This is a tough question. I definitely want Canada to win it. Maybe Paul – the Octopus, who famously predicted the 2010 games, would have answered this if he were still around.
But as a Die Mannschaft fan, I will be watching every Germany game this summer – on TV of course. And the result I’m most interested in – has nothing to do with any scoreboard. Instead, it’s with who is winning the game of marketing during this world cup.
Businesses – big and small (in Toronto and all other venues) are all excited to leverage this opportunity. Whenever a mega event like this arrives, everyone says local businesses explode with revenue. Or at least, this is the story that gets sold every four years.
In reality – FIFA 2026 won’t make most SMEs rich. Sorry. That’s what data says.
Economists who study these mega events have a different story to tell. They say that FIFA organizers promise host cities millions in revenue. That promise gets reported as news. Small businesses read these headlines and get excited.
While much of the revenue (from broadcasting, sponsorships and ticket sales) flows to FIFA, the host cities are left counting the bills for stadium security and infrastructure they were required to fund.
So, to answer the question of who actually wins the marketing game of FIFA-2026, it comes down to three players. And understanding why they win is more useful to any business owner than any World Cup marketing checklist you’ll read this summer.
1. Global Sponsors
FIFA doesn’t let just anyone market the World Cup.
That right is sold to brands like Coca-Cola, Adidas, Visa, Hyundai etc – years in advance, for tens of millions of dollars. And only they get to use FIFA’s logo, the official tournament branding, and the phrase “Official Sponsor of FIFA World Cup 2026” in their ads.
Read the full list of sponsors here if you’re interested.
And it goes further than just logos and branding.
FIFA 2026 is expected to generate 6 billion viewership. But the ability to monetise that attention at scale was never available to most small businesses as the average FIFA sponsorship fee sits at around $150 million. That price was a closed door.
This attention which lands inside the broadcast slots, pitch-side boards, and digital real estate – was reserved long ago, only to the mega sponsors.
So when a fan sees a Coca-Cola ad during the Argentina vs. England match – that’s not a coincidence or a last-minute buy. That ad placement was locked in years ago.
There’s also a legal wrinkle worth knowing: ambush marketing laws. Ambush Marketing is when brands try to associate themselves with these big-ticket events for business gain without paying a sponsorship fee.
And that’s why – most host cities agree to FIFA’s commercial protection terms, which can restrict non-sponsor businesses from running World Cup-themed campaigns in certain areas or mediums.
For example – when a local business uses phrases like “FIFA 2026 Watch Party” in their paid Facebook ad – that is problematic. But a chalkboard outside your favourite pub with the words “Watch the game here tonight” is generally fine.
2. Large Hospitality Chains
These are the hotel businesses that own or franchise properties by the hundreds all over the world – like Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt or IHG.
These chains do not prepare for an event like this after the fixtures are announced. Instead they start preparing the moment a world cup bid is won.
For example – a Marriott revenue manager will have already modelled occupancy projections, adjusted dynamic pricing, and locked in corporate travel partnerships for visiting delegations and media crews – years in advance.
That’s not luck. That’s years of structural preparation that no local operator can replicate overnight.
These chains have 3 things that a local hotel business doesn’t:
- Centralized inventory across multiple properties in the same host city — if one fills up, they redirect to another one they own.
- Corporate contracts with FIFA delegations, broadcast networks, and sponsor teams who need guaranteed room blocks months in advance.
- Loyalty ecosystems — a travelling fan who is a Hilton Honours member, doesn’t do a Google Search for hotels. He is opening the Hilton app instead.
A local hotel operator simply can’t replicate that. Because it has none of the above.
Whenever a big ticket event is around the corner – the big hospitality chains have only one objective. That is to extract the maximum money from a captive, time-bound demand spike. Their systems are built to raise prices, fast and high.
Among all the venues hosting the FIFA-2026 matches, Vancouver tops the list as the tournament’s costliest destination, with peak game day hotel prices hitting an average of $1,455 per night.
You can see how Toronto and other venues fare in hotel pricing here.
Many a times, these chains push the prices so aggressively that they start pricing out the very fans cities will count on. Empty hotels mean empty streets. And the independent café, the local merchandise shop, the family-run restaurant inherits the consequences of a pricing decision they never made.
3. SMEs Who Planned
We all assume that as more tourists visit the host cities, the better it will be for all local businesses. But this is not the real picture.
“Hopeful, excited but also overwhelmed” – is what Chera Amlag, the owner of Hood Famous Cafe in Seattle’s Chinatown, had to say(interviewed in March) when asked about their World Cup preparations – with only three months to go.
You cannot begin the preparations for such once-in-a-generation event with only three months remaining. And Chera isn’t an exception. Most small businesses across host cities are in the exact same position – enthusiastic, underprepared, and running out of runway.
The businesses that make real money from a big event are the ones who get ready way before the event starts. Sometimes a year in advance.
What does “getting ready” mean for a small business? It means working on these three things:
- Supply – Did we order extra stock, ingredients, or products early? Because once the event starts, suppliers are overwhelmed and the prices go up.
- Staff – Did we hire and train extra people early? Because good staff don’t appear overnight during a tournament.
- Partnerships – Did we talk to hotels, travel agents, or tour operators early enough for them to include us in their recommendations to visiting fans?
If a small business ignores these three things, they don’t just miss out on the big, fat profits – they hand it directly to a competitor who planned ahead.
For example – this is what early preparations look like – by a local restaurant in a host city:
- Negotiating supplier contracts and locking-in the prices before tournament demand inflates them.
- Hire and train extra staff in January, if the games start in June.
- Approach hotel concierge desks and travel operators months in advance to get listed in the “where to eat nearby” recommendations – handed to visiting fans at check-in.
The window to prepare closes long before the first ball is kicked and hence it is important for SMEs to treat events like this as a deadline rather than an opportunity.
Marquee events like this- exposes some uncomfortable realities. One among those is that they don’t create opportunities equally. They amplify the advantages that already exist. The global sponsors and the hospitality chains were always going to win.
The only variable was whether the local business owner started in 2025,or waited until 2026. There’s still time, but not much. The SMEs who move now, with urgency and specificity, may have a chance to outperform those that still won’t.
The rest of us can do our small part too. Choose the independent restaurant over the chain. Pick the local guesthouse over Hilton or Marriott. The World Cup comes once but small businesses in our city are here every day – and they deserve our support long after that final whistle.