Just happened to catch Keith Costigan, Warren Burton, and Chris Miles this Sunday talk about the economic import of the 2010 World Cup. This complex issue got about two minutes.
First, none of the three really work on this particular aspect of the sport. And it showed. There were banalities – it is good for the host country and the fans of the qualifying countries who go to pubs to see matches, boost the local economy. Not particularly insightful.
Second, If you expected statistics and charts which would lay out the numbers you would be disappointed. There were none. There is enough data from the last World Cup to show that it was a financial windfall for Germany. They could have used it to make the section interesting.
” The four-week tournament earned Germany’s tourism industry an extra 300 million euros ($399 million) in revenue, added 2 billion euros to retail sales and yielded 50,000 new jobs, according to the final report on sports’ biggest event.”
Get an expert from a sports business group to add meat to the discussion. It could be an important lede to the 2018 or the 2022 World Cup bid by the USA.