Butch McGuire’s, a downtown Chicago pub, plans to hold watch parties for some World Cup soccer games. But the family-owned business does not order more beer.
“Soccer is growing here in the United States and there will be games that draw big crowds,” said Bobby McGuire, who took over the business from his father 20 years ago. “But it’s still not likely to be as big as a basketball playoff or football playoff for us.”
Beer companies are betting big on the World Cup, spending tens of millions of dollars on sponsorships and advertising deals to promote their brands during the 104 games played in the United States, Canada and Mexico in June and July. And they count on bar owners like Mr. McGuire.
“We want to make a big push on bars because the bars will be the places where people will gather to watch the games,” Michel Doukeris, CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev, told investors and Wall Street analysts on an earnings call in early May. “And there’s nothing like seeing your team around friends and family at a cozy bar over a cold one.”
The heavy promotion around the World Cup is an attempt to reverse – at least briefly – years of declining beer consumption. From 2014 to 2024, global beer consumption fell by 3 percent, according to IWSR, a company that tracks the alcohol industry. But in the United States, consumption plummeted by 17 percent.
Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, is spending more than $110 million on advertising and FIFA sponsorships to make its Michelob Ultra and other brands the official drinks of the tournament, according to analysts.
Still, the outlook for beer sales remains unclear, days from the first game on June 11. Soccer is not as popular in the country as soccer or basketball. Expensive tickets for matches as well as high travel costs and concerns about immigration policies for tourists have dampened early expectations for attendance.
“The host cities will probably have more consumption of beer and alcoholic beverages than others, but it’s going to depend on the number of travelers arriving, and right now the forecasts are all over the place,” said Taylor Barnebey, vice president of marketing at Total Wine & More, which has more than 2,500 varieties of beer in its nearly 300 stores nationwide.
Mr. Barnebey said the company increased orders for all of its alcoholic beverages. “I can promise you there will be more beer sales in June than there were last June. I just can’t tell you the numbers,” he said.
Mr. McGuire said he’s not worried if interest in the games picks up. He gets beer delivered twice a week and can easily increase his order. “They’re not going to sell out of beer,” he said.
Historically, summertime has been the beer industry’s biggest season in the US. But apart from a small bump in 2020 and 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, beer consumption has been in a slump for years.
Countless factors are driving the decline. Young consumers do not drink as much as older generations. Other consumers turn to cannabis or ready-to-drink hard seltzers, teas and cocktails, a relatively new category. Consumption of these beverages increased 58 percent from 2019 to 2024, according to the IWSR.
And consumers are cutting back on non-essential purchases like beer due to higher grocery and gas prices.
“The macroeconomic environment – money in the wallet – is the single biggest indicator of whether consumers are going to drink more or less, and right now people don’t have more money in their wallets,” said Marten Lodewijks, the president of the IWSR.
Still, the Brewers World Cup is a giant, multi-week, Olympics-meets-Super-Bowl sporting event that FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, projects will attract a global audience of six billion.
There are early signs that beer orders will increase during the World Cup. In April, a leading indicator of beer purchases expanded for the first time in 21 months, Lester Jones, chief economist for the National Beer Wholesalers Association, said in an email.
“Host cities for World Cup events will certainly see an increase in both on- and off-premise beer sales as consumers enjoy the games,” he said.
Beer industry analysts say Americans’ attention to the tournament will largely depend on how far the American team advances.
Although there is a tepid reception in the US, the games are likely to attract large viewing figures in countries such as Mexico, where beer consumption has risen 48 percent over the past decade, and Brazil, where it rose 16 percent, according to data from the IWSR.
The global audience will be important to Anheuser-Busch InBev, as 85 percent of its beer is consumed outside of North America.
InBev, which declined to comment, has been a beer sponsor of the World Cup for 40 years. Earlier this month, Mr. Doukeris, the CEO, told investors on the earnings call that the tournament had contributed significantly to beer consumption, depending on its location and the time of year it was held.
The last World Cup, in Qatar in 2022, was challenging for beer sales, partly because the games were held in November and at the 11th hour the conservative Middle Eastern monarchy banned the sale of alcohol in the stadiums.
The centerpiece of this year’s Michelob Ultra campaign is a commercial featuring a host of veteran and emerging soccer stars, including Argentina’s Lionel Messi and American star Christian Pulisic, playing a match in a hotel lobby over a bucket of beer. In the end, actor Billy Bob Thornton comes down from his room to claim – and share – his Michelob Ultra.
“There are maybe 10 different players in that place, from legendary guys from Mexico and Argentina to some of the current players from the US team,” said Graham McKenna, chief marketing officer of XR Extreme Reach, a technology company that works with advertisers and was not involved in the Michelob campaign. “They’re taking great talent that hardcore fans will recognize. Even if you’re a bandwagon fan, you’ll probably recognize some of the players.”
And while it is not an official World Cup sponsor, Molson Coors, the nation’s second-largest brewer, said it would spend about 60 percent more on advertising this year for its top brands, Coors Light and Miller Lite. The amount, which the company did not disclose, is the most Molson Coors has spent on a live sporting event in the past decade.
As part of its in-store promotion, the company is selling a large, limited-edition football on a stand for $19.75 that can hold up to 12 cans of Miller Lite. (The company notes that the football should not actually be kicked.)
“There are great opportunities for the beer industry when people come together to enjoy one of the nation’s most exciting sporting events in recent memory,” Sofia Colucci, chief marketing officer for Molson Coors, said in an email. “There is a chance to connect with both longtime beer lovers and newer beer drinkers.”
Whether the beer industry can hold on to those consumers after the Games are over is the bigger and more important question, some analysts say.
“If, after putting so much groundwork into these games, it doesn’t give beer sales a significant bump, then we’re going to have a lot of other questions about what the reality looks like for the industry going forward,” said Dave Williams, president of Bump Williams Consulting, which works with the alcohol industry. “Beer needs a win here.”
