Thomas-Henry asks if World Cup was as successful as possible

And I do appreciate the outreach.

I know you had come before this committee several times in preparing for World Cup, and it was literally a new administration, and it was six months later is the World Cup.

So I understand there was a lot of planning and do appreciate the outreach.

So my next question, it's not a right or wrong, and don't take it any bad way.

But do you think it was as successful as it could have been?

I mean, as we've heard, our businesses didn't have the opportunities that they would have liked, and not just our small businesses.

We had organizations that hosted block parties annually, and because we were getting ready for this large event and visitors, they were no longer to do what they had done in their hometown year after year after year.

And in addition to do if you think it was successful, what can we do differently, i.e.

2028 when the Olympics come?

How what are the lessons learned from the World Cup that we're going to take to 2028?

Deeply appreciate that question.

And it's the question we should.

all be asking ourselves and looking forward to working together on future major events.

I think we believe that the World Cup was an enormous success.

It was a boom for the city's economy, adding $2 billion to the local economy, supporting over 12,000 jobs, and increasing foot traffic to our sports bars by 16%.

It was also a celebration for everyone, right?

We had more than 100 free watch parties across the cities with our parks, plazas, and public markets hosting tens of thousands of people.

And really want to shout out EDC activating public markets.

Really want to shout out New York City Tourism and SBS.

We had a borough grant program for borough presidents to support local businesses in their area and host events.

And we turned city streets into pickup games, opened up our soccer fields throughout the entire night so that people could play 24-7, thus increasing access to recreational space for folks who don't ordinarily get that opportunity.

And we really tried to focus on the five boroughs, right?

So we drove foot traffic across all five boroughs and saw the stats that you mentioned and I think would really note when it comes to lessons learned.

We've talked a lot about this and also welcome others'perspective here.

We came in in January, and as you mentioned, the World Cup started in June.

And so I do think that there was a lot that was constrained by or guided by decisions of a previous administration, which is exactly what it is.

And with that in mind, we strove to work 24-7 to make sure that this was a joyful celebration for the city and the city benefited.

So I don't think it will surprise anyone to hear it.

that a reflection is we wish we had been mayor one year ago and would be able to start earlier.

And I think that's absolutely what we plan to do for future events, the Olympics, hopefully the Women's World Cup many years in the future.

And just thinking through how we can make sure that major events with the proper advanced planning can really benefit our small businesses as well as the residents of New York.

I would also add that a lesson learned that we spoke about on the coordination side was the benefit of having coordination directly in City Hall to make sure that across agencies, both for logistics, preparedness, infrastructure, but also for a coordinated campaign.

That stretched out the city and enabled the city to celebrate and was that point of contact for the host committee, for New Jersey, New York, in the region, I think was of enormous benefit to the city and really led to things being able to move very quickly in the time that we had.

And happy to also turn it over to anyone else for other reflections and would also love to hear from y'all's perspective.