Between June 11 and July 19, 2026, according to FIFA's official projections, roughly 10 million international visitors will arrive in the United States for the FIFA World Cup. According to FIFA and Boston Consulting Group, approximately 6.5 million of those will attend matches inside stadiums. The other 3.5 million — plus domestic travelers — will spend the surrounding hours walking through host city neighborhoods: going to restaurants, shopping, searching for a place to watch the next game.
They'll walk past your window.
The question isn't whether there's foot traffic. There will be more international foot traffic in Dallas, Houston, Miami, and New York this summer than any comparable 39-day period in the last three decades. The question is what they'll see when they look at your storefront — and whether what they see is enough to make them stop.
This piece covers the mechanics of storefront visibility during major events, the specific opportunity window display screens create, and the content strategy that converts sidewalk passersby into customers.
The $280 million in projected food and beverage spending (Travel Daily News / Data Appeal analysis) represents about half of the total $556 million projected for US host city spending. The other half is accommodations and transportation. That means every restaurant, bar, café, and food retailer in a host city is competing for a share of the largest consumer spending category in this event — and competing against every other F&B operator who's also trying to capture it.
Dallas alone projects $2+ billion in total economic impact from 9 matches. East Rutherford (NY/NJ) projects $67 million in direct visitor spending for 8 matches including the Final. In cities like Miami, Atlanta, and Seattle, the economic activity is concentrated in the weeks the tournament runs — not spread over a year.
The NYC Hospitality Alliance's survey of 130+ venues after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar found that 75% of respondents reported increased revenue. But one in four saw no meaningful increase — despite the same general foot traffic patterns affecting everyone in the area.
The pattern among underperformers: they didn't look like a destination from outside. No visible game-viewing setup. No obvious match-night signage. No communication from the storefront that said "come in — we're part of this."
Foot traffic is necessary but not sufficient. What converts foot traffic into customers is the storefront itself — its visibility, its messaging, its energy read from the outside. A store with blacked-out windows or a static banner that says "OPEN" will be walked past by 10 million fans who needed a reason to stop.
A standard television or commercial display has a brightness of 300–500 nits. In a dim room, that's perfectly readable. In a sun-facing storefront window in June, it's nearly invisible. Direct sunlight measures approximately 100,000 lux of ambient illumination — it overwhelms a standard screen entirely.
This is why window display screens are purpose-built with dramatically higher brightness ratings:
| Display Type | Typical Brightness | Daylight Readability |
|---|---|---|
| Standard commercial TV | 300–500 nits | Washes out in sun-facing windows |
| Commercial digital signage display | 700–1,000 nits | Marginal in direct sun; OK in shade |
| High-brightness window display | 2,500–5,000 nits | Fully readable in direct sunlight |
The World Cup runs June 11 through July 19 — peak summer daylight. Matches are scheduled throughout the day and evening to accommodate global broadcast time zones. A window display that washes out by 11 AM is invisible during the morning and afternoon matches. A 2,500+ nit display is readable from the sidewalk in midday sun — the difference between being seen and being ignored.
The mistake most storefronts make during major events is generic: a poster that says "Watch the World Cup here" or a handwritten sign announcing a special. These communicate a fact. They don't create urgency, and they don't speak to international visitors who may not read English fluently.
A high-brightness window-facing display in a retail environment. Standard screens wash out in direct sunlight — window displays are engineered specifically for this.
A window display running dynamic content can do the following:
This is the difference between a static sign and a window display: the static sign shows the same message to the Argentine fan arriving at 9 AM and the English fan arriving at 8 PM. A managed window display shows the right message for the right match at the right time — automatically, without staff intervention.
Half of all World Cup ticket buyers are expected to be international. Looking at the top ticket-requesting countries outside the host nations — Colombia, England, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France — the majority of traveling fans will be navigating US cities in a second language.
CSA Research found that 40% of consumers will never complete a purchase from a business that doesn't communicate in their language. For a walk-in business, this doesn't mean a website in Spanish — it means your storefront communicates in the language of the person standing on the sidewalk.
A window display in Miami running content in English and Portuguese covers the largest Colombia and Brazil fan contingencies expected in that city. In Dallas, Spanish-language content is the single highest-leverage addition given the heavy Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina fan presence. In New York, rotating between English, Portuguese, and French covers 80%+ of expected international visitors.
Switching languages on a digital window display takes seconds from a dashboard. It's not a production project — it's a content update.
"The window is your first and fastest sales rep. It works 24/7, never asks for a break, and can speak Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English depending on who's standing in front of it."
Not every storefront faces the same foot traffic dynamics. Here's how different business types should think about window display investment during the 2026 tournament:
The full FIFA 2026 match schedule will be finalized once the group stage draw is complete. But the framework for content management is plannable now:
A window display managed through SeenLabs runs all of this from a single interface. Templates are built once and scheduled automatically; your staff doesn't need to touch the system on match nights.
A high-brightness window display is a commercial screen engineered for visibility in direct sunlight or bright ambient light. Standard screens output 300–500 nits of brightness. High-brightness window displays output 2,500–5,000 nits — making them readable from the sidewalk in full daylight. They're purpose-built for storefront windows facing streets.
Managed window display systems like SeenLabs provide content templates and a dashboard for scheduling. You don't need design experience. The typical setup for a World Cup program involves 4–6 base content templates (match day, off day, specials, multilingual variants) built once and rotated automatically by schedule.
Yes. Updates happen through a web dashboard or mobile app — similar to updating a social media post. A typical content update (changing a special or adding a match promotion) takes under two minutes. With schedule-based automation, you can pre-load weeks of content and have it run without manual intervention.
Procurement and installation typically takes 2–4 weeks. For the June 11 tournament start, this means ordering by late April at the latest. Earlier is better — you'll want time to run test content, train whoever manages updates, and ensure the display position and angle are optimized for your specific storefront and street orientation.
Yes. World Cup fan movement in host cities is distributed throughout the city — not just stadium-adjacent. Fan zones, watch parties, and general tourism spread visitors across entire metro areas. And the window display's value extends well beyond the 39-day tournament: it runs your promotions, new arrivals, and seasonal content 365 days per year.
SeenLabs Window Display — 3,000+ nit brightness, visible in direct sunlight
SeenLabs deploys and manages high-brightness window display systems for storefronts across host cities. We handle installation, content setup, and ongoing management.
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