World Cup Economics
Imagine combining four Super Bowls into one…
Then, you still wouldn’t even have the economic impact and global reach of the FIFA World Cup. Underwhelming? Good, it should be because to FIFA, the Super Bowl is like a midseason game between the Bears and the Falcons (outside those dedicated fan bases, no one cares!). And let’s face it, when it comes to the Super Bowl, outside the U.S., no one cares.
Some Americans get upset over this, but a quadrennial, global tournament of the most popular sport in the world where teams are separated by country as opposed to an annual game between arbitrarily set geographies in one country is obviously going to be way bigger. To quote former Anaheim Ducks goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, “why you have to be mad?”
Exactly, Ilya. And considering the startup costs for a soccer game/league (a round, kickable object and an open space) vs. that of football (an oblong ball, pads, uprights, etc.), it makes sense why a lot more people play soccer.
But let’s take a look at just how massive and economically impactful FIFA is. Official stats have yet to be released for the 2022 games, but working with what we have, we know that:
- An estimated 4 billion individuals (half the f*cking world) watched the final match of Argentina vs. France
- Over 3.5 billion viewers officially tuned in for the 2018 final between France and Croatia (vs. ~120 million domestic + global viewers for Super Bowl 56)
- Adidas literally sold out of Messi jerseys worldwide (for reference, Russell Wilson Broncos jerseys are the leading jersey for the NFL this year…and those won’t even sellout at Mile High stadium)
But that’s just viewership. Here at the Peel, we care about one thing more than anything else: money. Specifically, making (and hopefully keeping) that money. What did those numbers look like for 2022?
- $4.7bn in total revenue
- $440mn in total prize money for the teams
- $1.7bn paid by FIFA to Qatar to operate the games
- $228bn spent in total by Qatar on the games (not a typo)
Yeah, those are some big numbers. Now, most of the $228bn was spent over the more-than-a-decade leading up to the games, but that’s somewhere around $500mn/week. Crazy enough yet?
Well, what if I told you that despite all that cash going around, most of the time, the World Cup ends up being disastrous for the host country? For example, Estadio Mane Garrincha in Brasilia, Brazil, used in the 2014 games and built at the cost of just under $1bn, is now the world’s most expensive bus depot.
So, it’s not disastrous for the entire country, but we often see the big bucks spent on the games going to waste after the few weeks during which the event is played.
The point is, the World Cup is big, like really big, and diehard NFL fans need to accept that the Super Bowl, while being objectively awesome, is just not it. Go Patriots, though!
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