Atlanta Businesses Are Betting Big on the World Cup

Cyrei Daniel had been trying to get the city’s attention for months — not just for her bakery, Sweet Me Good, but for the entire block.

When the city announced Atlanta would host eight FIFA World Cup matches, Daniel was ready to capture the economic bump from the extra visitors this summer. She applied for grants to make improvements to her storefront and marketing ahead of the tournament and received two. She also showed up to city council meetings to push for how the city planned to support small businesses during the games.

Daniel’s bakery sits on Edgewood Avenue in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn corridor, one block from the King Center, on the streetcar line that runs straight to downtown. A million people visit the King Center every year. Two weeks before the World Cup, there were no banners, no flags, nothing on the street to signal the tournament was weeks away.

Economists and city officials have pointed to the tournament as a once-in-a-generation economic opportunity for the entire country. But for the small business owners who make up the backbone of Atlanta’s neighborhoods, the question isn’t whether money is coming — it’s whether any of it will reach the ground where they’re standing.

The World Cup is a great economic opportunity for local businesses

Atlanta is one of 16 host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with eight matches running from June 15 through July 15. The Metro Atlanta Chamber estimates 65,000 spectators per match, with at least 520,000 people expected across all eight games.

Ona Utuama started planning a year ago. Her eyewear brand, Tribal Eyes, is carried in Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, and she’s designed flag-printed sunglasses representing each country competing in the tournament, planning to vend at a brand activation near Mercedes-Benz Stadium during the first qualifier round, June 15 through June 27.

She’s also a physician. She built CollabMD Direct Primary Care specifically for international visitors who won’t carry American insurance — a cash-pay clinic with QR codes distributed through hotels, Airbnbs, taxi drivers, and Uber hosts, directing visitors to same-day appointments and telemedicine options in multiple languages.

Between the eyewear and the clinic, Utuama is projecting $50,000 to $90,000 in revenue from the tournament — and she’s built two separate businesses specifically designed to capture it.

The clinic’s World Cup page will offer language selection, IV hydration services, and same-day appointment availability throughout the summer. The clinic is designed to serve as an on-call doctor for hotel guests who have forgotten their medications or need care for minor medical issues, without having to navigate the American healthcare system. She approached the Marriott Marquis, which told her they love the idea and will follow up, and submitted a capability statement to Hartsfield-Jackson airport, which has been exploring a potential on-site clinic.

Between the eyewear and the clinic, Utuama is projecting $50,000 to $90,000 in revenue from the tournament.

Local businesses are going after tourists

Brian Lee started planning in late 2024. His company, Scratch Food Group, makes plant-based food products sold at Walmart, and he saw the World Cup as an opportunity to introduce his brand to a global audience — and hit a revenue goal of $30,000 during the tournament.

He attended the city meetings, then built his own strategy rather than wait for the city to hand him one. By spring, he had secured a spot at a corporate FIFA partner’s watch party, lined up pop-ups with Atlanta Breakfast Club and the Belt Hub at Ponce City Market, and won a Beltline Business Ventures grant to launch a mobile Scratch Cafe cart. He invested $15,000 in preparation — mobile carts, a commercial doughnut machine, mobile proofers, smallwares, and access to a new commercial kitchen — and brought on additional staff.

For Lee, the World Cup is as much about the long game as it is about the summer bump. The Scratch Cafe cart concept he’s launching through the Beltline Business Ventures grant isn’t just a World Cup play. He’s building it to operate at Atlanta Breakfast Club, the Belt Hub, and other venues in the city long after the tournament ends.

“I wish someone had told me to stop waiting on the city to figure out the World Cup plan for small businesses,” Lee told Business Insider. “I should have just plowed ahead.”

He’s honest about the risk. When asked if zero benefit from the whole thing would surprise him, he didn’t hesitate. “It wouldn’t surprise me,” he said. “There are so many unknown variables.”

Some businesses have been struggling to stay open

Seven minutes from the airport, Vanetta Roy has been doing it herself. The owner of Eat My Biscuits in East Point launched World Cup merchandise, redesigned her staff uniforms — clean white shirts, bow ties, everyone crisp — and added a limited-edition lobster biscuit called the “Gold Getter” to the menu for the summer. She’s not thinking about whether East Point foot traffic will find her. She’s thinking about what she wants the world to know about her brand when it walks through the door.

If the World Cup doesn’t deliver the boost she’s hoping for, Roy isn’t panicking. “Business as usual,” she said. In the meantime, she’s focused on making sure international visitors can find her — optimizing her Google Business Profile so Eat My Biscuits shows up when tourists search for food near the airport corridor.

Small businesses in Atlanta were struggling even before World Cup planning began, and that’s why so many are hoping for a bump in revenue during the monthlong tournament.

According to a September 2025 CBS News Atlanta report, Roy lost approximately $200,000 compared to the prior year after East Point began a beautification project in February that placed a fence directly in front of her restaurant, cutting off street visibility. She laid off staff and took on multiple roles herself to keep the business open, and her rent is behind.

Atlanta last hosted an event of this scale in 1996. Lee, who has closely tracked World Cup preparations, noted that small businesses largely missed the financial wave from the Olympics — and said Mayor Dickens has publicly vowed that the World Cup will be different.