‘Everyone is willing to put themselves out there more’: How the World Cup has given Boston’s dating scene a kick-start

For Boston and Scotland’s Tartan Army, it was love at first sight. For most of us, finding the right person isn’t quite so easy.

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But the World Cup, bringing fans together in packed bars and filling the streets with joyful energy, has given the city’s dating scene a undeniable kick-start.

“Everyone is willing to put themselves out there more,” said Julia Radley, 26, who started the social mediadating series “Stoop Dating” about a year after she moved to Boston.

Joe Andreazi, 40, who moved to Boston from Brazil when he was a teenager, said the excitement around the world’s largest sporting event has brought people out of their shells and given fans a natural icebreaker.

“People in Boston are very shy and to themselves,” he said, standing toward the back of the crowd at the FIFA Fan Festival for the Ecuador-Germany game.

But this month, people are casting their reserve aside and striking up conversation.

“You have a jersey on, people comment on it, and you kind of talk and stuff,” he said.

Aidan Horgan, a 22-year-old from Holbrook, said that it is “100 percent” easier to meet someone since the World Cup came to Boston, though he wasn’t talking about dating, per se.

“It also boosts your confidence a little bit because you’ll probably never see half of these people again,” he said, sipping an Ultra beer at FIFA Fan Fest. “So why not?”

Kayla Rose, 30, who lives in the Seaport, said it’s gotten tougher meeting people face-to-face since the pandemic.

“I feel like pre-COVID I would expect to like talk to guys at bars,” Rose said. “After COVID, I don’t know if some people’s social skills are lost.”

On top of that, many men are content to just hang with their friends when they go out, Rose said, knowing they can meet people on dating apps.

But with the buzz around the tournament, the game has changed, she said.

“Being able to just, like, talk with someone,” Rose said. “It’s so refreshing.”

From the World Series to the Super Bowl, sporting events through the years have helped spark romance in Boston. But those don’t draw a massive influx of visitors who are on holiday and ready to mingle.

Danna Lituma, 22, a student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, said she has been approached most by Brazilians and Moroccans when going out during the World Cup.

“Everyone’s meeting random people,” she said, sporting her Ecuador jersey as she watched them play Germany at the FIFA Fan Fest.

We’d be remiss in talking about foreign visitors without mentioning the Scottish fans, who came by the tens of thousands to drink Boston’s beer and, in some cases, chat up their hosts.

“It’s like night and day compared to American guys,” said a smitten Shannon Knight, 27, from Mansfield. “I’m not even attracted to American guys anymore. It’s bad.”

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Rose said the Scottish fans in particular were more willing to be social with women at bars, while local men tend to have a “too cool for school vibe.”

Scottish fans said they had learned of their outsider appeal and weren’t complaining.

“You speak to the locals, they keep talking about how they want like masculine men, and America doesn’t have that anymore,” said Gully Singh, from Glasgow. “They’re a bit smitten with the men and the kilts and the beards, and the idea of an outsider coming in and just sort of sweeping them off their feet.”

Knight recounted how she was literally swept off her feet by a Scottish man on a night out in Boston.

“He figuratively, and literally, swept me off my feet,” said Knight, referring to a video she posted on social media of a Scot spinning her around and carrying her away from the bar.

“I may not be happily married but at least I’m single while the Scottish are in town for the World Cup,” Knight wrote in the Instagram post.

Radley spontaneously invited some Scottish men she met out last week to her “Stoop Dating” event at Loretta’s Last Call. As they are known to do, the Scots turned out in full force.

“We pretty much sold out our tickets, and it was genuinely the best night of my life,” Radley said. “We had a good amount of Boston people, obviously, but the Scots took over.”

Their carefree energy captured hearts and proved contagious, Radley said.

Highlights from the evening included a kiss on stage, a Scot mooning the crowd when asked what was under his kilt, and romantic sparks between a Scottish man and a Boston woman.

“We had one couple that had their date on stage and they were hitting it off the entire night,” Radley said. “He came up to me, and he was like, ‘I found my American girl, like, thank you.’”

The Scots are gone, but their legacy may endure. Since their departure, some Boston men seem to have upped their game, women said.

“I think that the American boys are stepping it up a little bit,” Rose said.

Tyler Sainvilus, 22, of Holbrook, also saw the international influx as a benefit.

“There’s so many beautiful women from all of these different countries who come here,” said Sainvilus. “It’s amazing. I’m looking.”

Ben Clark, 26, an MIT graduate student, assessed the probabilities. The bars were so full, he figured, it would “surely” be easier to find a match.

“If anyone out there is looking to meet a cute, single 26-year-old,” Clark said. “Please publish this widely.”

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