World Cup crowd in San Jose was like "St. Patrick's Day for 20 days in a row," business says

Levi's Stadium, formerly and temporarily 'San Francisco Bay Area Stadium', hosted six World Cup matches with a total attendance of 411,345.

While a stadium is built for such crowds, that wasn't the case about six miles away at San Pedro Square, where watch parties brought in almost twice as many people as the matches in Santa Clara.

Pre-World Cup estimates by organizers indicated about 350,000 visits to San Pedro Square and downtown San Jose. By July 15, data showed more than 900,000 recorded visits to the area.

 "I mean, definitely nothing I can compare it to. I feel like it was St. Patrick's Day for 20 days in a row," David Mulvehill, the owner of O'Flaherty's and COO of Nuvo Hospitality, said.

 Sitting on North San Pedro Street, O'Flaherty's was one of multiple bars and restaurants in the heart of San Pedro Square's watch parties.

Bars across San Jose and San Francisco saw a 15.6% increase in weekly visits during the World Cup, according to a report by Placer.ai. Analyzing data compared to same period in 2025, the report found that the Bay Area (categorized as San Jose and San Francisco in the analysis) saw the second-highest increase in traffic among all host cities nationwide.

 In San Francisco, the Crossing at East Cut saw about 8,000 people for Sunday's final World Cup match, according to executive director Andrew Robinson. It was the largest event they've ever hosted, which includes prior events for Warriors games, 415 Day, and the Super Bowl.

Bars and food trucks at the Crossing at East Cut also reported a more-than 300% increase in business during the month of June, compared to last year. Similar figures are expected for July, according to Robinson.

 "The Crossing has long been the East Cut neighborhood's living room, and the World Cup really turned it into sort of Downtown's living room," Robinson said. "It really was a phenomenal turnout of people, and good for our businesses and foot traffic in the neighborhood."

The Bay Area Host Committee tells CBS News Bay Area it has commissioned a post-event report to analyze the World Cup's economic impacts across the region. It is expected to be released within the next few weeks, according to BAHC.