Hurricanes Kick Off Sports-Packed Year That Could Break Records For Miami Hoteliers

After last year proved challenging, Miami hoteliers are looking to capitalize on 2026 — set to be one of the largest sporting years in the city's history, generating billions of dollars and drawing thousands of domestic and international visitors to surrounding hotels and retail centers.

To start 2026, the College Football Playoff national championship game will be held Monday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, with the University of Miami making its first championship appearance in nearly 20 years. This is already boosting the area's economy.

Miami's hospitality sector is looking to this year as a turning point, with a massive lineup of major sporting events projected to drive up hotel revenues and renew travel morale across the region.

“It's a blessing to be operating in a market where we're seeing new sporting events and new special events continuously come into the market and bring in new demand,” MIA Hospitality Management CEO and co-founder Brian Vujnovic said.

Monday night’s national championship and events like the FIFA World Cup and the World Baseball Classic have a cumulative economic impact expected to climb  toward $3B. 

A Colliers report showed a year-over-year decline in 2025. In the third quarter, hospitality was the only major property type with year-over-year pricing declines.

In Florida specifically, revenue per available room decreased year-over-year by just more than 2%, sitting at $93.31, according to another Colliers report. Occupancy rates also fell from 60.7% to 58.8%.

Just before the year ended, the longest government shutdown in the nation’s history not only delayed hundreds of flights nationwide but also cost the hotel industry more than $1B nationally.

But that is already starting to change for Miami, which has fared relatively well amid broader economic challenges, Vujnovic said.

The Miami Hurricanes are going head-to-head against the Indiana University Hoosiers for the college football national championship in a game that is expected to generate about $300M, the Miami Herald reported.

That would be more than the Orange Bowl in 2025, which served as the College Football Playoff semifinal, generating $287M and drawing more than 64,000 visitors.

“It's like an economic generator like you've never seen,” said Suzanne Amaducci, a Bilzin Sumberg attorney who leads the firm's hospitality group and sits on the Orange Bowl Committee and College Football National Championship Host Committee boards.

The projection to surpass Orange Bowl numbers comes despite the championship becoming a home game, which is expected to pull away from tourism.

Still, airlines are adding more flights to accommodate the game, and fan events are taking place all over the city, including free concerts with Calvin Harris and Peso Pluma, the Herald reported.

The impact will be substantial on the hospitality sector regardless, Vujnovic said.

The game follows the Orange Bowl, in which the Oregon Ducks beat the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Jan. 1, and the NHL Winter Classic held between the Florida Panthers and the New York Rangers at LoanDepot Park on Jan. 2.

Vujnovic said the events have generated January numbers his hotels — located in Brickell, Wynwood, South Beach, Coconut Grove, Fort Lauderdale and Downtown Miami — haven’t seen since the Super Bowl was held in Miami in 2020.

Miami hotels reported the highest jumps in the U.S. in average daily rates, up 17%, and RevPAR, up 26%, between Dec. 28 and Jan. 3, according to CoStar.

By the second week of January, Miami had the highest occupancy in the country at 51%, boosted by the national championship, according to CoStar.

“Typically, the first half of January is a slower start in terms of tourism coming into the market, but these events have really driven higher numbers than the last year and brought many more visitors down,” he said.

This January is just a small taste of what’s to come for sporting events this year.

Hard Rock Stadium, owned by billionaire developer and Related Ross CEO Stephen Ross, is hosting seven 2026 FIFA World Cup matches, including the bronze medal match.

The event is expected to draw between 600,000 and 1 million visitors and fuel hotel revenues and tourism services, with an impact nearly triple that of the Super Bowl in 2020, according to a Colliers report.

In March, Miami will host the World Baseball Classic at LoanDepot Park, featuring professional baseball players from around the world. This followed Miami's first hosting of the tournament, which broke attendance records with more than 295,000 locals and tourists, the South Florida Business Journal reported at the time.

That is on top of recurring events like the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, which generates more than half a billion dollars and draws north of 270,000 people.

In preparation for the upcoming year, MIA Hospitality Management renovated its Residence Inn Sunny Isles Beach and Hyatt Centric South Beach properties last year, Vujnovic said. Beyond that, the company is planning special programming and customized World Cup menus tied to each match at on-site restaurants.

“Our goal was to deliver a fresh, elevated design that allows us to capitalize on what we expect to be a banner performance year,” Vujnovic wrote in an email to Bisnow.

Gencom, which repurchased its majority ownership in The Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove, felt the urgency to complete its $100M renovation on the 26-year-old Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne ahead of the holiday season and the 2026 events, Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer Alessandro Colantonio said.

“With these events come a lot of group business [and] transient leisure business,” Colantonio said. “The last thing you want is to have a delay in your renovation. And then you can't reopen, you’re a few months behind, and now you've missed all your booking windows for all these events.”

Vujnovic said bookings are made more than a year in advance, often by those working the games. Another surge came in December, when the initial teams and matches were announced, and more is expected as the event gets closer.

Nick Falcone, founder of Rentyl Resorts, which owns retail and hotel assets in central and South Florida, said guests are already planning events and corporate parties at the company’s locations.

Even after the United States registered a 6% drop in foreign visitors in 2025 amid concerns about U.S. immigration policies, it isn't expected to slow interest in staying in Miami for these events.

“There are some pretty significant things happening, and some developments that could continue to progress between now and the World Cup,” Falcone said. “I don’t have a crystal ball as to what that will look like, but given the nature of the sport and how popular it is, I would be surprised if we see lower attendance or a smaller economic impact than originally expected.”

The World Cup is set to be one of the largest sporting events Miami has ever hosted, and it is capitalizing on that demand for the future as developer Jorge Mas, with key partners like David Beckham and Ares Management, builds the city’s first mixed-use stadium project for Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami CF, which has signed several retailers, including a Tiger Woods-backed mini-golf concept.

“It is absolutely mind-boggling, and it's a beautiful thing to watch,” said Rodrick Miller, CEO and president of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council. “What I like about it is Miami does it in its classic [fashion]. We make it look easy. Everybody has a great time and wants to come back again, and I think that's what makes it so wonderful.”