Summer of sports in New York City encapsulates tailgate tourism trend
Summer of sports in New York City encapsulates tailgate tourism trend
Fans seek experiences outside of bank-breaking game tickets
New York Knicks fans react during a watch party at the Wollman Rink in Central Park for Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs, on June 10 in New York City. (Getty Images)
https://www.costar.com/article/18449568/summer-of-sports-in-new-york-city-encapsulates-tailgate-tourism-trend?
New York City has been at the center of the sports world this summer, and the buzz is circulating throughout the city.
East Rutherford, New Jersey, hosted eight World Cup matches, including the final between Argentina and Spain on July 19. The hometown New York Knicks won their first championship in 53 years in June, sending the city into a weekslong frenzy with packed watch parties and millions attending the victory parade.
Hotels in the city are enjoying a boost in sports-driven tourism, even from fans who aren't attending games.
"Tailgate tourism," when fans travel to a city where a sporting event is occurring to watch a game but not actually attend, is a growing trend amid soaring get-in prices. Fans who are unwilling to break the bank to physically be at a game are settling for raucous watch parties with fellow fans to take in the atmosphere and have an experience.
This phenomenon is happening around the U.S., with New York City serving as perhaps the best example.
The city hosted watch parties for the NBA Finals in several official locations, including Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, Bryant Park and Central Park. Some screened the games from a projector onto a building and crowds formed.
David Roman, general manager of the Z Hotel NYC in Long Island City, New York, said his property typically sees spikes in sports-related demand around the annual U.S. Open Tennis Championships each August. This year, the 2026 FIFA World Cup and NBA Finals presented some additional demand generators.
According to CoStar data, revenue per available room in the New York City market increased 14.3% and 15.4%, respectively, on the two nights New York hosted NBA Finals games.
World Cup matches also boosted hotel RevPAR in the Big Apple, mostly driven by average daily rate increases. On July 18 — the day before the World Cup final — occupancy reached 95.7% with an ADR of $622.32, resulting in RevPAR of $595.64. In year-over-year terms, New York City hotel occupancy was up 5.4%, ADR was up 109.1% and RevPAR was up 120.3%.
Sporting events bring "a massive impact to our city," said Peter Yeung, managing director of the Walker Hotels Collection, which includes the Walker Hotel Greenwich Village and the Walker Tribeca Hotel, in New York City. Yeung has seen an uptick in fans traveling to the city for these sporting events — not necessarily to attend the game, but to just be around other fans cheering on their team.
"You want to be around people that have that same interest," Yeung said. "Being a Knicks fan, I want to be around a bunch of people that are Knicks fans so you can share the feeling with human beings and with your fellow Knicks fans."
Yeung credited New York City for putting on watch parties and encouraging the city to come together to support their hometown basketball team.
But it's not just the city taking advantage of the rising interest in community-centric watch parties — hotels are bolstering their offerings to give guests the option to stay on property for an experience.
Yeung said one of his hotels installed three TVs at its rooftop bar and another TV in its lobby ahead of the NBA Finals. It resulted in a full bar of cheering fans.
"It brings in a lot of people so they can celebrate together, and that's what's great about these sporting events," he said. "It brings people that normally wouldn't get together, of all different backgrounds, of all different financial statuses, and we're able to just share one thing in common."
The Z Hotel NYC similarly has an on-site rooftop bar and speakeasy that employees market to guests to try and keep them on property, Roman said. But he added he understands that someone traveling to New York City wants to experience the city, so the impact is more felt in room demand.
"At the end of the day, it's almost like a double-dipper for them. They're coming in first on vacation time, but also it happens to be the FIFA World Cup," he said. "That added a little bit of demand for the hotel as well around that time."
The surge in sporting event ticket prices has created a growing market of fans who fit in the tailgate tourism bucket.
The get-in price for Game 3 of the NBA Finals in New York was about $4,000; the average price of a ticket was $7,000. For the World Cup final, the get-in price on secondary ticket markets was $9,500, and the average price of a ticket was $15,331, per TickPick.
These prices aren't attainable for the average fan, but this makes watch parties more attractive.
"You're not actually going to the game, but you're going to the tailgate in the parking lot. You're flying to New York [but] you can't afford the [game ticket]," Yeung said. "You're still able to party and be close to the game, but you're not spending $5,000 a person on the actual ticket."
Experts say capital is available but creativity is needed in hotel financing
Debt options shape the deals, development environment
Debt options are shaping the deals and development environment within hospitality real estate. Pictured here is the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)
https://www.costar.com/article/1712357547/experts-say-capital-is-available-but-creativity-needed-in-hotel-financing?
Those waiting around for lower interest rate policy are likely to be disappointed, but experts say creative borrowers and lenders across the hotel industry are being rewarded.
Recent coverage from across CoStar News Hotels has highlighted the current state of lending for the industry, including how many borrowers have had to look beyond traditional options. Here are highlights from that coverage.
Expanding options
The most recent meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve's Federal Open Markets Committee showed that despite a new chair, interest rates weren't likely to immediately take a downward turn.
A recent panel at the NYU International Hospitality Investment Forum highlighted the importance of alternative sources of capital, such as EB-5 and CPACE lending.
Rachael Sery, managing director and national head of operations at George Smith Partners, a commercial real estate finance advisory firm, noted EB-5 is increasingly being used as senior debt after years of primarily being used as mezzanine or preferred equity.
During a recent podcast appearance, Peachtree Group CEO Greg Friedman noted creativity is increasingly important in hotel financing.
This is because traditional bank lenders largely remain sidelined.
"If an asset has great in-place cash flows, there's no challenges on refinancing," he said. "It's when they lack the cash flows and the asset performance isn't fully recalibrated to this new interest rate environment where they're starting to have struggles because the asset values dropped and in a lot of cases they need to bring in additional liquidity."
Experts believe broadly that transactions activity will pick up, buoyed by the overall availability of capital.
"I do think you're going to continue to see capital formation around the space and significant pickup in activity across" mergers and acquisitions, said Michael Bluhm, managing director and global head of real estate, gaming, lodging and leisure for Jefferies.
Meanwhile, elongated project times are decreasing the potential for new hotel development in California.
“That’s what I think is dampening investors’ appetite for new construction, that almost doubling the amount of time you’re paying the carrying costs of your financing,” Atlas President Alan Reay said.
Abroad, lender confidence seems to be increasing, leading to elevated activity in the Asia-Pacific region, in particular.
Deals activity
A Marriott development that is part of a recent $828 million convention district redevelopment in Cincinnati recently got a $540 million financing package, roughly half of which came in the form of public support, development firm Portman Holding announced.
CoStar News' Bryan Wroten recently compiled a list of the most noteworthy deals in the first half of 2026, including the $835 million sale of the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort.
Internationally, Paris-based Tikehau Capital and Lisbon-based Quest Capital secured €200 million ($228 million) in alternative funding from Maslow Capital to launch an in-house operator called Selecto.
World Cup concludes with record host-market hotel rates
New York, Seattle hotels shine in mid-July
Fans of Spain show support to their team ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 final against Argentina on July 18 in New York City. (Getty Images)
https://www.costar.com/article/1261496447/world-cup-concludes-with-record-host-market-hotel-rates?
U.S. hotel performance increased across all primary metrics for the 14th consecutive week in the week of July 12-18.
Revenue per available room (RevPAR) was up 6.3% as average daily rate (ADR) increased by 5.2% and occupancy was up 0.8 percentage points. While the final stages of the World Cup provided a meaningful lift to several major U.S. hotel markets, last week's performance demonstrated that hospitality industry growth remained broader than the tournament itself.
Each day of the week recorded at least a 5% increase in RevPAR compared to the same day last year, and excluding the final week's World Cup host markets, RevPAR was still up 4.4%, supported by a 2.8% increase in ADR and a 1.4 percentage-point increase in occupancy. ADR continued to drive overall growth while occupancy gains reflected an easy comparison against a down year in 2025. Despite last week's 72.4% occupancy being the highest of any week this year, it was 1.2 percentage points below the same week in 2024.
World Cup
In the final full week of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the four markets that hosted a match combined for a tournament high of 23.8% RevPAR growth and a 29% increase in ADR. Although there were technically only three matches played through last Saturday, the tournament's closing weekend generated the strongest hotel performance of the event. The impact of Sunday's final was evident in New York City, where demand peaked the night before the match. Additional compression came from Fanatics Fest, which was held at the Javits Center from July 16-19 and overlapped with the tournament finale.
On Saturday night, New York City recorded a RevPAR of $584.32 due to an ADR of $610.48 and occupancy of 95.7%, which were all records for a single day in a U.S. World Cup host market during the tournament. For context, inflation-adjusted ADR in New York City was $480.77 on the Saturday before the 2014 Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium.
For the seven other U.S. World Cup markets that hosted their final tournament match before last week, hotel performance began to normalize to pre-tournament levels. Combined, these markets were up 6.6% in RevPAR, driven by a 5.3% increase in ADR and a 0.9-percentage-point lift in occupancy, which were all just slightly above the overall U.S. growth rates. The increase in occupancy was a change of pace for many of these markets that experienced business travel displacement throughout the tournament.
Seattle provided the clearest example of this World Cup-driven hotel occupancy vacuum. Over the four weeks in which matches were played in Seattle, occupancy averaged 73.9%, which was 6.9 percentage points below the same period in 2025. In the first full week following the tournament, occupancy rebounded to 90.5%, up 3.3 percentage points year over year. Several overlapping conferences helped drive a 41.5% increase in luxury and upper-upscale group demand, suggesting that many groups delayed or redirected travel during the tournament rather than eliminating it altogether.
Atlanta, meanwhile, continued its World Cup hosting duties as the site of Wednesday's semifinal match between England and Argentina. Occupancy declined 8.2 percentage points year over year, contributing to a 6.4% drop in weekly RevPAR. Despite hosting a sold-out semifinal, Atlanta sold roughly 61,000 fewer hotel room nights than during the same week last year, almost entirely due to a 41.4% decline in group demand. The increase in World Cup-related travel was not enough to offset the absence of citywide conferences that either relocated to other markets or shifted dates to avoid the tournament.
The final week reinforced that the World Cup's hotel impact was primarily rate-driven in active host markets while also displacing portions of traditional business and group travel demand.
Class
U.S. luxury hotels recorded the strongest performance of any chain-scale segment last week. RevPAR increased 15.4%, driven by a 16.1% increase in ADR. No other class exceeded 6% RevPAR growth during the week. Interestingly, luxury hotels were also the only segment to experience an occupancy decline compared to last year, underscoring that the segment's outperformance was driven almost entirely by pricing power.
Global results
Global RevPAR rose for a fourth consecutive week, up 0.7% on a comparable and constant USD basis excluding the U.S. However, the growth rate was the lowest of the four, dragged down by China, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Mexico. RevPAR in the latter two was down by more 13% while China fell by more than 6%. Excluding those three countries/regions, global RevPAR was up 3.5% and in line with the prior 12 weeks.
Mexico continued to see falling demand across the country, with the largest declines in Mexico City, Pacific Central (Acapulco, Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta), and the Mexican Caribbean. All but three markets saw RevPAR decline in the week, and this week’s decrease was the largest since early April.
India's hotel performance continued to lead among the large countries, followed by the Caribbean, Japan, France and Germany. Canada also saw a second week of solid performance growth, but Vancouver — a World Cup market — continued to struggle.
Cole Martin is an Analytics and Insights Specialist at STR, and Isaac Collazo is senior director of analytics at STR.
Checking the replay: World Cup host markets look at tournament's wins, losses for hotels
Local reporting shows variance in performance from city to city
The Argentina team applauds the fans after the FIFA World Cup 2026 semifinal match between England and Argentina at Atlanta Stadium on July 15, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
https://www.costar.com/article/1042391114/checking-the-replay-world-cup-host-markets-look-at-tournaments-wins-losses-for-hotels
And then there were two.
New York City and Miami will field the two remaining 2026 FIFA World Cup matches with 102 final whistles already blown.
Lionel Messi’s Argentina takes on Lamine Yamal’s Spain in the final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 19. Hoteliers in South Florida, however, are more interested in the third-place match being held in Miami on July 18 between England and France.
The biggest World Cup in terms of teams competing and total matches has been a memorable one for soccer fans and hoteliers alike.
North America hosted the tournament for the first time since 1994 and split the hosting duties between 16 markets: 11 in the U.S., three in Mexico and two in Canada.
Hoteliers initially had sky-high expectations for what the global tournament could mean for hotel performance. Those expectations see-sawed in the months leading up to its start, with most settling on the hopes of better performance on an annual basis but not at the level they once anticipated.
Regardless of the final outcome, the event served as a testing ground for the U.S. as it prepares to host several other major sporting competitions over the next decade, including the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2034 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Checking in with the data
Prior to the start of the World Cup, Didio Pequeno, director of hospitality market analytics, Northeast and Midwestern U.S. for CoStar Group, said the hotel impact from the tournament would likely fall between the initial high expectations and the growing pessimism in the months leading up to it.
He said there was too much focus on purported dips in occupancy and not enough attention being drawn toward massive jumps in rate.
"When I talk to people, whether that be general managers or revenue managers around the country, I'm getting a lot of mixed signals, but I think the prevailing thought is that yes, the World Cup will still boost performance through the summer," he said. "Performance is going to vary market by market, some will perform better than others, of course, but it's not really about demand, it's more so about markets being able to drive rate."
Midway through the tournament, Pequeno said performance was playing out as expected.
Only three of the 11 U.S. host markets saw occupancy increase during the first two weeks of the tournament: San Francisco, Dallas and Los Angeles. Every U.S. host market saw increases in average daily rate of at least 14% and revenue per available of at least 12%.
San Francisco was the strongest performing market during this timeframe, with RevPAR up 55%, ADR up 32% and occupancy up 17% year over year.
"A key factor behind this outperformance is the city’s hosting of big conferences, such as the Databricks Data + AI Summit 2026, which was held from June 15 to June 18 and drew over 30,000 attendees. In addition, the city had an easy year-over-year comparison, as hotel performance in the prior year was relatively weak. San Francisco had positive momentum heading into the tournament, bolstered by the region’s strong year-to-date recovery," Pequeno wrote.
In the week of June 21-27, U.S. RevPAR and ADR hit all-time highs of $129 and $178.82, respectively, STR's Cole Martin and Isaac Collazo wrote. This success extended into the knockout stage. For the week of June 28 to July 4, performance continued to improve.
"World Cup markets posted a 23% increase in RevPAR despite hosting nearly 50% fewer matches than the previous week, highlighting the continued impact of the tournament as it moved into the knockout stage," Martin and Collazo wrote.
CNBC reports that "travel bookings have accelerated as the field of competitors narrows and fans converge from around the world to see the high-stakes matches." Spain defeated France in Dallas on Tuesday while Argentina eliminated England Wednesday in Atlanta.
East Rutherford will host the World Cup final on July 19. The impact on the New York City/New Jersey region is expected to be likened to another major sporting event in the U.S.: the Super Bowl.
"You have reports of people paying thousands of dollars to attend matches, travel, hotels and all of that," Pequeno said. "Personally, I think New York is most likely going to absolutely crush it for the final."
Market-level anecdotes
Reporting from local news outlets reveals the economic and hotel impact in host markets has varied.
The economic impact in Arlington, Texas — home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys — has ranged from $18 million to $24 million per match, Brent DeRaad, president of the Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau told CBS News Texas. Arlington Mayor Jim Ross said hotel revenue in June was a record $31 million, easily surpassing the previous high for a month of $23 million.
The Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau said hotel revenue increased more than 50% year over year on the six match days in the city. ADR was up 48% to an average of $367. The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau said room nights booked were down year over year during the World Cup, but overall hotel revenue jumped 15%.
Andrea O'Hara, executive director of the Hotel and Lodging Association of Greater Kansas City, said the hotels closest to fan fest, the stadium and base camp team facilities are the ones performing well in the city, but hotels in the suburbs are falling behind expectations.
South Florida hotels are enjoying a sizeable boost in RevPAR, due in large part to rates pushing higher than in years past.
“The improvement in Miami hotels continues to be on the rate with a little bit from occupancy,” said Jan Freitag, national director, hospitality analytics at the CoStar Group, in an interview with the Miami Herald.
John Fitzpatrick, president and CEO of New York City-based owner and operator Fitzpatrick Hotel Group, told The City Reporter that revenue increased 15% over June last year, well below expectations.
“The World Cup brought business to the city and it helped us, but I was expecting a lot more,” he said. “It’s not the big hype everybody was talking up.”
The Hotel Association of New York said it’s expecting total hotel revenue for the city to increase by $100 million from the World Cup, a third of its $300 million estimate prior the start of the tournament.
In May, 65% of Los Angeles respondents to an American Hotel & Lodging Association report said hotel bookings were lower than a typical summer, the Los Angeles Times reports. There was late demand pickup in the city, though, which made up for some of the initial pessimism.
“Demand has picked up, consistent with a recent trend toward shorter booking windows for events of this caliber,” Rosanna Maietta, CEO of AHLA, said in a statement. “Unlike typical leisure travel, many travelers finalized plans and secured tickets closer to the start of the games.”
Houston First Corporation said hotel occupancy was down 2% in June compared to last year, but average daily rate rose 16%, consistent with the broader trend across the U.S., local ABC13 reports.
“When you have Super Bowl or Final Four, usually the day after they announce, you have no rooms to sell. In this, we were not even close to that,” Emre Ozsut, regional director of sales at The Lancaster Hotel in Houston, said.
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