You may have heard: the 2026 Men’s World Cup is coming to Atlanta. A lot can change in four years though. Just think about all that’s happened in the last four ye …. okay, maybe don’t think about all that. Can we just agree to agree that a lot can change? Here’s what the announcement might change for the city, Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Atlanta United over the next four years and beyond.
Centennial Yards could actually appear
I know many in Atlanta have mourned the death of “The Gulch,” the sprawling parking lot next to Mercedes-Benz Stadium that served as the primary setting for Atlanta United tailgates, bad personal health choices and that one scene in “Baby Driver.” That tailgating scene has been scaled back in recent years due to the creation of Centennial Yards, a multi-use hotel, shopping, bar and restaurant district - think along the lines of The Battery, the multi-use district built to coincide with the construction of Truist Park — that should eventually feature plenty of bars and pubs for Atlanta United fans to gather in on game days.
If you’ve been by The Gulch lately, you may have noticed that progress on Centennial Yards has been … limited. However, there’s optimism that you’ll be able to spend your pregame preparation for the World Cup in an air-conditioned bar. Centennial Yards even featured in some of the discussions surrounding Atlanta’s bid.
“I believe The Gulch will be ready in time,” Atlanta Sports Council president Dan Corso said. “We’re certainly looking forward to having that on the roster of things to do and places to go for folks when they come here and visit. It's a key part of our downtown and really, really beneficial for it. We actually talked to FIFA about that. They were excited about the opportunity to have that up and running when they come here.”
Obviously, there’s a long way to go before The Gulch resembles anything like the renderings of shiny happy people walking with designer shopping bags past a Wild Leap Brewery and into MBS. But I have to imagine that such a major event coming in 2026 will help provide some motivation to accelerate the process.
A new playing surface … for a few months anyway
In February 2026, Mercedes-Benz Stadium will begin the process of removing its normal field turf playing surface and installing grass.
The turf itself is replaced every two years at MBS anyway. In this particular instance, the old turf will be removed, underpinings will be installed along with underground irrigation and ventilation, then the natural grass turf will be placed on top. It’s a necessary requirement for Atlanta to host a World Cup event, but there are challenges when it comes to field maintenance and when it comes to the stadium’s most consistent occupant, Kanye West Atlanta United.
You may have noticed that, even with the stadium roof unfurled and opened, sunlight doesn’t exactly cover the field. In fact, it often settles during games on the poor section in the corner next to the supporters’ section and gives off the appearance that God has a personal vendetta against the good people of section 135. It’s objectively funny for me in an air-conditioned press box, not so funny for section 135, and not ideal in any way for growing and maintaining a grass field.
Per Dietmar Exler, COO of Arthur M. Blank Sports and Entertainment, that’s why solving MBS’ sunlight problem will be a critical focus for the folks who run the stadium and why the grass won’t be around for long. When the World Cup leaves Atlanta, the grass at MBS will too.
However, that’s still a decent chunk of time to have grass installed in Atlanta United’s home stadium. It’s the kind of potential roadblock to a normal season that has had folks wondering if the Five Stripes might return to Bobby Dodd Stadium or if they might just spend the entire first half of 2026 on the road while the folks in MBS literally watch the grass grow. The indication from Atlanta United president Darren Eales though is that everyone involved will work to make sure it’s not an issue.
“So obviously we'll work with FIFA and the league as we do that, but as we put it in totally, that'll give us a chance to play games on grass. So the idea is better off to put it in the start season so we have more chance to play games,” Eales said. “Our main aim is to play all of our games at the same one stadium in 2026. And we're working with FIFA and the league, but feel quite excited, have that chance to do that.”
Not a $400 million injection
At the official announcement of Atlanta as a host city, Atlanta Sports Council president Dan Corso cited a study done by Boston Consulting Group that suggested Atlanta might see a $415 million economic impact by hosting a World Cup game. In fact, the BCG suggests that North America as a whole might see $5 billion in economic activity.
There’s reason to believe those numbers are extraordinarily optimistic at best. Even Corso himself later indicated the impact of hosting might be felt around the city in ways that aren’t necessarily centered on $415 million worth of economic impact.
“That started way back when North America won the right to host the event. I believe Boston consulting group came up with that study. So that's a number that we use. Listen, I think economic impact, some cities can say, it's this other city say it's this. To me, it's not zero,” Corso said.
“There's gotta be a net injection when you've got a 30-day event of the world's biggest sporting event with passionate fans coming in from all over the world," he continued. "So it's significant financially. But more than the economics, I think there's an opportunity to create some really cool legacies and community impacts long after the world cup is gone for sure from our city. So I think we're looking at it both economically and socially.”
Dr. Victor Matheson, a professor of Economics and Accounting at Holy Cross, a former MLS referee, and author of several studies on the World Cup’s economic impact, says that a good rule of thumb for most economic impact numbers cited for major sporting events is to take the original number and move a decimal place over one spot to the left. For a $400 million evaluation created by a group being paid to make the group he paid them look viable, you should probably consider it closer to a $40 million evaluation.
“The main issue here is the way you're gonna generate money is only if you bring new people to the city who wouldn't have otherwise been here. For a ton of these games, the vast majority of the people who are going to be there are going to be local Atlanta and local Georgia people going to games. That's even more so when you're talking about this new 48-game tournament.. You're gonna have something like Slovenia vs. Jamaica. And it's not that these aren't great fans and good fan bases, they're just not enough fans that are gonna come and fill up a 75,000 seat Mercedes-Benz stadium from people traveling there,” Matheson said.
“The person from Marietta who comes down for a game doesn't generate any economic activity for the city because they're just spending money there instead of a United game or instead of at a Braves game or instead of going and getting, you know, chili dogs at whatever that famous place is downtown.”
Varsity slander aside, Matheson raises plenty of good points. That number can creep a little closer to that BCG evaluation depending on who plays in the games Atlanta hosts. Especially if Atlanta hosts one of the biggest games of the tournament …
A possible semifinal
When the North American World Cup committee submitted its bid to FIFA, it floated Atlanta and Dallas as semifinal sites. There might be some surprise at that with Los Angeles on the table, but SoFi Stadium, incredibly, will need work to be a soccer-ready stadium. The pitch isn’t able to meet FIFA size guidelines with the stadium’s current set up, and alterations will have to be made, including removing seats.
Those are therefore a couple of points in Atlanta’s favor, but it’s not a done deal. Per the Atlanta Sports Council, the assumption is that FIFA will make a decision on the sites for each game in June 2023. Until then, Atlanta will continue pitching and showcasing itself to not only earn a semifinal, but to possibly be the tournament’s media hub.
“There's going to be a headquarters for all of the world's media,” Mayor Andre Dickens said. “We can host that at the Georgia World Congress Center. I would love for them each and every time they come on to say ‘Live from Atlanta, we'd like to talk about today's matches.’"
Once FIFA’s decisions on matches and media hubs are announced, Atlanta will then go ahead with forming a host committee made up of parties such as the Atlanta Sports Council, the city of Atlanta, Mercedes-Benz Stadium and other groups critical to planning a major event in a major city. It will likely be made up of many of the same people who planned the CFB Title Game in 2018 (that I don’t want to talk about), the 2019 Super Bowl, and the unexecuted plans for the 2020 Final Four. Essentially, Atlanta should be well-practiced to prepare for the world’s biggest sporting stage. Which means you should be ready for …
A definite party
In 2026. Atlanta will officially become one of two American cities to host both the Summer Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. It’s going to be a big deal. A really big deal. And amidst the fun and the spectacle, there’s an opportunity for Atlanta United to continue to build and capture an audience in the city and state.
“We've got a chance to now lean in and catch those sort of more casual fans that perhaps we haven't been to able to with all of the excitement that's gonna be around this World Cup,” Eales proposed.
“The hard work starts now. We’ve gotta think ‘How do we capture this?’ We can't afford to fritter any time away. This is four years. With Atlanta United, we're always thinking ahead strategically. We're gonna be doing that now for the next four years on how can we grow the game in the state of Georgia. Because this isn't just about Atlanta. We're excited about how we can do fan fests around the state of Georgia. You know, we've done things like the MARTA station soccer, and I think that's something that caught FIFA’s eye when they came for the visit. So we're thinking, how can we expand that? How can we showcase that in other cities? Because for us this is about Atlanta, but also about other cities too.”
More on what the World Cup will mean for host cities