It’s like the World Cup, only held in more locations. With more tourism opportunities. And more impressive statistics.
Copa América Centenario, currently topping the bucket lists of soccer fans worldwide, kicked off the first week of June and wraps up on June 26. The fact that this is the 100th anniversary of the event – and that it is the first time in history the tournament has been held outside of South America have combined to make for some pretty impressive numbers. And while the sports business world will be waiting with interest to get a final tally on economic impact, there are always some figures to use as an appetizer. These come courtesy of the statistics gurus at WalletHub (they of all the numbers trivia for all things sports):
14 Billion: Number of tweets generated by COPA América 2015, making it the most popular event on social media that year. (Come on, admit it. You sent at least one.)
10: The number of U.S. cities that will host matches; here they are:
City (Stadium: Capacity)
Foxborough, MA (Gillette Stadium: 68,756)
East Rutherford, NJ (MetLife Stadium: 82,500)
Philadelphia, PA (Lincoln Financial Field: 69,596)
Orlando, FL (Orlando Citrus Bowl: 70,000)
Chicago, IL (Soldier Field: 61,500)
Houston, TX (NRG Stadium: 71,500)
Pasadena, CA (Rose Bowl: 92,542)
Glendale, AZ (University of Phoenix Stadium: 63,400)
Santa Clara, CA (Levi’s Stadium 68,500)
Seattle, WA (CenturyLink Field: 67,000)
$1,005: Starting price for the official Centenario Travel Package (two nights and a ticket to the final on June 26 at MetLife Stadium)
$56: Starting price for the least expensive ticket to a USA match (vs. Uruguay in Philadelphia)
$84: Starting price for the most expensive ticket to a USA match (vs. Colombia in San Francisco)
$208: Starting price for a ticket to the final on the secondary market
(and yes, everyone knows about the scalpers; we’re trying to go with the official numbers, okay?)
54%: Increase in bookings in host cities the day the schedule was released
131%: Increase in bookings from Latin American countries
1.75 Million: Fans who will attend the matches
$15 Million: Paid by Fox for English language broadcast rights, which doesn’t compare to the…
$60 Million paid by Univision for Spanish language broadcast rights
And since even the Beautiful Game isn’t perfect, even when it’s being played in the Land of Opportunity, we leave you with this number:
$110 Million: Amount of bribes related to the tournament’s commercial rights that were paid, leading to 14 arrests and two FIFA lifetime bans. (Hey, just because it’s not the World Cup doesn’t mean it’s immune to baggage.)
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