PHILADELPHIA — Soccer fans will pay just $2.90 to take the subway to and from World Cup matches. They can gather in a park for 39 straight days of free fan festivals. And police are getting new body-camera tools that will help them interact with foreign visitors in more than 50 languages.
As cities across North America gear up to host 104 World Cup matches, Philadelphia is prioritizing accessible, affordable and convenient experiences. The six games that will be played here, including one July 4 — the nation’s 250th birthday — will be marquee events for a city out to prove it is a global destination that knows how to host a party.
The events follow years of planning that included intense involvement from top city leaders, the business community and Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), a die-hard sports fan. The result is a city ready to showcase its growing swagger over waterfront redevelopment, convenient neighborhoods and an authentic culture, even as social ills such as poverty, addiction and high crime rates in some neighborhoods persist.
“We are standing on the cusp of a truly historic moment for our city,” said Jazelle Jones, director of the city’s Office of Special Events. “This summer the world will be watching Philadelphia, and when they do they do, they will see this is a city that … knows how to rise to the moment.”
Despite that optimism, there is a divide among residents and business owners over whether Philly will truly benefit from the games. Although the city’s rapidly growing immigrant community is excited to be part of the big moment, some native-born residents insist Philadelphia is not a soccer town.
Yet, Philly’s preparations stand in sharp contrast to some of the controversies that have engulfed other U.S. host cities in the lead-up to the World Cup over how to transport fans to matches, the cost of stadium parking or concerns that tourists are not reserving enough hotel rooms.
Philadelphia officials say they have worked to mitigate those challenges by scrutinizing how the city handled past events, including a papal visit in 2015, the Democratic National Convention in 2016 and the NFL draft in 2017. Some of those events snarled traffic and limited pedestrians’ movements due to extensive road closures.
Those experiences led local business and sports leaders to begin aggressively raising money in 2019 to try to convince FIFA, global soccer’s governing body, that Philadelphia would be well-equipped to host some of this summer’s matches, said Daniel J. Hilferty, co-chair of the Philadelphia Soccer 2026 committee. By the time FIFA conducted site visits for potential host cities in 2021, Hilferty said his committee “pushed a document across the table showing we already had $42 million in hand.”
“Philly has an underdog attitude, and we always feel like we need to show up better than everybody else,” Hilferty said.
After FIFA selected Philadelphia as a host city in 2022, the committee accelerated fundraising — appealing to potential donors’ “sense of supporting their hometown,” Hilferty said. They raised almost $100 million more, with top donations coming from local businesses, the Philadelphia Eagles and the state government.
In 2023, Philadelphia elected a new mayor, Cherelle Parker (D), whose office said she was committed even before taking her post to making World Cup matches open and convenient.
“This is about affordability and access for all, not just downtown visitors,” Parker said.
That mandate was in line with other regional officials’ desire to make sure that bus and subway fares were not increased for the event. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, known as SEPTA, will charge a standard fare to get to the stadium, and rides home will be free due to a partnership with Airbnb.
Those low fares stand in contrast to the round-trip $98 rail fare fans face to get to and from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which has outraged many New York-area residents and politicians.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia announced this spring that it will be the only major city to offer free fan festivals all 39 days of the tournament. The events, held at Lemon Hill Park, will include video feeds of all the matches, and access to food trucks and alcohol vendors selling meals and drinks.
Officials expect the 50-acre venue near the Schuylkill River to attract about 20,000 people per day. Visitors can walk to the event, including a route down Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where flags representing dozens of nations have been hung on light poles. They can also get there using the Philly PHLASH bus, which transports people to local tourist attractions for $5 per day.
Pennsylvania lawmakers also voted this spring to allow permitted Philadelphia bars to remain open until 4 a.m. during the World Cup, two hours later than usual. As people move around the city, officials have established four “hospitality hubs” that will include water stations, bathrooms, benches and shade.
Recognizing that foreign visitors may not want to incur costly cellphone charges, Philadelphia has even created a WhatsApp Messenger channel they can join to receive local updates.
Some of Philadelphia’s efforts are intertwined with celebrations for the country’s 250th birthday. On July 4, the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the city will hold a free outdoor concert in addition to a World Cup match. The will feature Christina Aguilera, Jill Scott, the Roots and Will Smith, all of whom have ties to Pennsylvania.
Officials also hope neighborhoods across the city will benefit from World Cup crowds. They’re offering free trolley tours into 20 areas. They hope to avoid some of the frustrations business owners recently felt in Pittsburgh, which hosted the NFL draft in April.
That event drew a record 805,000 people, but bars and restaurants in many Pittsburgh neighborhoods reported lower-than-normal attendance that weekend. Some blamed weeks of warnings from local officials about traffic, including electronic highway signs that urged residents to “avoid unnecessary travel.”
Angela Val, president of Visit Philadelphia, a tourism agency that was involved in World Cup planning, said they want city residents to be involved in this summer’s events.
“When you tell people who live and work there to not participate or stay home … you zap that energy and vibrancy,” Val said, adding that some past events in the city included security perimeters that were too large and disruptive.
Philadelphia has a growing immigrant population in neighborhoods such as Africatown, in the southwest. Many immigrants are big soccer fans, said Voffee Jabateh, executive director of the African Cultural Alliance of North America, an advocacy group that supports the Africa-born community. The group is spending $50,000 to hold outdoor barbecues and equip bars, restaurants and street corners in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods with new big-screen televisions.
“For immigrants, soccer is a reliever,” said Jabateh, who moved to the U.S. from Liberia in 1990. “A relief of stress, so people will be celebrating.
Ana Rinconi, who moved from Brazil to suburban Philadelphia in 2019, said the city’s Brazilian community has been flooding social media chats with strategies for enjoying the games. Brazil will play Haiti in Philadelphia on June 19.
“I think if you are not excited about the World Cup, then you are not Brazilian,” said Rinconi, 44, who has three teenage sons who play soccer. “That is our mindset … and the city seems prepared.”
But even with the World Cup expected to bring a $770 million boost to the local economy, some residents question whether their communities will really benefit.
Efrem Thomas, a general manager at Human Robot Brewery, which has five locations in the region, said he is “torn” about whether to expect a boost in sales this summer. He said some past events in the city have failed to live up to expectations.
Thomas, 60, said he’s not sure whether residents will stay in the city on match days instead of “going to their beach houses in New Jersey.” He also has doubts about whether foreign visitors will spend freely in the city.
In Philadelphia’s Brewerytown neighborhood, which abuts Lemon Hill Park where the fan festival will be held, residents and business owners along Girard Avenue appear divided over whether they will benefit from the World Cup.
Kevin Bell, the owner of Butter’s Soul Food restaurant, said he is skeptical that foot traffic will increase in his neighborhood during the games.
Although there has been a sharp decrease in violent crime in recent years, Bell said he worries that visitors won’t stray far from the central business district. And Bell, who is Black, said many native-born Philadelphia residents still have not embraced soccer as a sport worth getting excited about.
“We are not soccer at all,” said Bell, repeating a sentiment shared by several residents of the area. “Ours is football. Out of 100 people, you might find five” soccer fans.
But a few doors away, Tremell Foster has high hopes for his 7-year-old son’s water-ice business, the Illest Flavors. Foster’s son, Lennox, used proceeds from selling lemonade to open the business a year ago.
Foster, who was working at the store while his son was in school, said he can “already sense the vibe in the city is increasing.” He was also heartened that a representative from the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Philadelphia recently stopped by the store to gather advertisements for the hotel lobby.
“We already got soccer on the screen,” Foster said, pointing to a television he recently installed above the shop’s mango, blueberry and passion fruit flavorings. “This is the biggest sport in the world. People will be showing up.”
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