NYC's Office-Space Boom

**Brian Lehrer** (0:10)
Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we'll talk about the local economy, a couple of things. One, the buzz of the World Cup may not have worn off yet. Congratulations to Spain, who beat Argentina in the final. But did the World Cup spark the New York area economy? Greg David covers business and economics for the news organization, The City Reporter. He also runs the business and economics reporting program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
And he's got an article in The City Reporter that asks whether the hype about the potential economic boom of the World Cup actually came to fruition. Spoiler alert, one thing he says is that sports bars cashed in. And full disclosure, I was one of those customers yesterday at a Mexican restaurant that had both outdoor seating and a view of the TV screen showing the game. That was heaven and big fun to be out there for that with only moderate wildfire smoke after the days that came before. Another story Greg's tracking has to do with office space. One headline, big business is leasing record office space in Mamdani's New York.
Greg David joins me now to talk about both those stories and take some of your calls and texts. Greg, thanks for coming on. As always, welcome back to WNYC.

**Greg David** (1:24)
Thank you. And Brian, I was obsessed with the World Cup like so many others. I would watch like two or three games a day.

**Brian Lehrer** (1:31)
That's a lot of sports watching. Well, what did you think about Argentina being maybe the biggest sore losers at the end of the match since, I don't know, Trump's Thursday night speech?

**Greg David** (1:46)
I got to admit, Brian, I turned off the TV because I didn't want to watch Trump. So I missed all that.
My dean here at the J School is from Argentina, so I was worried whether emotional reaction was.

**Brian Lehrer** (2:02)
And listeners, you can help us report this story. Did you notice a World Cup bump or bust at your bar, restaurant or hotel this summer? Did you spend money, make money, or have any other economic anecdote or take on the World Cup from a local economy standpoint? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.
Any Argentinians, any Spaniards listening right now who want to say anything or anyone else? We can do a little World Cup sports debrief here, even as we basically talk about the economy. Or if you have a question for Greg David, also about the upswing in office leasing in the first months of Mamdani's New York, our other main topic with him, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 call or text. So Greg, you saw World Cup dud coming for the New York economy. You were on with us a few months ago predicting that. Then better than you first thought as the tournament began. So in the end, how much did the World Cup pay off for or cost New York City and vicinity?

**Greg David** (3:20)
Well, first of all, Brian, you are the most typical example of why there was a boost to the New York economy, or at least to the bars and restaurants. So the bars and restaurants who had great televisions and attracted crowds had an enormous summer. Bar owners told us that their business was double what it usually was, or almost double.
And that's a big deal for them and for their workers.
One owner told me that he had just named a bartender and she made like $1,000 one day. And he said, my workers don't make $1,000. But Brian, you're a New Yorker. You were spending money yesterday that you would have spent somewhere else. So to the extent the bars were filled with New Yorkers, which is most of who attended, it wasn't added money to the New York City economy. It was just money that was spent at the bars that would have been spent elsewhere. So what else do we know? We know that FIFA projected a $3 billion boost to the New York area and New Jersey economy. We don't know exactly what the numbers were, but it came nowhere close to that. So the Hotel Association for New York took a look at that figure and said, the hotels should have a $300 million boost. Well, the best numbers are they had a $100 million boost. So there was some added gains, but nothing like that.

**Brian Lehrer** (4:59)
That goes to a quote you have of hotel CEO John Fitzpatrick, who told you the World Cup, helped us but I was expecting a lot more, unquote, right?

**Greg David** (5:10)
That's exactly right. And the hotels were, you know, they posted these enormously high room rates early on, but they had to cut them as it got closer because they didn't fill their rooms. The room, the big boost in occupancy came really late in each one of the periods when the matches were being held. Then you have the cost issue. So even before the World Cup, the City Controller estimated that it would be a loss for the city, that the added tax revenue for the city government, that the added tax revenue would not cover the added costs. And that was based on numbers that didn't realize. So for city government, at least, I think the cost exceeded the gains. Now, there was so much going on in July that it is going to be hard to separate everything. You know, the cops were on 12-hour shifts for what? Three weeks, four weeks? For this.