Miami-Dade partners with U.S. to lure World’s Fair in 2035

Miami has officially opened its wallet to lure the 2035 World’s Fair to south Miami-Dade County, with the U.S. as a partner and an assurance that nowhere else in the nation will compete for the billions in economic impact that a fair brings.

Miami native Secretary of State Marco Rubio, tapped by President Trump to lure the fair, has assured county commission Chairman Anthony Rodriguez that the nation will use its expertise to win the bid for the global mega-event, Mr. Rodriguez told commissioners last week in securing the county’s expenditure.

If Miami succeeds, it won’t be the last use of the county’s wallet. Responsibilities of a fair host include paying for the fair site and infrastructure, operating costs and national pavilions, a total that would run billions.

The only cost mentioned as Mr. Rodriguez unveiled a county bid to host the fair was $1.3 million in “surplus reserve” tourist development taxes for use by the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau for a feasibility study to support a bid for the great fair. Commissioners unanimously agreed.

“We were selected by the federal government to apply to see if we’re selected by the world expo committee,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “The U.S. has not participated in decades. There is not enough FIFAs, there is not enough championship games, Super Bowls, that we can count in our lifetime that will equal the economic impact that, shall selected, the World Expo will bring to South Florida.” He cited $15 billion to $40 billion.

The U.S. actually has participated in recent expos. In Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, the U.S pavilion highlighted contemporary American architecture, aerospace and nanotechnology. In 2020 in Dubai, the U.S. pavilion was themed “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of the Future.”

As for playing host, the United States has done that for eight of the 35 fairs since the first, the Great Exposition in 1851 in London. Both New York and Chicago have hosted a fair twice.

“This is a six-month event that will have in excess of 40 million visitors,” Mr. Rodriguez said, and could create 50,000 to 100,000 construction jobs, with 20,000 to 50,000 temporary jobs.

“If selected,” he said, “they come and they essentially build an entire city They put infrastructure. If they need to build hospitals, they will. If they need to build or expand an airport, they will, Metrorail systems – the infrastructure that they come and build at their expense and leave behind when the expo is finished.”

While Mr. Rodriguez termed the financial providers “they,” all expos are at the expense of host governments, which have used public funds, corporate sponsorships, ticket sales revenues, and rents of pavilions to both exhibiting nations and non-official participants to defray costs.

Historically, World’s Fairs struggle to profit. One in New Orleans in 1984 went bankrupt before the fair ended. Hosts usually measure success through long-term economic boosts, urban redevelopment, and massive increases in tourism.

World Expos – officially International Registered Exhibitions – are sanctioned by the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions. Only one is allowed each five years, with the next in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2030. The U.S. has hired the team that won the bid for Riyadh, said Mr. Rodriguez, and it will receive the $1.3 million from the convention bureau. He said the federal government expects all 50 states to exhibit.