While there has been much back-and-forth regarding underwhelming hotel sales in the lead-up to the World Cup, whether hoteliers and FIFA got greedy with sky-high prices, and if there might be a July surge in tourism to compensate, there has been one clear winner in the first week of matches: beer sales in Boston, courtesy of Scottish soccer fans.
Some of the biggest voices in global travel chided the U.S. for less-than-welcoming policies ahead of the major sporting event, but those concerns seemed to fall by the wayside last week as the World Cup got underway across North America. Scottish fans — the Tartan Army — poured into New England's largest city thanks to a match against Haiti last Saturday and another coming up against Morocco on Friday. While Scotland defeated Haiti 1-0 last weekend, the owners of bar rooms across the city are the ones doing the real celebrating: numerous media reports say Scottish fans are drinking the city dry of all its beer.
NBC News says Sam Adams reported its Boston Taproom ran out of its Boston Lager thanks to Scottish fans imbibing. A representative with the Boston-born beer brand told NBC the Scottish fans drank four times as much over the weekend as the company would normally sell over a four-day holiday stretch like the Fourth of July. The owner of The Dubliner Irish Pub, across the street from Boston City Hall and the FIFA Fan Festival, reported the bar's best week ever and noted even his distributor had run out of beer over the weekend. The chief operating officer of Hennessy's Bar in downtown Boston told the Boston Globe sales were triple that of St. Patrick’s Day. As a Bostonian, this writer can tell you that is quite the accomplishment.
The hefty, hoppy sales shouldn't be a total shock: there were reports of inbound flights and trains to Boston running out of beer thanks to enthusiastic Scottish fans. While it's too soon to know if beer sales translated to hotel rooms and Airbnbs booked (and if that $75,000 World Cup package at Raffles Boston got snagged), it is clear the Scottish takeover — a tidy one, we might add — of Boston has been a World Cup winner.
Slàinte mhath.
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