This past weekend, the United States kicked off its duties as host of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup (CWC), a precursor to next year’s World Cup, which will be hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
This year’s 63-match tournament kicked off in Miami on 14 June and culminates with the title game in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on 9 July. Overall, matches will be played in a total of 11 U.S. markets:
- Atlanta
- Charlotte
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- Nashville
- New York City
- Orlando
- Philadelphia
- Seattle
- Washington, D.C.
Organizers have hopes that this year’s Club World Cup will be a full-fledged preamble for the 2026 World Cup. While STR’s Forward STAR data indicates that the CWC will result in hotel occupancy gains for some markets, those gains are not consistent across all host markets nor are they consistent for all matches within same market.
Occupancy on the books and average occupancy differentials on match days (an average of the occupancy ppt change for match nights and prior night) suggests that some markets have indeed sold more rooms as a direct result of the event.
The heat map above shows varying gains and decreases in occupancy on the books during the group stage. Several host markets, including Charlotte, Philadelphia and Miami, show more consistent occupancy gains.
A second pattern indicates that later stage matches, where the participating teams remain undetermined, are presently showing a lower lift than earlier stages. Invariably, club fans are waiting for their favorite teams to advance beyond the Round of 16 stage before booking stays. We expect significant boosts from current levels, particularly as teams advance through brackets.
The average occupancy lift results across host markets for the first two stages of the CWC tournament are summarized below:
There are currently thousands of unsold/resale tickets for a majority of CWC games, including the championship match. But that is not exactly surprising given recent broad trends of more last minute “wait-and-see” travel along with fans waiting for their favorite teams to advance.
However, there are also broader headwinds that could be adversely impacting future bookings around the CWC. Foremost, there are fewer international travelers entering the U.S.
Aside from sociopolitical and logistical impediments for international leisure travelers, the U.S. dollar also remains relatively strong against other currencies, thus making spending/travel more costly for international visitors. On the domestic front, economic uncertainty and reduced splurge travel among most U.S. travelers may also be a factor.
Looking ahead – 2026 U.S. FIFA World Cup
Adding a “stadium’s worth” of outside fans (plus the extended entourage of logistics/media) over the extended World Cup tournament period should result in significant demand lifts next summer. Yet, market forecasters should keep in mind that those demand gains can be balanced by room supply in a market as well as the event’s accessibility to nearby (but external) markets.
Prior World Cup and Olympic analyses show significant performance gains for markets’ average daily rate (ADR). Similar to the Super Bowl, corporate sponsors along with wealthy superfans are expected to lift market room rates on the basis of higher-class bookings.
Assuming that economic and international travel conditions remain favorable in 2026, STR’s models indicate that U.S. markets are forecasted to have sizable monthly ADR premiums across World Cup host cities, ranging +5% to 25%+ depending on the market.
About CoStar Group, Inc.
CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) is a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information, and analytics in the property markets. Founded in 1987, CoStar Group conducts expansive, ongoing research to produce and maintain the largest and most comprehensive database of real estate information. CoStar is the global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, and news, enabling clients to analyze, interpret and gain unmatched insight on property values, market conditions and availabilities. Apartments.com is the leading online marketplace for renters seeking great apartment homes, providing property managers and owners a proven platform for marketing their properties. LoopNet is the most heavily trafficked online commercial real estate marketplace with thirteen million average monthly global unique visitors. STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics, and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. Ten-X offers a leading platform for conducting commercial real estate online auctions and negotiated bids. Homes.com is the fastest growing online residential marketplace that connects agents, buyers, and sellers. OnTheMarket is a leading residential property portal in the United Kingdom. BureauxLocaux is one of the largest specialized property portals for buying and leasing commercial real estate in France. Business Immo is France’s leading commercial real estate news service. Thomas Daily is Germany’s largest online data pool in the real estate industry. Belbex is the premier source of commercial space available to let and for sale in Spain. CoStar Group’s websites attracted over 163 million average monthly unique visitors in the third quarter of 2024. Headquartered in Washington, DC, CoStar Group maintains offices throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Asia. From time to time, we plan to utilize our corporate website, CoStarGroup.com, as a channel of distribution for material company information. For more information, visit CoStarGroup.com.
This news release includes “forward-looking statements” including, without limitation, statements regarding CoStar’s expectations or beliefs regarding the future. These statements are based upon current beliefs and are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. The following factors, among others, could cause or contribute to such differences: the risk that future media events will not sustain an increase in future occupancy rates. More information about potential factors that could cause results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated in CoStar’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in CoStar’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and Forms 10-Q for the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2024, June 30, 2024, and September 30, 2023, each of which is filed with the SEC, including in the “Risk Factors” section of those filings, as well as CoStar’s other filings with the SEC available at the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements are based on information available to CoStar on the date hereof, and CoStar assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
