SAN JOSE — A prime South Bay enterprise chief hopes to attract up a sport plan to make sure San Jose can rating loads of financial advantages from upcoming sports activities mega-events.
The Tremendous Bowl, a number of World Cup matches and a spherical of the lads’s school basketball match are all slated to be held within the San Jose space in 2026
San Jose is making an attempt to craft methods for the town’s financial system to learn from these occasions.
To succeed, the Bay Space’s largest metropolis must shift gears on the way it views main sports activities occurrences as half of a giant financial tapestry slightly than as particular person strands, within the view of San Jose Chamber of Commerce President Leah Toeniskoetter.
A lot of the work is already underway. However an occasion on Thursday is poised to kick off main discussions about San Jose’s quest for successful financial methods when the three occasions happen.
The San Jose Chamber of Commerce is holding its annual Leaders and Legacy membership dinner within the metropolis’s downtown. The occasion is slated to happen on the Marriott Downtown San Jose.
The chamber’s occasion features a dialogue panel moderated by San Jose State College President Cynthia Teniente-Matson. The panelists had been slated to be Bay FC Chief Government Officer Brady Stewart, San JOse Earthquakes President Jared Shawlee, San Jose Sharks President Jonathan Becher, and San Francisco 49ers Government Vice President of Advertising and marketing Stephanie Dittmer Rogers.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan was additionally scheduled to talk.
“As we gear up for major sporting milestones in 2026, including Super Bowl LX, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and the FIFA World Cup, we’ll explore the opportunities these events create for local businesses and our broader community,” the San Jose Chamber of Commerce acknowledged.
Levi Stadium is slated to host the Tremendous Bowl and the FIFA World Cup, whereas the SAP Middle in downtown San Jose is because of be the venue for a number of the school basketball March Insanity video games.
The work should get into full swing virtually instantly, particularly since one of many occasions, the Tremendous Bowl, is slated to happen in roughly a 12 months from now.
“These are three phenomenal events, potentially generating half a billion dollars of economic impact for Santa Clara County,” Toenisoetter stated.
San Jose should maneuver round obstacles that instantly pose a problem to the Bay Space’s largest metropolis.
For one factor, San Jose’s conference middle is just too small to host main conferences resembling these tied to a big occasion such because the Tremendous Bowl. Plus, the South Bay metropolis lacks adequate resort rooms for a lot of big occasions.
“We still miss out to San Francisco because the NFL Super Bowl experience requires a certain amount of square footage that we cannot offer at the San Jose Convention Center,” Toeniskoetter stated.
The resort disparity is especially stark.
“San Francisco also has 30,000 luxury hotel rooms and we have 4,500,” Toeniskoetter stated. “The leaders of all the NFL teams have very high-level requirements for hotel rooms. We can’t offer that.”
The NCAA males’s basketball match will land on the SAP Middle in downtown San Jose, she famous.
“We will definitely directly benefit because that’s in San Jose,” Toeniskoetter stated.
The soccer matches for the World Cup are additionally going to be essential.
“To have six World Cup games is a huge win for the South Bay,” Toeniskoetter stated. “That could bring in $300 million by. itself.”
Plus, general, 108 matches are scheduled for the World Cup, she estimated.
“We want to show all 108 matches in San Jose in some way, shape, or form,” Toeniskoetter stated. “We can shut down a street and have game watches for every event. That level of coordination is a real opportunity to show off downtown San Jose for such an amazing event.”
The planning for these three occasions may kick off main long-term adjustments in San Jose’s means to make use of sports activities to bolster its native financial system, she stated.
“We have to make larger investments so our area is even more attractive to these national and international sports events,” Toeniskoetter stated. “We have to create literal leisure districts across the arenas and stadiums within the space.
