The World Cup gave Boston a major boost: 'It woke the city up'

Lance Reynolds and Joe Dwinell, Boston Herald on Jul 9, 2026

Published in Soccer

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FOXBORO, Mass. — With the World Cup matches wrapping up in Foxboro, the soccer world says there is a clear winner of the premier global tournament — and it’s not one of the final teams standing.

“I think Boston won the World Cup,” Revolution President Brian Bilello told the Boston Herald inside a packed Boston Stadium amid France’s 2-0 shutout of Morocco in the tournament’s first quarterfinal match.

Bilello’s triumphant declaration caps off a month-long multicultural carnival that helped alter the region’s sporting identity in a summer that has seen a middling Red Sox team test the city’s patience.

Hundreds of thousands of international visitors flew into Greater Boston over the past month to support their countries in the tournament, generating a massive regional economic boom that local and state officials say will have a tremendous lasting power.

The mostly positive spirits that united locals with foreigners, notably Scotland’s Tartan Army, stood in stark contrast to the concerns skeptics raised about whether Greater Boston was fully prepared to host such a large-scale, weeks-long spectacle.

“Boston is Boston, but the Krafts paved the way so the World Cup would be a success,” PR guru George Regan told the Herald at Thursday’s match.

“Boston needed a shot in the arm,” said Regan, who helped the Boston 2026 host committee.

Ahead of Thursday’s quarterfinal between France and Morocco, SeatPick, a ticket search engine and aggregator, crowned Gillette Stadium, which rebranded as Boston Stadium for the tournament, as the best World Cup venue for fan experience.

The study factors in the stadium’s average beer cost of $8.58 – the second cheapest at the 11 U.S. host venues — and relatively comfortable temperatures of 83 degrees, despite Thursday’s scorching heat that soared past 90 at kickoff.

“The only real sting comes from hotel prices in the area, which average $611 per night — the highest of all host cities,” the study stated. “Fans willing to venture into the Greater Boston area may find a much friendlier bill.”

As music pumped inside the stadium and fans headed to their seats, a 67-year-old man named Mike took in the scene, offering a jubilant assertion.

“The World Cup has made Boston fun! It woke the city up,” Mike told the Herald.

That stance is resonating strongly with the masses, especially as Bostonians and Bay Staters reflect on their newly formed love affair with Scotland, even three weeks after the Tartan Army left the city.

“Such an incredible singular city in the United States,” Roger Bennett, co-founder of the Men in Blazers Media Network, told Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ahead of the final match. “I adore being here. It is the Platonic ideal of a sports town. … I believe the city of Boston has already won the World Cup.”

In his pregame show, Bennett focused on how the Tartan Army ran beer lines at some of the city’s busiest bars completely dry and placed bright orange traffic cones on some of Boston’s most iconic statues.

Wu highlighted how the Scots joined Haitian fans in a march ahead of the first game on June 13, a sign of what was to come. The mayor said a traffic cone that has sat on the horse’s head on the Duke of Wellington statue in Glasgow is set to be gifted to Boston.

“We’ve seen the benefits to our businesses,” Wu said. “We’ve seen the investment … several mini pitches built and created that will be here long afterwards.”

“But the impact is even deeper, in showing us exactly who we are and how powerful that is,” she added. “This generation is going to be forever changed.”