Unlimited free soda at your local McDonald’s may not be the first thing you think about when selling America to tourists.
But for Japanese soccer fan Rinta Goto, it was one of the more memorable parts of his short trip to Dallas for the Netherlands and Japan World Cup game on Sunday. That, along with the massive Starbucks he visited in the city and Walmart’s plethora of treats (including a family-sized bag of Reese’s Miniature Cups).
Goto, a 24-year-old who traveled from Osaka, Japan, with his girlfriend, also told NPR that he cannot get a particular Texas Roadhouse meal out of his head. His post on social media gushing about the “insanely good” bread and “ridiculously delicious” steak received over 200,000 views.
During an interview with NPR, when Goto learned that the chain has restaurants in several countries outside the U.S., he put his head in his hands. “Why isn’t Japan on the list?” he wondered in anguish.
Goto is not alone. Thousands of soccer fans swarming the U.S. have shared their discoveries on social media. They’ve marveled at the array of food options, huge portion sizes and other facets of American life that many may take for granted: yellow school buses, the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and sunburns on supposedly rainy days.
Even Spanish soccer star Lamine Yamal made a pit stop at Walmart, and there’s been a large fan base oohing and ahhing at Buc-ee’s.
At a time when the United States has tense relationships with many of its overseas allies, international tourists’ appreciation of American culture offers a counterpoint to the animosity between politicians. Experts in global sports and politics told NPR it’s exactly what the tournament — held this year across 11 U.S. cities, as well as sites in Mexico and Canada — is supposed to do, and it’s building the soft power of the U.S.
“At a time when there is so much criticism and uncertainty with regard to the United States, for our country to have this unexpected windfall of people from around the world coming to the U.S. and seeing the real aspects of everyday America … It’s just an unexpected fringe benefit beyond the sports itself,” said Victor Cha, president of geopolitics and foreign policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
That fringe benefit comes as U.S. immigration policies still weigh heavily on the tournament, with at least one referee and team staff member denied entry, along with fans who have been denied travel visas. There is also a growing feeling that some of these accounts, and their celebration of American culture, aren’t what they seem, with some people asking — is this real?
But for now, it’s undeniable that the excitement of fans and fascination with American life has — at least temporarily — captured the hearts of many.
It’s not just New York City getting attention
“I didn’t expect that much from my stay in Dallas,” said Kanna Matsuda, another Japanese fan. Instead, she said, she was pleasantly surprised by her huge Airbnb in Dallas.
“That was a big house. I loved that,” she said. Matsuda plans to return to the city in a week after watching games in Mexico. And then she said words that, until a few days ago, she never imagined she’d utter: “I’m excited to go back again to Dallas.”
The World Cup has meant international fans are seeing cities not on the average bucket list.
Take Kansas City. England fan George Elek and two friends, who run The England Pod sports podcast, visited for just two days. That’s all it took for them to fall in love.
“I just hadn’t prepared myself for how much we would be wowed by Kansas City, and the people, and the vibe,” Elek said. The group tried burnt ends, ribs, cornbread and mac and cheese from a gas station restaurant, visited a popular dive bar and carefully tiptoed around the debate over whether Kansas City or Texas barbecue is better. While it was a bit confusing, the trio ventured into both the Kansas and Missouri sides of the metro area.
Elek marveled at the diversity. “If you want the experience of being in an urban metropolis, then you’ve got it,” he said. “If you want something with a bit more of an edge with younger crowds, then you’ve got that.”
The group traveled on to Dallas to catch the first England game, but “we even talked about going back next week before we flew home,” Elek said. Not just for the World Cup, but to simply enjoy the restaurants and people.
Everything is bigger in America
One of the big takeaways from fans on social media — everything in America is HUGE.
“It’s so much bigger, so much better,” said Blair McNally, a Scottish fan and sports content creator. “It’s tenfold compared to what we have in Europe.” He said he particularly appreciates the size of the bagels.
“It’s all just like gobsmacking,” McNally said on Wednesday from New York. “From the size of the food to the size of the buildings to the skyscrapers.”
Matsuda, the Japanese fan, said she tried to buy the smallest drink at a McDonald’s and ended up with a medium — bigger than the largest size available in Japan. She also said she couldn’t believe the size of the dogs she saw as she walked around Dallas.
The power of meeting everyday Americans
It’s not all free refills and mega portion sizes.
Fans NPR talked to all commented on pricey tickets and the cost of food. And no one is denying the tensions between certain governments.
“I’d be lying if I said that there wasn’t definitely some animosity felt from Europeans, and certainly some Brits, towards the current ruling party in the States,” said Elek, the England fan.
But the overwhelming feeling from the fans NPR talked to as they continue to spend days that stretch into weeks with everyday Americans is that they are not their government.
“People to people can be a different story than what’s happening government to government,” said Ron Krabill, director of the University of Washington Global Sport Lab.
Elek said he knows he’ll get all sorts of questions when he returns home: “What were the people like? Did everyone love President Trump? Did everyone hate Trump?”
Elek said his answer will have nothing to do with politics: “Everyone was unbelievably welcoming and hospitable to us.”
Before arriving from Scotland, McNally said, he and his friends were skeptical of how the tournament would be run, given some of the negative perceptions of Trump and America outside of the U.S. “We did feel that this could be a bit of a s***show.”
But “the real American people are the good people,” McNally said. “It just seems to be the businessmen and the people that are higher up that are taking advantage of the good people.”
That sentiment, of course, is from a subset of travelers who have the money and other means to enjoy the World Cup in the U.S., Krabill said. But Cha, the CSIS president, said that when the global sporting event is done well, perhaps the biggest secondary effect is the excitement of fans for the hosting country.
“Free refills at McDonald’s — when I think of American soft power, I usually don’t think of that,” said Cha, also the author of Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sports. “We just don’t know in advance what [fans] are going to become infatuated by.”
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