All right, Well, we're just a few months away from one of the biggest scoring events in the world, the FIFA World Cup, and that will draw for that World Cup just wrapped up a little bit earlier today at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Joining us live from New York is Alex Lazri. He's the CEO of the FIFA World Cup twenty twenty six New York New Jersey
Hosts Committee. Alex, great to have you here and of course where our viewers don't know, most of these games will be played, of course in the New York, New Jersey area. Talk a little bit about the potential impact that that's going to have for the local economy here.
Well, the impact of these games on the local economy is going to be massive. I mean, we're looking at over three billion dollars of economic impact, millions of fans from around the world that are going to be coming right here to our region, and I think the potential legacy is even bigger. Right. What we want to do is show the world that if you want to have the premier sports and entertainment event, you want to do it in the biggest stage right here in New York, New Jersey.
I am curious, Alex about this idea of having all of these national visitors coming to the US, particularly at a time where there's been a huge crackdown in immigration and a lot of concerns about how welcome some of these people are going to be when they start to arrive, and assuming they do arrive, are they going to be welcomed?
They are, and we're going to make sure they are because we are really excited to welcome the entire world to our region. And that's what the benefit of this World Cup is and what makes this World Cup so unique. The economic impact of this World Cup has a lot to do with the millions of visitors who are going to come to this region to participate in the World Cup. And I think what's unique about a World Cup is that most people that come aren't going to the stadium
to go to a game. They're coming to come to our fan fest, come to our fan village, come to all of our activations, and just be part of the World Cup experience. And that's what we're really excited about, to welcome the entire world right to our region.
And you think about that, welcoming the entire world, do you think about where this is being held. MetLife. MetLife of course can handle a lot. It's hosted a Super Bowl before, for example, how will this final compare to that?
For example, this final is going to be the biggest sporting event, maybe even the biggest event in human history. We're looking at If you think about the last the last World Cup Final, it was viewed by the same amount of people as the last thirteen Super Bowls combined. So if you think of you know, American football as our sport, football is the world sport and we're going to be having the eyes of the world upon us
for this final. So this is going to be the biggest event that we've ever hosted out out pacing a Super Bowl, Taylor Swift concert, you name it. This is going to be the biggest event we've ever had, and we're going to show the world that if you want to have a sporting event or anything on the biggest stage, you got to do it right here in New York, New Jersey.
Well to your point, I mean, this is the world's game. We're talking about the US market, and it feels like everyone growing up in the US plays soccer in some form. Do you think about soccer's popularity though in the United States, I mean, what do you think the stakes are here when it comes to raising the profile of the sport domestically.
I think our hope for this World Cup and the legacy for this World Cup is doing the for football what you know the Dream Team did for basketball around the world, Right, it inspired a generation of basketball players, and now you've had like the last six MVPs not being from the United States, And I think our hope for this World Cup is that it inspires a next
generation of athlete. Right You're going to have a bunch of six seven eight year olds who are going to be feeling the energy seeing the best players from around the world competing on the biggest stage, and hopefully it inspires them to go play football and to go join the US men's national team to make us the strongest team in the world. When you look at the ninety nine Women's World Cup, you know, those images and that energy led to the women's national team being the most
impressive and biggest powerhouse in women's soccer. So I think we're hoping for the same thing for this World Cup.
And absolutely you talk about the formation of MLS back in ninety six coming out of the ninety four World Cup and exactly all the attention that Americans, who traditionally ignored soccer certainly gave it. It gets to the question, though, Alex as well as to sort of what is the
international cooperation going forward? And I don't mean at the at the high end World Cup level, but do you think we're going to see maybe a little bit more symbiosis between say the leagues here in the United States with those the big powerhouse leagues in Europe and the UK, et cetera.
I think you're already seeing a lot of symbiosis, right You're having Premier League teams playing in European teams from all over the you know, from all over Europe playing in the United States. You know, we just hosted the Premier League series am met Life. We just have the Club World Cup right here in you know, the finals and the semi finals right here in MetLife Stadium. So I think you're already starting to see kind of an expansion of of football from around the world, you know,
really partnering with with us in the United States. I think, you know, kind of the next step and next stage is for the growth of the MLS to continue, the growth of the NWSL to continue, and also maybe you know, you start to see some of these other leagues doing what US leagues have been doing. Right when you look at the NBA and the NFL playing regular season matches overseas.
I think the hope is that, you know, we can start to do that with football and that'll really expand the game and continue to grow the sport.
I know you're basically just in charge of what's going on here in the New York, New Jersey area, but we should point out obviously these games are going to be spread out in other cities as well as other countries, including Mexico and Canada. What are the discussions that you're having with your counterparts in those cities and countries with regards to what they're doing and maybe sharing some interest and advice as to what maybe you can do as well.
We're all trying to share best practices because the fan experience in one city is going to directly affect the
fan experience in another. And so what we want to do, especially here in the United States, but all across North America is we really want to put on an incredible show and we want people from around the world who are coming here for possibly the first time, or CEOs of other companies coming here who are looking to maybe create jobs and invest We want them to see the United States, especially as as the place to do that.
And so the fan experience in Atlanta or Miami or Dallas is going to directly affect the fan experience that you have in New York, New Jersey. And so we're trying to make sure that we're all in communication, all talking about what we can do to make sure that everyone coming to the United States has an incredible experience, because I think that the studies that I've seen are saying that the World Cup could have an over thirty billion dollar economic impact for the entire United States, expecting
over six million visitors. So this is this is a very big deal, not just for our region, but for the entire country.
And you know, you think about an event like this, I have to imagine a lot of it, you know, falls on the state governments, the local governments. But talk to us about the relationship with the federal government. How much you know, buy in and participation you need from that level of government in term of putting on something on this scale.
You can't put on an event like this without coordination and buy in from your state, local, and federal government. And when I look at the planning and all of the conversations that I've been involved in and all the preparations that we've made, the connectivity between federal, state, and local has been truly incredible. Right. I think we're actually seeing a putting a side of politics to make sure
that these games are successful. And if you look at you know, kind of the next ten years here in the United States, this is really the decade of sports, and the World Cup is kind of the kickoff of that. Right We've got the World Cup in twenty six, the La Olympics in twenty eight, We've got the Women's World Cup in twenty thirty one, and then the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in twenty thirty four or thirty six. So,
you know, this is the decade of sports. We are the first one, and so we really have to make sure that we put on a great show to you know, I think really set the tone for what these mega sporting events over the next ten years are going to look like.
Absolutely, Alex really appreciate your time on this Friday afternoon, that is Alex Lazri. He is the CEO of the FIFA World Cup twenty six New York, New Jersey Host Committee