in tonight's Spotlight on Business Report the biggest event in the world is headed to New Jersey in just over a year and preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup are well underway the Meadowlands Chamber held their annual tourism conference this week where they said they expect the Global Soccer Tournament will pump major cash into the state ted Goldberg reports the last World Cup final was viewed by the same amount of people as the last 13 Super Bowls combined in 426 days the World Cup comes to the Meadowlands and with it an estimated two billion dollars in economic impact for New Jersey sports tourism continues to be a major driver for live tourism it actually represents 10% of all global tourism spending we all have to be ready to know that there's going to be 6 million people coming to this city wanting to be celebrated and entertained and how do we do that and how do they make sure that they know that not that we're competing from cities obviously but it's like the New York New Jersey did it right this week the Meadowlands Regional Chamber hosted its annual tourism conference centered on what they are calling the biggest World Cup in history this is going to be the biggest sports and entertainment event that has not just ever hit um the region but uh honestly has ever been put on in the world this is an enormous opportunity for us to showcase what I call the Greater Medallands region and all the communities it's a great place to work great place to do business great place to live and we have the opportunity with the influx of people coming for the for the World Cup to show them just what a great place it is here jim Kirkos leads the Melands Regional Chamber and says there's plenty of work to be done over the next year and change our goal is to make sure every hotel room is filled in the region and that local restaurants and attractions and main street businesses and all the communities get to embrace this this big game if you've never celebrated or been to or or or kind of seen World Cup you think our fans are crazy wait till you see some of uh you know these European fans uh rooting for their teams these are all memories that we're all able to say this we were here and we we did it metife Stadium or New York New Jersey Stadium as it will be known hasn't always been easy to visit or leave super Bowl visitors might have bad memories of trying to get around in 2014 but Kirkos is confident that leaders learned their lessons new Jersey Transit and others are working on that to make sure that we can get people from place to place from Saucus Transfer into the sports complex and I have great confidence in Chris Calori and his team uh they're they're working on it they're planning it and I think they understand that this is is the time that we need to shine nj Transit President Chris Caller spoke with us earlier this week and says the agency is making progress on building a temporary bus terminal and transit way linking MetLife Stadium to S Caucus Junction Station we're already ready to award the contract for construction for all the improvements on the what we call the transit way between Sikauus and Melands that contract is underway and that work will start on it even though there's not going to be a permanent bus uh terminal we will have a deployable bus terminal that will be in place by the time the games come the branding for this World Cup campaign is New York New Jersey even though no games are hosted on the other side of the Hudson alex Lazarri who heads the host committee says these games could go a long way in building up New Jerseys brand this World Cup is an opportunity for New Jersey to be able to say when we're hosting an event we can do it ourselves we don't need this to necessarily be a regional event this is the first time the World Cup has had 48 teams and 104 matches with eight being played at Metife a historic event that New Jersey hopes to be ready for in Lynhurst i'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News [Music]