Denver’s World Cup watch parties boost downtown economy without hosting matches

Denver isn’t hosting a World Cup match this summer. It turns out we didn’t need it.

Walk through Skyline Park on any match day, and you’ll see what I mean. Downtown workers on lunch breaks stand shoulder to shoulder with families from Montbello and Westwood. Kids in Mexico jerseys trade chants with kids in USA kits. Grandparents explain the offside rule in three languages.

On a block of downtown that sat quiet for the better part of a decade, tens of thousands of people have gathered to watch the world’s game together, with an estimated 50,000 visitors in just the first few weeks of the tournament, and attendance is on pace to double before the final whistle on July 19.

That energy is no accident. It’s what happens when cross-sectoral partners invest in shared public space and let soccer be soccer.

The economics extend beyond host cities

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is being held across 16 cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with a staggering projected economic impact. A study by FIFA and the World Trade Organization estimates the tournament will add roughly $17 billion to the U.S. economy. In Kansas City, the host city nearest to us, local organizers project more than 600,000 visitors and hundreds of millions in tax revenue.

But here’s what the host-city headlines miss: the economic ripple doesn’t stop at the stadium gates. Bank of America Institute found that last year’s FIFA Club World Cup drove a 7% year-over-year increase in consumer spending in host ZIP codes, with spending concentrated in food and drink.

We’re seeing the same dynamic play out in Denver, even without a single official match. Every watch party at Skyline Park sends fans to nearby restaurants, coffee shops and retailers in a stretch of downtown that badly needed foot traffic. Recovery of an urban core isn’t built on one grand gesture. It’s built on thousands of small reasons to show up, and this summer, soccer has given Denver 104 of them (watch parties!).

The momentum behind the sport makes this more than a one-summer story. More than 270 million people play soccer worldwide, and the U.S. Youth Soccer Association counts 3 million young people in organized soccer, the most popular youth participant sport in America.

The professional game here is surging, too: since 2020, ten American men’s and women’s professional teams have moved into new soccer-specific stadiums; Major League Soccer‘s sponsorship revenue rose an estimated 8% in 2025 to $716 million; and Forbes pegs the average National Women’s Soccer League franchise at $134 million and climbing. With the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 and a co-hosted Women’s World Cup in 2031 on the horizon, soccer’s American moment is just beginning, and cities that build for it now will benefit for decades.

Where the real return shows up: our kids

Denver was built for it. Last August, we opened the Visa Street Soccer Park and Bank of America Fields at Skyline Park in partnership with the ambitious and proven non-profit Street Soccer USA.  The park features two professional-grade fields with lighting for evening play, plus a learning center and gathering space in the heart of downtown.

Even before the World Cup watch parties, Street Soccer USA engaged thousands of participants from all walks of life in less than a year of operation, and in the process transformed a key corridor in the heart of downtown.

The World Cup tournament will end. The programming won’t. Street Soccer USA runs coed youth clinics where kids build skills alongside mentors. Free community 5v5 games are held five times a week, open to all ages and abilities. Financial literacy workshops. Movie nights under the stars.

This past Sunday, July 12, Street Soccer USA and DDP hosted the Denver Unity Cup, a daylong tournament that brought together young players from every corner of the city to celebrate the ideals of diversity and belonging in our communities.

Why does a bank care about any of this? Because the lessons of soccer—teamwork, goal-setting, preparation, and resilience after a setback—are the same skills that carry a young person through school, into a first job, and toward a stable financial future.

When a kid has a safe place to play, a coach who shows up every week, and a community that knows her name, the return on that investment compounds over a lifetime. Street Soccer USA now serves tens of thousands of youth and families across 16 cities on exactly that premise, and Denver’s park has quickly become one of the most vibrant in the country.

All you need to speak soccer’s universal language is a ball, open space, and love for the game. This summer proved Denver has all three in abundance. The World Cup trophy will be lifted elsewhere on July 19, but the fields at Skyline Park will be lit that night, the next, and every night after. Come join us. The best is yet to come.

Erica McIntire is a Colorado Market Executive at Bank of America.