Living Cities' Capital + Culture Series Explores How Miami Can Ensure Global Investment Creates Local Opportunity
MIAMI, FL, UNITED STATES, July 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Few American cities understand global investment like Miami.
Capital arrives here from around the world. So do entrepreneurs, visitors, businesses, and ideas.
Miami has become an international crossroads where finance, culture, tourism, technology, and trade converge.
Now the world is coming once again. The FIFA World Cup will bring millions of visitors, international media attention, new investment, procurement opportunities, and economic activity unlike those of almost any other event in the city's history. The opportunity is enormous.
Living Cities believes the more important question is whether that opportunity becomes lasting community wealth.
Major events often generate billions of dollars in economic activity.
Hotels fill up. Restaurants thrive. Construction accelerates. Investments increase. Yet too often, the economic benefits remain unevenly distributed. Local entrepreneurs struggle to compete for contracts. Small businesses lack access to new markets. Residents watch investment reshape neighborhoods without gaining ownership. Communities experience visibility without lasting economic participation.
Through its Capital + Culture series, Living Cities explores a broader question: How can major sporting and cultural events create lasting economic opportunity for the communities that host them? Miami provides another compelling opportunity to examine how global investment can strengthen entrepreneurship, workforce participation, neighborhood investment, ownership pathways, and community wealth.
"The World Cup will bring extraordinary investment to Miami," said Joe Scantlebury, President and CEO of Living Cities. "The more important question is whether that investment creates lasting opportunity for the people and businesses that have long contributed to the city's success. Economic growth matters most when more people have the opportunity to participate in it."
Miami offers one of America's most compelling places to explore that challenge.
The city's diversity, entrepreneurial energy, and global connectivity have made it one of the country's most dynamic economies.
Its neighborhoods are rich with small businesses, immigrant entrepreneurs, cultural institutions, and local enterprises that give Miami its character and competitive advantage.
The World Cup presents an opportunity not simply to showcase Miami to the world—but to strengthen the local economy that makes the city unique.
Who receives contracts? Who gains new customers? Who accesses capital? Who expands a business?
Who hires workers? Who builds ownership? Who creates wealth that remains in Miami long after the final match is played?
Those questions will determine whether global investment becomes local prosperity.
"Miami has long demonstrated its ability to attract capital from around the world," said Scantlebury. "The next challenge is ensuring that global investment creates local wealth—that neighborhoods, entrepreneurs, and families are positioned to benefit alongside the city's continued growth."
Living Cities believes the success of the World Cup should be measured by more than tourism spending, hotel occupancy, attendance figures, or economic impact projections.
The more meaningful legacy may be whether local businesses became part of global supply chains.
Whether entrepreneurs found new markets. Whether workforce investments opened doors to long-term careers. Whether neighborhoods gained assets that continue generating opportunity for years to come. Whether community wealth expanded alongside economic growth.
The visitors will leave. The matches will end. The headlines will fade. But Miami's economic legacy will remain.
The most important question may not be how much investment arrived. It may be that investment became community wealth.
ABOUT LIVING CITIES
Living Cities is an Action Engine for Equitable Cities—a member collaborative of leading philanthropic foundations and financial institutions committed to closing income and wealth gaps in the United States and building an economy that works for everyone.
For 35 years, Living Cities has collaboratively helped advance policy and systems changes nationwide, promoting profitable and inclusive wealth-building. Specifically, Living Cities addresses barriers to capital investment through knowledge sharing and collective action among its members, its partners, and an extensive network of city leaders around the country.
Learn more at https://livingcities.org/.
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