World Cup Match Forces America's Indoor Ski Resort To Temporarily Close

Big Snow American Dream is known as the only indoor ski resort in North America.

The resort is typically open 365 days a year, thanks to climate control and man-made snow, but a World Cup soccer match is causing it to temporarily close.

“Please be advised that Big SNOW will be closed on Tuesday, June 16, due to operational impacts related to the FIFA Club World Cup match taking place at MetLife Stadium. We will resume regular operating hours on Wednesday, June 17,” wrote the resort on social media.

Now, you might be wondering—What does a soccer match between France and Senegal have to do with the operations of an indoor ski resort?

Well, not only is Big Snow a massive indoor ski resort, but it’s also attached to a gargantuan mall, which is within a few hundred yards of New York/New Jersey Stadium (also known as MetLife Stadium outside the World Cup).

The resort is expecting a large turnout for the match and anticipates impacts on its operations on the dates of future matches as well: June 22, June 25, June 27, June 30, July 5, and July 19.

Unfortunately, skiers won’t be able to ski and watch a World Cup match on the same day, but the possibility of logging both activities within a week remains.

Don’t care about the World Cup or soccer in general?

First off, I don’t blame you; skiing is way more fun, but as a former soccer player and avid soccer watcher, I beg you to give it a shot.

Watch a game when you’re supposed to be working. Check out a few highlights at the end of the day. Make plans to watch a game with friends at a sports bar. It’s fun, I promise.

If you need help picking a team/country to root for, consider one of these countries that qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and are home to ski resorts. Because why not?

The total number of operational ski resorts in each country is shown in parentheses. Countries with only indoor ski resorts have been excluded. Countries are listed in alphabetical order. Approximate number of ski resorts per country obtained from skiresort.info.

2026 FIFA World Cup Countries With Ski Resorts

• Algeria (1)
• Argentina (20)
• Australia (15)
• Austria (>400)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (22)
• Canada (300)
• Croatia (11)
• Czechia (>300)
• France (~300)
• Germany (>600)
• Iran (30)
• Japan (>450)
• Korea Republic (20)
• Morocco (<5)
• New Zealand (36)
• Norway (171)
• Portugal (1)
• Scotland (5)
• South Africa (1)
• Spain (30)
• Sweden (>100)
• Switzerland (>350)
• United States of America (~450)
• Türkiye (40)
• Uzbekistan (4)

Related: Will the X Games’ Big Team-Based Experiment Succeed?