Fédération Internationale de Football Association is more often called FIFA. It is perhaps the largest sporting competition in the world. Santa Clara was selected as a host city because our city council submitted a bid, offering Levi’s Stadium as the location.

FIFA was founded in 1904 and has become one of the largest international sporting competitions in the world, with 211 countries participating. Their last visit to the United States was in 1994. So you might consider the United States team playing in Santa Clara a major attraction and a major opportunity for our hospitality businesses.

You might, unless you are Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gilmor.

Gillmor took advantage of every opportunity that centered on herself — greeting teams and delegates at the airport, being in front of the TV cameras. But when it came to leadership in promoting the city and its businesses, and giving tens of thousands of visitors reasons to spend their time and money in town, she seemed happy to kick that ball down the road to San José.

We may have had more enthusiasm for a local Red Cross blood drive.

You would think with the United States team playing right here in Santa Clara, FIFA would rank right up there with the Super Bowl.

Oh, that’s right, nothing was promoted or mentioned about that either.

San Jose held watch parties for tens of thousands. Santa Clara did the opposite. It denied permits for watch parties at local businesses. Because of FIFA’s rules, there could be no signage visible on the stadium. National TV referred to Levi’s as the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium. So a little publicity would have gone a long way in promoting Santa Clara to the world of watching fans.

Now that all the games are over in Santa Clara, the city’s “marketing committee” is sponsoring watch parties. In other words, instead of creating excitement that would keep visitors in town spending money while Santa Clara was in the spotlight, the city is inviting residents to spend their own money at these events after the spotlight has moved on. It’s like having a circus parade after the circus has left town.

The good news is that in a few months we will have a new mayor. Whoever takes the political leadership of our community is going to look pretty good by just doing their job.

From what I can see, Santa Clara has the best story in Silicon Valley. It’s time we had a mayor who will share Santa Clara’s story of multiple successes and doesn’t despise our stadium.

Previous Milestones:
Milestones – Bullet Train to Wealth Tax? – Opinion
Milestones – You Have to Ask Why? – Opinion
Milestones – Welcome to Santa Clara – Opinion