The 2026 FIFA World Cup will strengthen LA’s robust soccer culture

Perhaps it's fitting Angelinos never had the impulse to brand Los Angeles a soccer city, capital or some other fancy moniker — consuming the game here comes as naturally as breathing the air.

For the 16 cities selected to host matches, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will have a transformative effect on the sport. 

We know, because we’ve already seen it happen.

“We are in a much different place than we were in 1994,” explained LA Galaxy President and World Cup host committee co-chair Chris Klein. "The culture of soccer in Los Angeles is strong, so what a World Cup can do in our city, we believe yeah you can call it a multiplier effect, something that will take the sport to another level in our city and our country and we’re excited to play a small part in it."

As a nine-year-old living in the LA suburbs when the 1994 World Cup came to town, the experience still rings vividly for me. Walking around the Los Angeles Convention Center and soaking in Soccerfest. The colorful uniforms. The players, with their fancy haircuts and intriguing names. Baggio. How devastated I was when the genius with the ponytail skied his PK into the Rose Bowl stands giving Brazil the ultimate glory.

Afterward, I grew a ponytail of my own to imitate my newfound idol. Those famous denim kits the USA sported? I wore mine until the thing was caked with food stains.

I was hooked.

History across Southern California

That summer changed the landscape of soccer in the U.S., leaving behind a tangible legacy. Banc of California Stadium now stands in the exact spot where the LA Sports Arena once stood. The glittering $350 million, soccer-specific palace is a testament to the growth of MLS — the very league that U.S. Soccer president Alan Rothenberg promised FIFA he would build if the committee was awarded the World Cup. As you pass the Banc on the 110, a sports shop with a faded USA '94 World Cup logo is visible.

Nearby in Pasadena lies the historic Rose Bowl, where a Brandy Chastain statue brings back memories of the heroic 1999 World Cup squad. “The 99ers” captivated a nation by surging through the tournament before defeating China in a dramatic penalty kick shootout to hoist the cup. The sequence of Chastain firing a rocket into goalkeeper Gao Hong’s corner netting and ripping her jersey off is arguably the greatest moment in American soccer history and one of the iconic sports images of our time.

The success of the 1999 Women’s World Cup led to the creation of the WPS, a league that ultimately failed but helped pave the way for the NWSL. 

Despite signing Brazil’s Marta, the LA Sol of the WPL quietly dissolved after just a single season. But soccer in LA cannot fail, it can only be failed, and on April 30th, women’s pro soccer returned in the form of an Angel City FC team headed by a star-studded ownership group. That team defeated the North Carolina Courage in front of a raucous sold-out Banc to start its own story.

When the ill-fated MLS franchise Chivas USA folded in 2014, the same press release announcing the decision revealed a new ownership group was taking over operations. Like a booth at Grand Central Station serving mediocre food, one franchise was shuttered and a new one quickly popped up in its place. Today, the popularity of the sport speaks for itself. Los Angeles has three pro soccer clubs that have all enjoyed tremendous success. The five-time MLS Cup champion LA Galaxy are historically considered the standard-bearers of the league, while LAFC have impressed with their ambitious goals and attractive football. It took women’s soccer a minute to show up in downtown LA, but that was a strategic move that appears to be paying off. The combined average gate of all three teams? Almost 65,000.

What working together created

Klein praised the collaborative effort of the committee and what it could mean for the sport and the city. “When LA Galaxy plays LAFC, it’s watched locally, nationally, globally…some of the big events that have happened, they’re a driver for the sport in the country, and the introduction of Angel City FC and what they’ve been able to do…”

”We view ourselves as rivals on the field, but really partners in growing the game of soccer…it’s even gone beyond what we thought could be possible in terms of what it could mean in this city and how people have reacted to it.”

Soccer may have already been here, but the World Cup blew the sport up. Few things are more ubiquitous around LA than the sight of portable soccer goals at a public park. “You can walk on the beach by a basketball court and see people playing pickup soccer,” Klein noted.

The biggest question remaining is whether Sofi Stadium will host the final. Nestled in the Inglewood suburbs like a recently-descended spaceship, Sofi Stadium has a strong case. At an estimated cost of over 5 billion dollars, the futuristic venue is the most expensive stadium in history and a fitting destination for a World Cup final.

Klein describes himself as "extremely biased” toward SoFi for the finals location, which locked in for him even further when he witnessed the Super Bowl held there in February.

"We don’t think there’s a better venue in the world in a city like Los Angeles and the culture that we have here," he observed. "What we can do for a summer World Cup, we think we’re the perfect place.” 

A stadium to fall in love with

And he’s right. Billed as the first indoor/outside stadium in the world, photos don’t do the stadium justice. SoFi is breathtaking in person. You simply can’t wrap your head around the building, which seats 70,000 with room to expand to over 100,000. With a 6,000-seat amphitheater, pedestrian plaza and state-of-the-art technology crammed into every corner, it’s little wonder FIFA officials are said to be in love with the stadium the American Society of Civil Engineers designated as its Project of the Year.

The arguments against SoFi hosting the final are few and far between. The necessary removal of some corner field-level suites to make the field a FIFA-regulation width has been perceived as a problem, but as the LA Times’ Kevin Baxter notes, those suites are “demountable” and designed to be removed. The obstacle of laying down natural grass is another manageable issue that FIFA is already familiar with.

The only real hiccup is the eight-hour time difference between L.A. and Greenwich Mean Time; that factor favors venues in the U.S.'s two easternmost time zones when thinking about the significant European audience. Klein, in addressing that issue, noted, “That’s for people a lot smarter than me to figure out, but when the game is hosted here, we’re more than ready and willing to host it, and we think that a final can certainly be played here, and watched by a worldwide audience. So again, that’s a decision for other people to make, but we’re trying to put our best foot forward and be available and bid for the most important game of the 2026 World Cup.”

Given the success of one World Cup final in the venerable Rose Bowl, and the potential of a next World Cup final in a harbinger of stadiums to come, the L.A. committee might indeed be holding the winning hand.