Nearly seven months before the World Cup descended on Boston and the Scottish Tartan Army began its parade through the bricked streets surrounding Fenway Park, team employees began preparing.

There were conversations within the club’s business side. There were meetings with other entities in the city to discuss how to best handle the spectacle.

During all that planning and preparation, it is unlikely Travis Pollio — the senior director of ticketing strategy and promotions for the Red Sox — could have envisioned all this leading where it did.

On June 14, Pollio exited Fenway Park just before the gates opened. He went to meet the march of Scottish fans heading to Fenway. He wanted to help prepare for the larger-than-usual influx of people 90 minutes before the game.

The next thing he knew, Pollio was in the middle of the parade, alongside those wearing kilts and playing bagpipes.

“I almost felt like I was sort of the parade leader here, waving the baton,” Pollio said.

Pollio estimated the Red Sox hosted between 5,000 and 6,000 Scottish fans. But judging from the videos and clips that circulated around the internet, it felt like an even bigger takeover.

“Those 30,000 other fans that were here just loved it,” Pollio said. “The experience, the vibe. People compared it to a playoff atmosphere for a game in early June against a non-division team.”

The Tartan Army has been perhaps the most gregarious group highlighting a larger trend. At cities across the MLB universe, the World Cup is providing a boost in attendance and pageantry.

At a weekend homestand earlier in June, the Miami Marlins averaged an attendance of 12,427 over three games. When the Tartan Army was in town, the attendance shot to 20,008, making it the most attended Monday night Marlins game since 2017.

In Seattle, when the Mariners hosted the Baltimore Orioles for the first two games of their June 16-18 series, they drew roughly 28,000 fans each night. For the third game, Thursday’s Stars and Stripes Soccer Jersey giveaway day, they drew 43,053, some of them fans in town for the USA-Australia matchup the following night.

For the clubs near World Cup host cities — the Blue Jays, Braves, Red Sox, Rangers, Astros, Royals, Dodgers, Angels, Marlins, Yankees, Mets, Phillies, Mariners and Giants — these events have been more than spontaneous occurrences. They have come as a result of months of outreach and planning.

Miami rarely sees pregame crowds like those that packed the areas outside loanDepot park earlier this month. (Sam Navarro / Getty Images)

Back in the fall, MLB and these clubs began hosting video calls to share ideas and best practices. The calls ramped up around the holidays.

Jim Cochrane, the chief business officer for the Texas Rangers, said league marketing gurus encouraged clubs to make sure their games would come up if a fan from another country simply Googled, “Top 10 things to do” in their given metro area.

Teams also began devising their own promotions and ticket packages. The day the Tartan Army marched Lansdowne Street outside Fenway Park, the Red Sox hosted “Scotland Day,” an extension of the team’s prior efforts to recognize diverse heritage groups across New England.

The team built a promotional package that featured soccer-style jerseys adorned with both the Red Sox logo and the Scottish flag. Red Sox mascots wore kilts. Bagpipers played on the field. Concession offerings were tailored to honor Scottish culture.

“It’s unlike anything, really, that I can remember on a game day,” Pollio said. “Even for a playoff game, you don’t have something like that. It will be something I’ll always remember.”

The Rangers, meanwhile, took note of their location at the southern end of the sprawling Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Team officials knew not all fans would be staying near the so-called Dallas Stadium, which sits about a half-mile from the Rangers’ home of Globe Life Field.

The team purchased billboards all across the metroplex in five different languages promoting the Rangers and their futbol themed promotions. They launched a website, Rangers.com/FIFA, also translated in five languages.

The team bought up space in Dallas Hotel Magazine and scheduled a host of promotions, starting with a June 21 soccer jersey and continuing with a futbol scarf and a ticket package that includes a Corey Seager soccer jersey on July 5.

The Rangers also began reaching out to influencers within the fan bases of the countries playing across the street. During the team’s latest home stand, they began an in-game feature they called World Soccer Fans, highlighting individuals and supporter groups who came to watch baseball.

“It kind of became a fun thing to do, and of course they go crazy when they see themselves on the video board,” Cochrane said.

Throughout MLB, broadcasts have leaned into the spectacle of international fans flocking to their parks, many of them seeing a professional baseball game for the first time. There were Norwegian fans wearing Viking helmets leading Viking row celebrations in the Big Apple reserved section at Citi Field, while the Kansas City Royals hosted the English national team; the Royals arranged to bus fans out to Kauffman Stadium for home games throughout the World Cup.

Even when the Rangers were on the road, they have still benefited from the presence of the World Cup. The team is partners with the Texas Live! entertainment complex that sits just outside Globe Life Field. There, fans have packed the bars and cheered on goals. Even local residents have flocked to Texas Live! for Team USA watch parties.

“It has been a boost, and it’s been fun to talk about,” Cochrane said. “We are seeing the benefit not only with some ticket sales, but also Texas Live! is just absolutely having some of their best days since we’ve been open in 2018.”

With school out and the summer heating up, June can typically be a time when MLB attendance starts to spike. And just having World Cup games in town has not meant instant sellouts — teams like the Yankees that normally draw very well saw their attendance stay roughly the same. For teams like the Mariners and Angels, though, who average around 30,000 fans but don’t normally sell out, the World Cup is providing built-in marquee dates in the middle of the schedule, and specific themed nights provided clear attendance boosts.

For the teams that typically struggle to draw crowds — like the Marlins — such a lift is incredibly welcome.

The Tartan Army marched to loanDepot Park on June 22 with an estimated 8,000 people, only eight days after their time at Fenway Park.

Both the Red Sox and Marlins happened to play the Rangers on days they hosted the Scottish fans.

“We laughed internally,” Cochrane said. “Is there any way the Scots could get here in the knockout round?”

Scotland’s Tartan Army came to Fenway Park for Scotland Day, and brought with them a new kind of pregame atmosphere. (Paul Rutherford/Getty Images)

With Germany playing Paraguay in the World Cup’s round of 32 game Monday, the Red Sox hosted a “German Celebration” on Sunday. In advance of that game, the Red Sox reached out to leaders in the German fan base. Employees across an array of departments — ticketing, group sales, marketing and more — worked to plan the experience. A total of 34,573 fans saw the Red Sox beat the Yankees in extra innings; the TubaFrau Hofbräu Band performed before the game, and fans got a German-Red Sox crossover shirt.

“It’s more than filling the seats,” Pollio said. “It’s about that experience. It’s about celebrating communities and traditions.”

World Cup fever has impacted fans and athletes alike, as MLB players tune in to games in their clubhouses and even arrange to attend matches when the schedule lines up. Representatives from World Cup teams have thrown out ceremonial first pitches at stadiums across the league.

After the Scottish takeover at the Marlins games, pitcher Tyler Phillips commented on the enhanced atmosphere, only one instance of the lively intersection between MLB and the World Cup.

“If it was up to me,” Phillips told reporters, “I would have us pay those people to show up to the games.”