World Cup could bring $5 billion to U.S., $80 million to Atlanta, study says

By Kristi E. Swartz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Officials trying to bring a World Cup soccer tournament to the United States are touting more than just the well-prepped cities with state-of-the art stadiums.

Hosting the 31-day series of matches would be a $5 billion economic boost to the nation's economy, according to an economic-impact study commissioned by the U.S. Bid Committee.

The tournament would also create between 65,000 and 100,000 jobs total across all of the host cities, said real estate and economic consulting firm AECOM.

Atlanta should take note: the study used the city for the national and international media headquarters, saying that alone would bring in $80 million. The study estimated more than 9,000 journalists would be housed at the media headquarters, dubbed by the World Cup as the International Broadcasting Center, or IBC.

Atlanta is one of 27 cities that are part of the committee's bid package to lure the World Cup to the United States in either 2018 or 2022. The study says hosting five or six soccer matches could bring in between $400 million and $600 million to a metro area's economy and create between 5,000 and 8,000 jobs.

Atlanta is also second in an online petition created by the bid committee to host World Cup soccer matches.

The committee chose AECOM, formerly Economics Research Associates, to look at the projected economic impact because the firm had done so for the 1994 World Cup as well as for several Olympic games.

David Downs, executive director of the U.S. Bid Committee, said his group has shared the economic-impact figures with each of the 27 cities.

The U.S. is competing against Netherlands-Belgium and Portugal-Spain, which have submitted joint bids to host either a 2018 or 2022 World Cup tournament. Qatar and South Korea have submitted bids to host the 2022 tournament.

The 24-member FIFA executive committee will select the hosts on Dec. 2, 2010.