Total spending at Toronto bars and restaurants was only three per cent higher than usual during the World Cup
Okay, but you can’t put a price on community spirit, right?
Data collected by payment processing company Moneris indicates that the World Cup hasn’t been as prosperous as Toronto business owners had hoped, at least not among local customers.
As reported by the Toronto Star, “spending by international tourists in the Toronto area has been up in several key categories since the World Cup kicked off, but total spending by locals, domestic tourists and international tourists has only been marginally higher than the rate of inflation.”
Related: Is hosting the World Cup worth the expense? Most Torontonians say no, according to a recent poll
Between June 12 and 26, overall spending at Toronto bars and restaurants was just three per cent higher than the same period in 2025. However, payments made by customers using foreign-issued credit and debit cards at Toronto bars and restaurants increased by 34 per cent compared to the same time last year.
The Moneris data also indicated that spending went up for groceries and mass merchandisers (such as Walmart or Costco), but down for apparel.
Moneris’s vice-president of business development and data service, Sean McCormick, told the Star that the World Cup’s economic impact was minor in comparison to Taylor Swift’s 2024 Eras Tour residency, during which the pop star performed six sold-out concerts in the city. (Toronto hosted an equivalent six World Cup matches.)
“During the Eras Tour, we saw 90 per cent increases on apparel, and big rises at bars and restaurants,” McCormick said. “Taylor Swift is a phenomenon. Panama vs. Ghana is not a phenomenon.”
Oh well! It was fun!
Related: Half of Toronto’s hotel rooms are unbooked heading into the World Cup
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
