to seek a match – fueled the rise. How they spend money, according to the data shared with them Global Financeup 16.7% year-on-year.
Bank of America data also highlighted a profitable trend for local retailers: visiting fans outsell non-fans by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.
Pre-Tournament Warmup
“We're in the middle, as you know, so it's not surprising that most of that money has been spent on non-local residents coming in,” said Sara Walsh, Bank of America's managing director who oversees the bank's relationship with merchants and payment networks and has spent more than a year preparing merchants for the tournament. “Restaurants, bars, hotels, that's all.”
Data tracking results from last year's FIFA Club World Cup, a small-scale tournament found by the Bank of America Institute spurred year-over-year increases in consumer spending in home zip codes. Walsh said Global Finance in a telephone conversation that the event was as effective as the numbers that the bank now sees in the scale.
“The Club World Cup gave us a good little driver of what the numbers are going to look like, and they were very consistent with what we're seeing here,” Walsh said.
Soccer fans, on the other hand, prove to be very expensive. A Bank of America study conducted with Visa found that soccer fans spend an average of 2.8 times more than non-fans, according to the Institute. Walsh said the bank analyzed customers buying FIFA and MLS tickets to reach that conclusion.
The level of opportunity is important. The tournament's 16 cities from the US, Mexico and Canada together represent:
- $11 trillion in gross domestic product (GDP)
- About 130 million people, too
- It is expected to draw 33 million international visitors annually.
Historically, participating countries have seen GDP increase by 0.4 percent in the year following the tournament, the Institute found.
The Year of Preparation
Bank of America
Bank of America began preparing retailers for the World Cup surge more than a year ago. It used its position to include treasury, card issuing customers and merchant services. The preparatory work focuses on three aspects: building tools for sellers to capture customer data and loyalty even after fans leave the US; speeding up checkout with contactless technology and table payments; and ensuring that cards from international networks, such as Japan's JCB, are accepted without causing delays.
“Sellers can either survive the World Cup or win the World Cup,” said Walsh, citing his colleague to organize things.
Restaurants and bars need to be more hands-on, Walsh said, especially regarding pay-at-table operations that are common internationally but have been slow to arrive in the U.S. The bank also trained vendors on when to use 3D Secure authentication — a phone-based authentication measure common in Europe — given the risk of conflicting purchases in crowded, high-traffic areas.
“We didn't want to have my customers in line, coming all the way, ready to buy, their cards down,” said Walsh. So far, he said, levels of cross-border clearance have remained stagnant as fans move from city to city.
Spillover on Other Events
Another thing that surprised the bank was that it spent a lot of money on events and unrelated sectors. Walsh said Bank of America has seen international visitors attend Major League Baseball games and concerts during the tour, as well as acquisitions of merchandise tied to emerging national teams.
“You're going to have people buying things from some of these groups that maybe a month ago no one had heard of these countries, and all of a sudden they're winning,” Walsh said, adding that merchandise sales represent “a fun payback opportunity” for retailers tied to the Cinderella story.
Cape Verde's inspirational World Cup run, for example, has taken the fans by storm. The team, representing the island nation of just 535,000 people, reached the knockout stage unbeaten and pushed Argentina, the reigning champions, to a 3-2 extra-time defeat.
Bank of America has worked with Visa and FIFA, as well as industry forums including Money20/20, the Electronic Transactions Association, and the Merchant Advisory Group, to prepare merchants of all sizes through its Merchant Engagement Program, Walsh said.
Looking ahead, Walsh said the bank plans to apply lessons from the World Cup to future events on American soil. That includes the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup, which the US will co-host with Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica.
“We will definitely continue to use these events to find learning opportunities so that we can improve where we need to and be ready for those events,” he added.
Anthony Noto covers corporate finance and personal credit. Contact him at [email protected]
