Waterloo Region bars enjoy World Cup boost, hotel sales didn’t meet expectations

Businesses were expecting a boost from fans watching the FIFA World Cup, but did that happen? CTV’s Colton Wiens reports.

For more than a month, soccer fans and general sports enthusiasts alike gathered at local bars to watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

While the world was watching the games across North America, closer to home, some businesses in Waterloo Region were enjoying a boost to their bottom lines.

“We know that we had a lot of soccer fans in town,” Linda Jutzi, executive director of the Downtown Kitchener Business Improvement Area (BIA), said. “We had no idea that it would be so successful and that many people would come out.”

Local BIAs took advantage of the excitement and held events for almost every game. The City of Kitchener and the Downtown Kitchener BIA rented a 22 foot screen and held watch parties outside the Kitchener Market. The Gaslight District in Cambridge was also a popular spot for people who wanted to share their excitement with a crowd of people.

“There were games when it was a little quieter and there might have been 50 to 100 people, and there were days when we were at full capacity and we had to stop people from coming on the piazza when we had close to 400 people up there. [Sunday’s final] was standing room only,” Jutzi recalled.

All told, the Downton Kitchener BIA believes around 30,000 came to the outdoor viewing parties. Businesses nearby said they saw many new customers walk through their doors during that time.

“A lot of people would go into a restaurant and tell the owner that they really didn’t know they were there and they would come back,” Jutzi said. “[The businesses] were up sometimes 500 per cent – it was remarkable to have that exposure.”

Meanwhile, the Uptown Waterloo BIA focused on encouraging people to head to restaurants and bars to watch the games.

“They were all activating for the FIFA World Cup matches. They had the volumes on, creating an amazing atmosphere there, attracting people. We didn’t want to take it away,” Jeyas Balaskanthan, executive director of the Uptown Waterloo BIA said. “There was a really good economic boost. It was busy and people were here even yesterday for the finals. I was only finally able to get into McCabe’s because all of the other places were busy, and McCabe’s got packed as well.”

If the Canadian team had made it further into the tournament, instead of losing to Morocco in the Round of 16, the Uptown Waterloo BIA would have also held large viewing parties.

“Last year, the [Toronto Blue] Jays World Series run, that was good. Towards the World Series, we ended up starting to show some of the games in the square because all of the bars were filled up. There were a lot of people, so we needed more space,” Balaskanthan said.

Bobby O’Brien’s in downtown Kitchener, which boasts a large outdoor TV, saw a constant flow of customers on game days.

“It was so good. It was so good. We loved it. I’m so sad that it’s over. We had a great time with it. The energy was fantastic. So many people cheering on their teams. It was wonderful.” Shaina Schlegel, a general manager at Bobby O’Briens, said. “Big screen is so popular. We even had people hanging out on the sidewalks if they didn’t want to come in and they were watching out there. It was fantastic.”

“There was not enough time to replace those losses”

However, not all business saw the benefits.

The Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association doesn’t have final numbers regarding the World Cup yet, but said the expected influx of hotel bookings in Toronto, and the subsequent overflow to Waterloo Region, never happened.

“The hotel sector did not meet prior year performance numbers. June historically is a very busy month, and with FIFA taking up so many hotel rooms, then canceling them, it prevented the hotels from booking other business. There was not enough time to replace those losses,” Tony Elenis, Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association’s president & CEO, said. “Hotels in the Greater Toronto Area, even as far as Burlington, Hamilton, perhaps even the Waterloo Region, they were hoping for overflow, and overflow is good for hotel business. But this did not happen.”

Elenis said many of the higher end restaurants in the GTA didn’t see much of a change in business, and conferences organizers decided to seek out other destinations this year.

“There are many conferences that stayed away and chose another destination because of the congestion that they perhaps perceived that will be there and the noise that distracts their delegates,” Elenis said.

However, Elenis added that Toronto being a host city also gave more people the chance to see what Ontario has to offer.

“There were four billion viewers that saw the City of Toronto and Ontario and Canada on the map, and that means business in the long term.”