International travel, fan engagement and LA28 are hot topics
FIFA may have brought more attention to the sports and fan engagement capabilities of cities around North America, but cities around the globe have been investing in sports to a significant degree for decades.
In a recent discussion with leaders in the sports tourism field, Smart Meetings took the temperature of the industry post-FIFA and learned about what destinations are hearing and how they’re navigating sports tourism.
FIFA and Its Greater Impact
Kevin Hinton, managing director of group travel for U.S. Travel Association, said FIFA came at a critical time, when business and leisure travelers have had questions about whether right now is the time to visit the United States. Hinton said U.S. Travel Association has been working with organizations to try to dispel some of those misconceptions.
“A lot of [the misconceptions] are based on a very limited number of international visitors who, for whatever reason, were not allowed into the country,” he said, “coupled with some potential policy changes that might make it less desirable for people to come if they have to, for example, share their social media history. We value the interactions with visitors from around the world. We’ve seen that on social media, and it’s really been it’s been heartwarming.”
From an international visitation standpoint, Teri Washington, vice president of communications at Oak View Group, said FIFA has been a good setup for the LA Olympics in 2028. Having traveled to Canada 11 times last year, Washington said travelers were actively canceling their trips to the U.S., especially in Florida. “The amount of discourse I heard in Canada was real,” she said.
Read More: Relive FIFA 2026
Adam Wisniewski, vice president of sports development at Visit OKC, believes there’s only going to be an increase in international sporting event interests following FIFA and heading into the Olympics.
“LA28 is just two years away, then you have the Women’s World Cup in 2031, the Rugby World Cup in 2031 and the Winter Olympics in 2034,” he said. “We have this current surge in major international events that shows off the United States’ [sports] infrastructure in a lot of ways.”
In sports, the venue comes first, Wisniewski said. Beyond sporting events, the type of event held is the differentiator in how it’s handled. “There’s a learning lesson from the World Cup,” he said, “which is it’s great to check all the boxes we’re used to, but there’s a difference between hosting a major event and being capable of hosting a major event that’s going to bring people that could speak 30 different languages to a city.”
Wisniewski said a lot of destinations are looking at their appeal from that standpoint now, not just having the capability to host an athletic event, but to put technology to a better use or be more strategic with whom they’re inviting. “As we know that more cities are willing to consider international business, and more international planners hopefully are willing to consider the United States, I think that’s one aspect of it that we’re at least putting a lot of thought into: How many different cultures and languages and customs are you inviting all at one time, and are you ready and capable to host that?”
Fan Engagement Beyond the Pitch
Although no games took place on Los Angeles’ convention campus, there was ample space to host engaging activations for the public. Brenda Cruz, senior director of global partnerships, out-of-home, at AEG Global Partnerships, said athletes and families stayed at the convention center campus’ two hotels, JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live and The Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles, where just outside their doors, fans could engage in activations.
“We had a few collaborations. There was a German football club that hosted a kids’ engagement activation,” she said. “They placed a little pitch on our campus and invited the local soccer teams. It was exciting, and all of them were fully open to the public. It’s great to see everyone come together and having the platform to offer that for fans and brands.”
Read More: How Sports Programs Boost Attendee Engagement
One such event aside from FIFA that encourages athletes, families and fans to come together is the Mamba League Invitational, an event created by Nike, in partnership with AEG and Vanessa Bryant. It’s invitation-only for youth basketball players who Nike is looking to possibly sponsor or for those looking to be seen. “It’s a really great opportunity for the kids and parents. They convert the L.A. Live campus into a basketball court. It’s not inside the arena; oddly enough, we like to have it outside because it encourages fan engagement.” Ex-athletes, Nike executives and celebrities attend, as well.
Hinton said it’s events like these that make us realize the value of travel and events. There’s the fostering of interactions and connections, but there’s also the economic impact and the value it creates in communities across the U.S. He expressed a desire to keep certain policies in place that were introduced leading to FIFA that encourage travel, such as the FIFA pass, which allowed international fans to expedite their visa if they had a match ticket.
“We want to see how we can have that type of policy applied to other events,” Hinton said. “For the Olympics that’s underway and for other events as well that are not necessarily as big and well known. Let’s make it easier for organizers to bring their events here and for people who want to attend those events to get their visas if they’re required. A lot of really good things that we’ve been working on for many years are kind of culminating in what’s happening right now.”
Hinton said it needs to be known that major events are good for the economy. The investments made in the World Cup can have a direct benefit in bringing in other events. “There was a point in time where a lot of Olympic city hosts were criticized for creating venues that were then never used again,” he said. “I think we’ve gotten smarter at realizing that that does us a disservice, so we need to be able to continually tell the story around the impact of visitation and the power of people convening, whether for sport, business or otherwise.
Hinton added, “We need to be the advocates, both with elected officials, but also with friends and family who may not see some of the benefits. They might see it as a hassle that they had to put up with construction or inconveniences, but there is a long-term value.”
Smaller Markets Are Going Big
Although large markets are typically the ones that get the most attention when it comes to major sporting events, Washington pointed to the fact that smaller markets are also investing in sporting venues and creating sports teams and events. “These markets are creating community because people may not always want to go to a big city,” she said. “They want to have that venue in their market; they can have those mid-sized concerts and shows, and then again, sporting events.”
She named the Upshot League’s Greensboro Groove, a women’s basketball league and team that was created in January and October 2025, respectively. “Smaller markets are showing a lot of economic impact.”
Oklahoma City, for one, hedged a bet when it invested in softball in the ‘60s. “We certainly didn’t think it was going to grow into what it eventually became,” Wisniewski said. “We have the largest softball stadium in the world now, and there are plenty of other destinations that are trying to play catch-up, but it took a risk. It took investment in something that we wanted to be a market leader in.”
Another bet that paid off was investing in Riversport OKC, its center for water sports such as rowing, whitewater rafting, slalom canoeing and surfing. It’s now going to be a satellite venue for the 2028 Olympics for whitewater rafting. “We weren’t envisioning the Olympics coming many years later, but at the time, there weren’t other destinations that were interested in doing that,” he said.
