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."