As World Cup spending surges, BofA’s year-long merchant preparation is paying off.
Exorbitant ticket prices be damned. Die-hard soccer fans are flocking to host cities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico for the first tri-nation tournament in FIFA history. And they are proving to be exceptionally big spenders.
The Bank of America Institute — the firm’s research arm — mined its credit and debit card data and learned that the 2026 FIFA World Cup is delivering a massive economic win for host cities, driven overwhelmingly by these hefty-spending, out-of-town visitors.
During the tournament’s opening days from June 10–21, overall consumer spending in host markets jumped 6.3% year over year. “Non-local” cardholders — a category tracking both international tourists and U.S. residents traveling out of state for matches — fueled the lift. Their spending, according to data shared with Global Finance, climbed 16.7% year over year.
Bank of America’s data also highlighted a lucrative trend for local merchants: visiting fans are out-purchasing non-fans by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.
Pre-Tournament Warmup
“We’re really only halfway through, as you know, so no surprise that the majority of that spend has been driven from non-local residents coming in,” said Sara Walsh, a Bank of America managing director who oversees the bank’s relationships with vendors and networks in payments and has spent more than a year preparing merchants for the tournament. “Restaurants, bars, hotels, of course, make up the majority of that.”
The data tracks with results from last year’s FIFA Club World Cup, a smaller-scale tournament that Bank of America Institute found drove a 7% year-over-year rise in consumer spending in host zip codes. Walsh told Global Finance in a phone interview that the event effectively served as a dry run for the numbers the bank is now seeing at scale.
“The Club World Cup gave us a nice little pilot into what the stats would look like, and they were very consistent with what we’re seeing here,” Walsh said.
Soccer fans, meanwhile, are proving to be especially heavy spenders. A study Bank of America conducted with Visa found that soccer fans spend on average 2.8 times more than non-fans, according to the Institute. Walsh said the bank analyzed customers making purchases tied to FIFA and MLS tickets to reach that conclusion.
The scale of the opportunity is significant. The tournament’s 16 U.S., Mexican and Canadian host cities together represent:
- $11 trillion in gross domestic product (GDP)
- Roughly 130 million people, and
- An expected draw of 33 million international visitors annually.
Historically, host nations have seen an average 0.4 percentage-point lift in GDP growth in the year following the tournament, the Institute found.
A Year of Preparation
Bank of America
Bank of America began preparing merchants for the World Cup surge more than a year ago. It drew on its position spanning treasury, card-issuing and merchant-services clients. The prep work centered on three areas: building tools for merchants to capture customer data and loyalty even after fans leave the U.S.; speeding up checkout through contactless and pay-at-table technology; and ensuring cards from international networks, such as Japan’s JCB, are accepted without triggering declines.
“Merchants can either survive the World Cup or prosper from the World Cup,” Walsh said, citing a colleague’s framing of the stakes.
Restaurants and bars needed the most hand-holding, Walsh said, particularly around pay-at-table functionality that’s common internationally but was slower to catch on in the U.S. The bank also coached retailers on when to use 3D Secure authentication — the phone-based verification step common in Europe — given the risk of transaction friction in crowded, high-traffic settings with spotty connectivity.
“We did not want to have customers who are standing in line, they’ve come all this way, get ready to purchase, and have their cards decline,” Walsh said. So far, she said, cross-border approval rates have held up as fans travel from city to city.
Spillover Into Other Events
One surprise for the bank has been spending spillover into unrelated events and sectors. Walsh said Bank of America has seen international visitors attending Major League Baseball games and concerts during their trips, alongside a pickup in merchandise sales tied to breakout national teams.
“You’re going to have people who are purchasing things from some of these teams that maybe a month ago no one had ever even heard of these countries, and all of a sudden they’re winning,” Walsh said, adding that merchandise sales represent a “fun kickback” opportunity for merchants tied to Cinderella-story squads.
Cape Verde’s inspiring World Cup run, for example, captivated fans. The team, representing an island nation of just 535,000, reached the knockout stage unbeaten and pushed Argentina, the reigning champs, to a hard-fought 3-2 extra-time loss.
Bank of America worked with Visa and FIFA, along with industry forums including Money20/20, the Electronic Transactions Association, and the Merchant Advisory Group, to prepare merchants of all sizes through its Merchant Engagement Program, Walsh said.
Looking ahead, Walsh said that the bank plans to apply lessons from the World Cup to future events on U.S. soil. That includes the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which the U.S. will jointly host with Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica.
“We will definitely continue to use these events for learning opportunities to improve where we need to and get ready for those events as well,” she added.
Anthony Noto covers corporate finance and private credit. Contact him at anoto@gfmag.com
