The 2026 FIFA World Cup matches that packed Lincoln Financial Field in June and July, the PGA Championship that drew 200,000 fans to Aronimink Golf Club in May, the MLB All-Star Game in July. Larry and Amy Needle helped land them all for Philadelphia. And the Merion Station couple says the economic ripple effects reached well beyond city limits.

"Folks staying within a 50-mile radius experienced what the region has to offer," Larry Needle told Main Line Today in a profile published Aug. 12. "Fans went to Longwood Gardens, King of Prussia Mall and Valley Forge National Historical Park. There's all sorts of impact to be felt."

Larry, executive director of PHL Sports, a division of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, has spent more than three decades recruiting marquee events to the region. Amy, 60, is president and CEO of Historic Philadelphia, Inc., the nonprofit that runs the Betsy Ross House, the "Once Upon a Nation" storytelling program and the Chinese Lantern Festival. Together they live in Merion Station and raised two sons who played basketball at Lower Merion High School under 700-win coach Gregg Downer.

Amy served as president of the LMHS basketball booster club and was honored with a plaque in Bryant Gymnasium. Son Seth, 24, works as a special assistant to Temple University men's basketball coach Adam Fisher. Son Eli, 28, is a sales coordinator for the PGA Tour's Presidents Cup.

The numbers behind Philadelphia's 2026 sports calendar are staggering. The PGA Championship at Aronimink in Newtown Square, the first time the club hosted the tournament since 1962, generated an estimated $125 million in regional economic impact, according to Delco Today. The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development invested $2.4 million to support the event. Philadelphia's top companies raised more than $60 million to bid for and stage the year's events, with city and state taxpayers contributing roughly $80 million more, The Athletic reported in July.

Larry told The Athletic on July 4 that the stretch was "very likely the greatest five-month stint of hosting sporting events that any city has ever seen."

The couple's careers began at the same organization. Amy grew up in King of Prussia, earned a communications degree from the University of Kansas and landed an internship at the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, where she worked under Meryl Levitz, founding president and CEO of Visit Philadelphia. She joined full time in 1990. Larry, a University of North Carolina graduate who kept statistics for basketball coaches Dean Smith and Roy Williams, joined the bureau's sports arm in January 1991. They married in January 1994.

Levitz, speaking in the Main Line Today profile, praised the couple's shared drive: "They understand destination-building and destination marketing. They believe that good enough is not good enough."

The sports calendar isn't over. The 126th U.S. Amateur Championship is underway at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore through Sunday, Aug. 16, with stroke-play qualifying also at Philadelphia Country Club in Gladwyne. In our Aug. 11 coverage, the tournament opened with a historic 64. Merion is also set to host the U.S. Open in 2030, 2040 and 2050.

What's ahead on the Main Line sports calendar:

  • U.S. Amateur Championship at Merion Golf Club, Ardmore: through Sunday, Aug. 16
  • Historic Philadelphia's Chinese Lantern Festival: through Sunday, Aug. 16