Matt Mahan suffered a disappointing finish in California’s gubernatorial primary last month, but the World Cup has offered the mayor of Silicon Valley’s largest city the chance of an immediate remontada.
His home San Jose, riding a sports tourism surge, stands to gain more economically today as the U.S. national team opens knockout play in Santa Clara. Mahan told POLITICO on Friday that he had not yet attended a match in the bordering city, but had been soaking in the action at watch parties in San Jose, where attendees have been so numerous they’ve begun watching from the tops of nearby parking garages to get a better view.
A FIFA official watch party in downtown San Jose’s San Pedro Square is streaming all 104 games and has hosted more than 300,000 fans, by the city’s count.
“It’s been just an incredible experience,” Mahan said. “We’re on track to double, if not triple, the amount of attendance we expected.”
A shooting a block from the venue Sunday evening was a reminder of the security challenges posed by such large gatherings, but city officials said the deadly incident wasn’t connected to the event and didn’t occur while matches were being streamed. Watch parties resumed on Monday and are set to carry on through the tournament — with an additional screen to spread out the crowds.
The U.S. match against Bosnia and Herzegovina today will be the last of six tournament games played in the South Bay, capping a banner sports year in which the region hosted the Super Bowl and NCAA March Madness games. San Jose officials tweaked their plans for the lineup’s longest and only international competition based on how the other events went, adding TVs to watch parties and looking for ways to limit congestion, Mahan said.
“One of the things we learned during the NFL Super Bowl experience was that it got fairly congested in the middle of the action, and we want to spread people out a little bit more, and so we’ve, we’ve got multiple screens up there, very large screens, so there’s no reason to crowd up front,” Mahan said.
Local governments coordinated to plan for the string of high-profile events, and San Jose hired dedicated staff to prepare for them. The planning, overseen by former Olympic short track speed skater Tommy O’Hare, took two years, while the city became involved in seeking the U.S., Mexico and Canada’s joint bid to host the World Cup over a decade ago.
The city embarked on a marketing campaign to attract visitors to San Jose Mineta International Airport — a lesser-known hub than SFO but one just minutes driving from Levi’s Stadium. Mahan opted not to name names over security concerns, but he said “a ton” of foreign dignitaries have landed at SJC during the tournament.
Representatives from China, South Korea and a half-dozen other countries were set to attend an overlapping summit in San Jose on international innovation and investment this week, mingling with expected attendees from Bay Area tech giants including NVIDIA and Apple.
But the mayor — a Democrat who finished sixth in the state’s jungle primary for governor in June — said the focus during the tournament has been less on fostering international relationships than on the fan experience.
“Our North Star has been, you know, whether you can afford a ticket to the big game, we want you to be able to have a fun, accessible, and memorable World Cup experience in downtown San Jose,” Mahan said. “I think we’ve proven that we’re offering that.”