Ten minutes into the friendly between the United States and Paraguay Saturday night in Chester, Pennsylvania, there was a beautifully placed long ball, a wonderful cross and an easy finish.
The crowd roared with delight and began a sing-song chant — for Paraguay, which had just tied the match.
Approximately half of the more than 17,000 in attendance on this night were supporting Paraguay. It showed the passion fans have for the game. And it proved a point that Fred Mangione, the chief business officer of the New York New Jersey Host Committee, made two nights earlier at a Bank of America-sponsored event.
The area has no idea what’s coming.
The game wasn’t played at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, which will host six World Cup matches, but at beautiful Subaru Park, which is tucked away under the Commodore Barry Bridge that links New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Still, it gave a small glimpse of what it will be like when matches come to both the Link and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, which will host eight matches, including the final.
The beauty of the event, Mangione said, is that unlike a Giants, Jets or Eagles game, each match will have a unique atmosphere.
“Every game will be different,” Mangione said. “If you come to a Giants game, 80% to 90% of those people come every week.
“With this, every match will be a different experience, because the culture and the people that are going to come and turn this place upside down.”
That was evident before, during and after the match Saturday night.
To be sure, Philly does not have a huge Paraguayan population.
Those in attendance creating the buzz came from great distances — New York City, Baltimore and elsewhere, they told BINJE — to do so. They didn’t want to miss a chance to see their national team, not knowing what regional pod Paraguay will be placed when the World Cup draw is announced Dec. 5.
Mangione said such devotion to the sport will be exponentially more evident next summer.
The Host Committee expects millions to travel to the area — almost all of whom will not set foot inside a stadium. The Host Committee has it covered, he said.
Mangione said it expects up to 50,000 fans per day will go to Liberty State Park in Jersey City. And, like the matches themselves, he promises that each day will be different. Thanks to its partnership with Live Nation, there will be different musical acts each day.
Kerri Finnegan, market executive for Northern New Jersey Business Banking at Bank of America, detailed some of the numbers during the BofA event.
“Major events like this generate billions of economic activity, create jobs and bring in visitors from across the globe,” she said. “But the impact doesn’t just touch stadiums and hotels. It ripples across entire communities, reaching businesses of every size and sector. This tournament is projected to generate over $2 billion in economic activity in this region, is projected to generate 14,000 jobs in this region and bring 1 million visitors.”
Those numbers delighted the business leaders in the room.
“That’s a real opportunity as a business owner, whether you run a restaurant, a retail shop, a service business, or something completely unrelated to sports,” Finnegan said. “There is an opportunity to use this wave of excitement to drive growth, and we want to help you take advantage of that opportunity.”
Bank of America is committed to helping local businesses and leaders explore how to capitalize on these opportunities for sustainable growth, Finnegan said.
B of A doesn’t need to supply the passion.
Two U.S. National team legends, Tab Ramos and Tony Meola, who also spoke that evening at MetLife Stadium — agreed with the basic concept: The area has no idea how big the World Cup is going to be.
Meola, thinking back to the three World Cup teams he was on (including the 1994 event in the U.S) and the World Cups he has covered as an analyst since, said nothing will compare to next summer, which promises to be the biggest sporting event ever held.
“This place is going to get taken over,” he told the crowd at the B of A event. “And when I say, ‘This place,’ I don’t just mean MetLife Stadium.”
Meola reminded the audience that the 1994 World Cup is still the most attended World Cup in history — and that the 2026 version (which will feature twice as many nations) — will easily set a new record.
Saturday night provided just a tiny glimpse.
The U.S. eventually won, 2-1, surviving a bench-clearing stoppage-time scrum that showed the intensity that is coming.
Of course, the match — a tuneup for two nations that already have qualified for 2026 — wasn’t about the result. It was about setting the stage for next year’s event.
Ramos, who has so many fond memories of 1994, when the sport was introduced to so many, said next summer will be a different level.
The sport has grown tremendously in the last three decades, he said.
Ramos told the business leaders at the event that they need to be ready.
“I know that soccer obviously still has a long way to go, but I want you to be prepared for this,” he said. “Soccer is going to explode next summer.
“If you can just fast forward to six months from now, you’ll see it everywhere. Every commercial will be about soccer. All the talk shows will be about soccer. It will be the next step for soccer.
“You just have to be prepared for what you’re going to see, because next summer is going to be crazy.”
