The World Cup may be over 250 days away, but Massachusetts businesses are already busy putting plans in place to draw soccer fans into their doors.
With the countdown on, business leaders gathered in Foxborough Wednesday for a Women’s Business Summit focused on the economic impact of the World Cup.
There are seven FIFA World Cup soccer games coming to Gillette Stadium next summer. They are expected to have an economic impact of more than $1 billion in New England, and $800 million in Massachusetts.
“To have the world cup coming to our region, I mean pinch me, this is incredible,” said Wendy Hudson, Co-founder of Cisco Brewers.
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Cisco is one of the local options on tap at Gillette Stadium and with several taprooms in New England, Hudson is looking forward to the series parties that will bring fans together.
“The focus is certainly the collaborations and how wide that can go from every service, the hotels and restaurants you think of … everybody can get involved with this and get excited about it,” Hudson said.
“My hope and my expectation is that something like sport really brings communities together it can bring people together, it can bring economies together,” said Ashley Stanley, Founder and CEO of Spoonfuls, the Boston-based food recovery organization which partners with Gillette Stadium to recover food from the stadium and provide meals to communities in need.
“I think there’s so many ways that nonprofits can benefit from the engagement of the community at large. For us it’s about visibility and letting folks know what we do,” Stanley said.
Hudson and Stanley were among speakers at the summit, hosted by Bank of America.
“What I heard very much is that there is an overarching plan and underneath that there is room for a lot of small businesses to apply and get a piece of the action,” said Astrid Sheil, dean of the School of Management at Simmons University. “This is where women can come and hear, how do I apply, who do I talk to, what are my chances? And that’s all everybody wants, is a seat at the table to say, ‘I qualify.'”
“Small businesses can get involved in several ways,” said Martha J. Sheridan, president and CEO of Meet Boston and Executive Committee Board Member of Boston Soccer 26. “While they may not be eligible for some of the larger contracts out there, there are a lot of smaller pieces that are going to need to be activated. They can go to the Boston 26 website. They can register their business so the can take advantage of any potential RFPs and really just keep your ear to the ground and look for ancillary events that might be happening that you can potentially get involved with.”
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman tells CNBC’s Alex Sherman how she will leverage the domestic 2026 FIFA World Cup to grow the league.
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