All eyes are on the Garden State this week as New Jersey prepares to host its first of eight World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium, which has been temporarily renamed New York New Jersey Stadium. Businesses are preparing for an expected 1 million tourists over the tournament’s course, and they’re getting an assist from the Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce.
President and CEO Jim Kirkos is spearheading those efforts, and says the chamber is using lessons from the 2014 Super Bowl, when fans flocked to New York City for food, drinks and entertainment.
“Back at Super Bowl, we got a few things wrong,” Kirkos said. “We expected that, just because the game was in town, all this influx of business and activity would kind of come to us, and that wasn’t correct.
“This time, we decided that we were gonna create some fan experiences for the local residents, to touch and feel the World Cup, and for local businesses to have a role in that,” he added.
What it came up with are Flag Cities fan festivals, with live entertainment, cultural programming and match-day viewing experiences. Locations include Riggin Memorial Field in East Rutherford; Laurel Hill Park in Secaucus; Columbus Drive in Jersey City; Stephen Gregg Park in Bayonne; Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson; Mulberry Commons in Newark; and Overpeck Park in Leonia.
Local businesses are working to balance profits against enough staff and supplies to meet demand. Kirkos says their efforts are expected to drive more area activity.
“It’s all of the restaurants, dining and catering, attractions and retail — and we’ve been working on seminars on how to do marketing, how to improve their social media, making sure that the domestic and international visitors can find them on the internet,” Kirkos said. “We have a visitor guide. We’re helping them promote who’s doing a watch party, who’s doing special events at their places.”
Less than a week before the first match, a challenge remains. Several regional hotels have available rooms — a disappointment for Kirkos.
“We’re doing everything we can to continue to try to drive hotel stays,” he said. “In fact, we recently dropped a cute ad in a London media publication that says, ‘Never mind the bullocks, stay in the Meadowlands!’” That’s a reference to the name of the 1977 classic debut album by British punk pioneers the Sex Pistols.
“So we’re trying to get people’s attention to come here and have a good time.”
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