The Knicks Championship Has Turned The World Cup And U.S. Open Into Afterthoughts

 For the last month, New York has been living and breathing one thing:
The New York Knicks.
And honestly, can you blame us?
A 53-year championship drought ended. Generations of fans who had never seen a title finally got one. The city was electric. Every sports radio show, every podcast, every sports bar conversation, every newspaper headline revolved around the Knicks. It was the biggest sports story New York has seen in decades.
The problem?
Two other massive sporting events are happening right here in our backyard and almost nobody seems to care.
The FIFA World Cup is being played at MetLife Stadium. The U.S. Open is being played at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island.
Under normal circumstances, either one of those events would dominate the sports landscape.
Instead, they’ve become background noise.
Where Is The World Cup Buzz?
Forget soccer fans for a minute.
Think about the average New York sports fan.
How many conversations have you had about the World Cup?
How many people are talking about matchups, players, storylines or the United States’ chances of making a deep run?
I can count them on one hand.
When people do talk about the World Cup, they’re talking about everything except the soccer.
They’re talking about ticket prices.
They’re talking about FIFA.
They’re talking about transportation.
They’re talking about the outrageous cost of getting to MetLife Stadium.
One report found nearly 30,000 NJ Transit tickets remained unsold before a World Cup match because fans balked at paying nearly $100 round-trip just for transportation.
That’s not exactly the kind of conversation FIFA was hoping to generate.
And let’s be honest: FIFA doesn’t exactly inspire warm feelings. It may be the most disliked governing body in sports. Every headline seems to involve greed, pricing, logistics, or some new controversy.
The expected economic boom hasn’t materialized either.
Hotels throughout New York and New Jersey were preparing for an avalanche of visitors. Instead, many have been forced to slash prices and lower expectations. Reuters reported last week that hotels and airlines across World Cup host cities were seeing weaker-than-expected demand, forcing rate cuts as travelers were discouraged by high costs and logistical headaches. (Reuters)
CBS New York reported that on some World Cup match nights, only about one-third of hotel rooms were occupied, well below expectations and below last year’s levels. 
 Average hotel rates in New York and New Jersey had fallen 17% as the tournament began.
Think about that for a second.
For years we heard projections of billions of dollars in economic impact.
Instead, many hotels are discounting rooms because they can’t fill them.
That’s not exactly what anybody envisioned.
Now, maybe that changes.
If the United States keeps advancing, maybe casual sports fans start paying attention. Maybe the deeper Team USA goes, the more excitement builds.
But so far?
The World Cup feels more like something happening in New York than something New Yorkers are actually embracing.
The U.S. Open Isn’t Doing Much Better
Then there’s the U.S. Open.
If you didn’t know it was being played at Shinnecock Hills this week, I wouldn’t blame you.
The tournament has barely registered in the New York sports conversation.
And what little coverage it has received has been overwhelmingly negative.
Golf fans have spent most of the week arguing about course setup.
People have complained the PGA softened the course.
Others have complained about watering the greens.
Nobody seems happy.
Meanwhile, Wyndham Clark enters Sunday with a commanding lead over Scottie Scheffler, and unless something dramatic happens, the tournament feels like it’s heading toward a fairly uneventful finish.
Even on television, the atmosphere has felt flat.
Half-empty grandstands.
Sparse crowds.
Little energy.
And if you’ve ever made the trip to Shinnecock, you know why some casual fans aren’t rushing out there.
The commute is brutal.
Long stretches of one-lane roads.
Traffic that can turn a reasonable trip into an all-day adventure.
For an event that should be one of the crown jewels of the sports calendar, there has been surprisingly little excitement surrounding it.
The Knicks Took All The Oxygen Out Of The Room
The truth is, neither FIFA nor the PGA has helped itself.
Both events have legitimate issues.
But neither one stood a chance against what the Knicks became.
This championship wasn’t just a sports story.
It became a cultural event.
It united the city.
Everywhere you looked there were Knicks flags, Knicks shirts, Knicks conversations, Knicks celebrations.
For weeks, New York had room for only one sports story.
The Knicks consumed every headline, every talk show, every social media feed, every sports conversation.
And as a result, two of the biggest sporting events in the world have become afterthoughts in their own backyard.
That’s almost impossible to believe when you say it out loud.
The World Cup.
The U.S. Open.
Both taking place in the New York metropolitan area.
Both struggling to break through the noise.
Because for one magical month, New York only cared about one thing.
The Knicks.
And honestly?
After waiting 53 years, can you really blame us?