Saturday June 14, 2026 is the first of six different days that Philadelphia will hold games for the World Cup. This is the very first time the FIFA World Cup will be held in Philadelphia, and only the second time the World Cup has been held in the United States.
The World Cup is a men’s soccer tournament featuring the best teams from all over the world, and it is held every four years. The World Cup is also known as the single largest sporting event in the world so there is much preparation for this event by Philadelphia alongside other hosting cities.
The official host committee of Philadelphia along with the CEO of Philadelphia soccer Meg Kane are doing a lot to prepare the city for the World Cup.
One of the the largest changes that the city is making is preparing the Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles to be ready for soccer games to be held in. A significant part of the stadium that they need to change is the turf that the Eagles play on, which needs to be converted to grass.
This will take three to six weeks. Another large part that they need to do is covering or removing all of the different Eagles logos that are all over the stadium. They are also making upgrades to technology and hospitality, because of the large number of people that they will need to seat in the stadium.
Another important event that the city is also hosting is a FIFA fan festival. It is going to be a free, daily event at Lemon Hill featuring live, local entertainment, food and it will host watch parties.
While there is a lot of good preparation that is being done by the city, one aspect that seems to be getting overlooked is the fact that there has not been as much advertising in the city as there should be for something so anticipated and large in the world.
“It’s sort of surprising to me that it hasn’t been more visible in our daily lives,” said Athletics director and Upper School History teacher Jeff Bond.
It has also been noticed that not a lot of effort is put into trying to excite and get the people in Philadelphia that might not know as much about the World Cup.
“I’d love to see the city have a coordinated effort to increase enthusiasm among the run-of-the-mill average Philadelphian who’s not plugged into world soccer,” said Bond.
Another aspect that the city will need to accommodate is being able to host all of the many fans that will come to Philadelphia from all over the world. While many of the traveling fans are not going to any games, they will still be packed into bars and restaurants across the city to support their teams passionately.
Co-leader of the World Cup ExTerm and Upper School History Teacher Drew Benfer also speaks to this topic, stating that, “Philadelphia has to be ready to move and provide a place for thousands of fans to go. There will also be thousands and thousands of fans who don’t have tickets. So hotels and bars and restaurants will have to be ready as well for lots of people just being present.”
Benfer also expresses his excitement for this upcoming ExTerm, claiming that there are many different ways to take advantage of this World Cup, even outside of the soccer aspect, with emphasis on small businesses.
He says, “People are going to come to Philadelphia. And so if you’re a small business owner, this is an opportunity to make money. And part of the ExTerm is helping students to understand how small businesses can draw customers to their business.”
Elise C • May 30, 2026 at 3:19 pm
I was also wondering why there isn’t as much advertising for the World Cup, especially in Philly; I feel like people should get more hype because I loved streaming the last one in 2022!