The 2026 edition of the World Cup is over. Congratulations to the Spain national team on a truly dominant showing. Ignore the low final one-nil score: Argentina got utterly spanked in the Final.
Congratulations also to the stadium food vendors. Selling beers for $22 is just excellent business. Exploitive capitalism will continue so long as there are willing participants. Consumers have clearly shown a high price inelasticity, no matter how much they may grumble externally.
The magic of the World Cup happens when the games are on during the workday. The collective attention is drawn to the games. Productivity drops down as close to zero as allowed. (Sorry and thank you, bus drivers.) Even the casual sports observer is glued to the screen. The best games are those that go on to penalty kicks as the decider. During which the entire office comes to a screeching halt to watch the nail-biting tension.
Seismic sporting events like the World Cup and Super Bowl are truly awe-inspiring when you zoom out and think about just how huge a population is tuning into the matches. So it’s no wonder FIFA instituted a hydration break in the middle of each half: the advertising dollars for those three minutes of stoppage must be profitably enormous. Who run the world? Girls marketing.
But for us Americans, it’s back to ignoring the sport of soccer for another four years. I think that’s a good thing. America’s Major League Soccer should remain the relative niche that it is: for the die-hard football fans. This keeps the matches accessible and affordable for attendees. Can you imagine how much tickets would be if El Trafico had the same cachet as El Clasico? Capitalism will get its grubby hands on MLS and price out the peasants.
Until four years later, world.
Secret signal.