Fans are paid $50,000 to watch the World Cup

Kevin Akoto and Austin Franklin were paid $50,000 each to watch all 104 World Cup matches from a custom-built glass cubicle in Times Square, a promotion that turned two spectators into Fox One’s public face for the tournament. BBC identified the pair as Fox One “Chief World Cup Watchers,” and WPRI said they were chosen from a pool of more than 6,000 applicants.

The assignment sat inside the 2026 World Cup, a 39-day event with 104 matches, and it made watching itself part of the product. Reuters’ video description named Akoto and Franklin in the role for US broadcaster Fox One, reinforcing how the tournament’s reach has expanded the job market around it. The visible setup in New York City was built to convert ordinary fan reaction into a branded spectacle, with the glass cube placing the pair at the center of one of the world’s most recognizable public squares.

That structure also showed how far the economics of fandom have shifted. Supporters once paid for tickets, travel, lodging, food and merchandise in order to follow a team. In this case, the money flowed the other way: the fans were compensated to sit, react and amplify the tournament in front of cameras and passersby. The result blurred the line between genuine enthusiasm and promotional labor, because the same reactions that once lived only in the stands were now packaged as content.

The stunt also fit a wider commercial push around the tournament. Visa said its FIFA World Cup 2026 program, “Tap In to Impact,” carried a $600,000 total commitment, with $200,000 going to each of three nonprofit partners. That kind of spend shows how major sponsors now build World Cup campaigns around visibility, social reach and community branding, not just the matches themselves.

At the same time, the cost of being a regular fan remained a separate story. In New Jersey, supporters complained about $150 transit tickets for World Cup travel, a reminder that the tournament can ask ordinary fans to pay more even as brands pay selected fans to become part of the show.