gothamist
In anticipation of the FIFA World Cup, Astoria's Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden made a strategic decision to invest in nearly two dozen big-screen TVs and completely overhaul its sound system.
The investment has more than paid off, said Greg Boudreau, events director and floor manager at the establishment, which is one of the citys biggest watering holes, with a capacity of 1,300 people.
Between the Knicks' championship run and now the World Cup, Boudreau said business was up 200% over the same period last year.
The peak, he said, was June 13, when crowds packed into the venue to watch Brazil vs.
Morocco, followed by Game 5 of the NBA Finals, when the Knicks won it all.
That was the biggest day we've ever had here, revenue-wise in terms of the Garden [in] 115 years, Boudreau said.
Hard economic data citywide is not yet in, but anecdotal evidence that the World Cup has been a boon to neighborhood bars, restaurants and other venues abounds.
Many proprietors say the matches, coming on the heels of the Knicks' long march to a championship, delivered a May-June business boom unlike any in recent memory.
The neighborhood spots have prospered even as travel and hotel industry experts said the results were falling short of the early hype.
The New York-New Jersey host committee last year promised a $3 billion economic impact for the region, a figure industry analysts say has been significantly eroded by war in the Middle East, concerns over immigration enforcement, travel bans, and fights over international tariffs, including with neighbor and ally Canada, a top driver of tourism to New York City and the nation.
Coming on the heels of the Knicks, it's been unbelievable for business, said Martin Whelan, the president of Stout NYC Hospitality Group, which operates a dozen establishments across Manhattan as well as the Rivercrest sports bar in Astoria.
Weekly business at some of the companys venues spiked over 200% during the Knicks run, he said, and during the World Cup doubled or more than doubled.
Business leaders and owners said the excitement has rippled across the five boroughs.
Anthony Ramirez II, a co-owner of the Bronx Beer Hall in the Arthur Avenue Retail Market, said in a statement that between the Knicks championship, the World Cup and America 250 celebrations, "This is shaping up to be one of the best summers we've seen for small business in the Bronx.
Tom Grech, the president and CEO of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, said the organization engaged early on with hundreds of bars and restaurants through its FIFA World Cup Restaurant Activation program.
The program offered businesses a tool kit designed to easily attract soccer fans, through marketing and social media.
I can tell you anecdotally that a number of bars and restaurants are talking about a 30% spike in beer and food sales, Grech said.
Catering to the crowds Some of the citys biggest tourist attractions also got in on the action.
The American Museum of Natural History highlights its World Cup watch parties at the top of its website, and has programmed an entire series, World Cup, World Cultures, which the museum said celebrates the community and science of sport.
Offerings include the Goal Zone, in which participants young and old can measure their kick velocity with a speed scanner.
Brian Walker, a spokesperson for the Intrepid Museum, said the organization, which draws a million visitors annually, is hosting more than 50 free watch parties on Pier 86, some of which have attracted 1,500 local and international attendees.
[photo available] Our objectives are to serve our local community, provide an added benefit to visitors to the museum and to attract international visitors, Walker said.
Its been a success beyond our wildest imagination.
For bars and restaurants, the changes can be cosmetic like a colorful, FIFA-themed window display meant to lure pedestrians into a Jackson Heights sports bar as well as mundane.
Merrin, who runs Havana Central restaurant in Times Square and the Downtown sports bar Houston Hall, said its important to monitor liquor inventory based on whos playing, and potentially attending, on a given day.
Brazil, they love caipirinhas, right? The French obviously will drink more wine, he said.
Overall, he said, the games have been a game changer for his businesses, with the 400-person Houston Hall and 200-person restaurant being packed most game days.
It's just been nuts, Whelan said.
The citys immigrant neighborhoods have also felt the bonanza, including in Queens, where soccer fans patronized sidewalk T-shirt vendors or stopped to watch a game being screened from a storefront TV.
Samire Oliveira, a medical professional originally from Brazil, showed up at Raices restaurant in Jackson Heights, in large part because as a Latin establishment, it feels really welcoming.
We go crazy, she said over a mango margarita.
We don't stop singing.
It's like, all time, nonstop.
So it's something else.
Neither awful nor awesome numbers for area hotels For some sectors, though, the World Cup has been a mixed bag.
Lodgings across the five boroughs have experienced a boost from 2025 but not nearly to the levels promised by early World Cup hype.
Vijay Dandapani, the president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City, said hotels citywide made $42 million more during the week of June 21-27 than during the same week one year earlier.
I would caution that based on trends thus far it is significantly below the $260-300 million increase for the entire tournament we budgeted back in December based on FIFAs estimate of 1.2 million visitors, Dandapani said.
Jan Freitag, national director for hospitality analytics for the CoStar Group, a commercial real estate data provider, said the data indicated a mixed blessing for hoteliers: in the week ending June 27, the average daily rate for hotels across the city went up 22% over the same period a year earlier, but occupancy dropped 4% to 86%.
Looking ahead, we expect the New York results to continue to be positively impacted by the matches all the way through July 19" to the World Cup final, Freitag said.
The local matches have been played at MetLife Stadium dubbed the New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The contests started in mid-June.
For some individual hoteliers, the results so far have landed somewhere in the middle: neither rising to the heights theyd hoped for last year, nor quite as bad as theyd been led to believe in the spring, when war in the Middle East, stringent U.S.
immigration enforcement efforts and sky-high ticket prices collectively instilled fears that fans would stay away.
John Fitzpatrick, the owner of two Manhattan hotels, said his disappointment a month prior to the Games had been somewhat tempered, as average nightly rates had risen 6% from earlier discounted levels, thanks to increased demand.
It is still early to draw firm conclusions, but the trend over the past couple of weeks has been more encouraging, Fitzpatrick said.
The months ahead Business owners were split as to whether customers would keep coming back, once the World Cup wraps up on July 19.
Some said it would inevitably dissipate.
Others are hoping to maintain the momentum.
Marcella Moraes, a manager at Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden, said the venue is now planning watch parties of the reality series Love Island, and gatherings for Brazilian, Venezuelan and Colombia soccer fans.
I think these people are only going to be coming back once this is over and their teams win, Moraes said.
For some businesses that experienced an uptick, the recent stretch has harkened back to an earlier time in the city.
Nine out of 10 businesses surveyed by the New York City Hospitality Alliance said they experienced increased sales during the Knicks championship run, including 66% that said sales increased significantly, according to a report released June 1 by the organization.
A bunch of the businesses that we surveyed, people were saying, "New York City hasn't felt like this since before COVID, Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the Alliance, told Gothamist.
Jody Avirgan, host of the podcast Good Sport, said he was hopeful that the business growth represented more than a temporary burst of fandom, and hinted at a need for New Yorkers to congregate again something that the pandemic and digital distractions had fundamentally altered.
It's the first time since I've lived in New York, and I think for a lot of people, the first time in their lifetimes where the city has felt this way, Avirgan said.
It's like something special is actually happening.