After eight years of anticipation, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is officially underway in North America. As the tournament kicked off in Mexico City on Thursday, 13 other host cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico welcomed fans to FIFA Fan Festivals and unofficial equivalents four years after being chosen by FIFA. (Boston and Miami will open their gates Friday and Saturday, respectively.)
In his pre-tournament press conference Wednesday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino acknowledged that much of the media coverage heading into the competition had centered on three topics: “Iran, tickets and visas.” The hope among soccer stakeholders has been that once the ball started rolling, the focus would shift from frustrations about price-gouging, public funding, immigration issues and geopolitical turmoil to the action on the pitch and the passion of the fans.
The early forecast appears mixed.
On one hand, local newscasts across the country featured scenes from live watch parties where thousands of green-clad Mexico fans came together on a weekday afternoon to watch El Tri defeat South Africa. In Queens, where I visited the New York-New Jersey Host Committee’s Group Stage HQ, fans arrived hours early to scoop up World Cup merchandise before watching the match inside Louis Armstrong Stadium.
But even as she shared her excitement about the start of the competition, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul lamented “how hard it is for families to put together the money they’d need for a ticket” to attend a match at MetLife Stadium. Meanwhile, in Guadalajara, reports pointed out swaths of empty seats for Thursday night’s South Korea-Czechia match despite FIFA announcing a 99% capacity crowd of 44,985.
With the action beginning across the U.S. and Canada this weekend, we’ll soon have a much better sense of whether the magic of the “beautiful game” can push the many concerns about this World Cup to the periphery.
Quote of the Week: “I have to congratulate [New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani] because he put on sale a thousand tickets at $50 a couple of months ago, and since then, he gets fantastic news. We put on sale 130,000 tickets at $60, and we don’t get great news. Probably, he has better communications people than us, or probably he’s better than me. I don’t know.” -- FIFA President Gianni Infantino, on the negative media coverage the organization has received over its ticket pricing.
Man’s Best Friends: When Hyundai and its sister company Kia renewed their top-tier FIFA sponsorship in 2023, the brands quietly expanded their category designation from automotive to “mobility and robotics.” The shift followed Hyundai Motor Group’s acquisition of an 80% stake in Boston Dynamics, the robotics firm whose robot dog, Spot, became a viral sensation a few years earlier and inspired an episode of the dystopian thriller “Black Mirror.”
Spot’s humanoid counterpart, Atlas, will play a starring role in Hyundai’s main World Cup marketing campaign, which carries the tagline “Next Starts Now.” He also features in a five-part social series called “School of Football,” which shows Atlas learning soccer skills ranging from the basics up to advanced trick shots like the “rabona.”
The focus on robotics is aimed in part at elevating the perception of the world’s No. 3 automaker from budget-friendly to cutting edge, but Hyundai Motor America CMO Sean Gilpin said the goal is also to convey the breadth of the multinational corporation’s competencies.
“[Hyundai is] a brand that is so vertically integrated and has so many different facets to it beyond just the cars,” Gilpin said. “We make our own steel, we have our own finance company and our own card company -- we have so many things that we do. When these global campaigns show up in a market like the U.S. that is not as familiar with Hyundai and how big they are, things like Atlas feel new and exciting. But it’s not new to Hyundai -- Hyundai is definitely a leader in that space.”
It’s also not just a marketing stunt: Four Spot robots will be in use to support FIFA security operations at both MetLife Stadium and the International Broadcast Center in Dallas.
Kings of Queens: The World Cup couldn’t come at a better time for NYCFC, which will move into its new $780M stadium, Etihad Park, next summer. In a column for the June 15 issue of SBJ, the MLS club’s president and CEO, Brad Sims, shared how the team has used its access to World Cup tickets to help close deals for suites and sponsorships at the new venue. That, however, is just part of the story.
The New York-New Jersey Host Committee is staging public viewing events in each of New York City’s five boroughs. One of the largest is the Queens Group Stage HQ at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, which is located less than a mile from the Etihad Park site. As a result, NYCFC has established the largest activation space within the event footprint to capture the attention of potential ticket buyers.
“Every single person there is someone who’s interested in soccer and is able to make their way relatively easily to Queens to where we’re going to be,” Sims said. “That’s a great target market. So, we want to get in front of as many of those fans as possible. We want to collect data, we want to get them excited about Etihad Park and educated about Etihad Park.”
The space, dubbed “City Corner,” captures the vibe of a New York City block, featuring mock storefronts, subway tile decor, a pair of park-style chess tables and even a throwback payphone. A portion of the space serves as a mini-preview center designed to resemble an Etihad Park suite. Several NYCFC sponsors -- including Casper, FlixBus and Paze -- also have their own dedicated booths within City Corner. Their presence likely would be prohibited at an official FIFA Fan Festival, but the New York-New Jersey Host Committee’s unofficial model enabled NYCFC to provide additional value for its corporate partners.
NYCFC is also one of the many MLS teams promoting a “First Match On Us” initiative, prompting fans to scan a QR code to learn how they can attend their first game for free this season (while the team plays out its final days at Yankee Stadium, where ticket inventory remains readily available).
KC Masterpiece: Milwaukee Bucks Executive Producer for Broadcast & Live Events Johnny Watson is no stranger to global sporting events. In fact, this will be the third consecutive summer he’s been hired by event production firm RWS Global to work one, following the 2024 Paris Olympics and last summer’s FIFA Club World Cup. But Watson, who will serve as the lead producer for World Cup matches in Kansas City, said the resources at his disposal this time are particularly robust.
“[FIFA is] obviously putting a lot of resources and money into special effects, and you can’t even imagine the amount of staff that are going to be there to help with these pre-match ceremonies and all that,” Watson said. “When you look down the list of what it takes to produce a world-class event, this checks all the boxes. So, that’s what I’m excited for, is to get on site and get to put my hands on some of these things and see what we have at our disposal to really enhance the experience and engage the audience.”
Free kicks
- As games begin in the U.S., we will get a better look at just how strictly FIFA’s guidelines for commercially clean spaces, including stadiums and Fan Festivals, are being enforced. One stadium operator told me last week that he was pleasantly surprised by a bit of leniency regarding signage within the concourses that is not visible on TV. That stood in contrast, however, to what I saw on Thursday, when a FIFA official asked a New York-New Jersey Host Committee staffer to remove the Poland Spring label from the staffer’s water bottle, presumably to protect the rights of Coca-Cola and its Dasani brand.
- If FIFA and its broadcast partners were hoping to minimize backlash against the introduction and commercialization of hydration breaks, they didn’t get off to a good start. As my colleague Josh Carpenter noted, Fox was late returning to live action after a commercial break following the second-half hydration break during Thursday’s opener between Mexico and South Africa. It will be interesting to see whether the network pivots to picture-in-picture ads rather than full breaks to avoid another snafu.
- As part of its Host City Supporter relationship with Telemundo, the New York-New Jersey Host Committee will carry all matches screened at its fan events in New York City’s five boroughs exclusively in Spanish. That wasn’t an issue Thursday afternoon, when virtually the entire crowd at the Group Stage HQ in Queens was supporting the Mexican national team. But the decision will likely catch some English-speaking fans off guard over the next few weeks.
What’s Happening
SBJ is tracking the dozens of industry gatherings, watch parties, fan zones and other happenings surrounding the World Cup. Here’s a selection of events worth your attention:
*Editor’s Note: Please check links and event contacts provided to confirm specific dates and other information.
