Just under a year from now, the U.S. will be hosting the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 32 years. Aside from the on-field heroics, the lasting legacy of 1994 was a sense that after decades of disinterest in the “beautiful game,” soccer had finally come to America. Youth participation in soccer exploded. Kids went to sleep with posters of Alexi Lalas rocking denim-inspired uniforms, and fought over who could imitate Tony Meola in goal on the schoolyard at recess.
There’s no way of knowing how many of the 3.5 million fans who attended one of the 52 matches held in 1994 were kids. There was some sticker shock for a sport that had yet to gain a foothold in the States — the get-in-the-door price in 1994 was $25 ($55 in today’s dollars), but tickets were sold in strips for a minimum of $140 per seat (or $310 today.) Newspaper columnists at the time grumbled that families could expect to spend more on admission to World Cup games than a trip to Disneyland (back then, just $115 for a family of four).
But just like a trip to Disneyland (where that family today should expect to spend a minimum of $404 just to get into the park), fans today can expect to pay much, much more than their parents did back in the 1990s. The ticketing process and prices for next year’s matches (to be played in sixteen cities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico) are being handled by FIFA, soccer’s global governing body. They have already announced plans to use dynamic pricing — like airlines use — rather than a static ticket price.
We won’t know official price points until September, but FIFA’s official documents suggest interested families should start saving now. For at least 90% of games, FIFA’s ticket sales benchmarks suggests a get-in-the-door price somewhere around $175 per seat. The average ticket price for a group-stage match is projected to be $305. Want to see the U.S. take on their first-round opponent? Get ready to spend even more than that. Lucky is the eleven-year-old whose parents have the desire, much less the ability, to take him or her to see Christian Pulisic or Kylian Mbappé in person, even from the nosebleeds.
We shouldn’t be surprised that FIFA has its eye set on maximizing revenue. Yet allowing the games to go forward without intentionally including kids and families would be a mistake. Each of the cities hosting World Cup games have put together host committee organizations, which will be responsible for the trappings and festivities surrounding the actual competition on the field of play. And at least some of them seem focused on creating opportunities for families who don’t have hundreds of dollars to drop on tickets to the games themselves.
The New York/New Jersey committee, responsible for the planning around games held at the NFL stadium in the Meadowlands, has plans to host a Fan Festival at Liberty State Park, offering live match viewings, activities, food and “family-friendly programming.” They’ll also be organizing a road tour leading up to the games and pop-up events in NYC’s neighborhoods and helping create more than two dozen “mini-pitches” for kids to play on in communities across the Tri-State Area.
“Youth inclusion is a core part of the NYNJ Host Committee’s mission and legacy planning. We believe this tournament is not just a moment in time, it’s a catalyst to inspire the next generation,” said Brianna Keys, the NY/NJ committee’s Director of Social Impact. “We hope the legacy [of the World Cup] is simple and powerful: a generation of kids who see themselves in the game ... ensuring access to the sport through sustainable investments in facilities, after-school programs, and community-based engagement.”
Leo Flor, the Chief Legacy Officer for the Seattle World Cup Host Committee, has a similar sense of responsibility for including the broader community in the excitement around next summer’s games — even if kids have a hard time getting to the games themselves.
“Our ambition is that eight-year-olds today — 20 years from now when they’re 28 — they’ll look back on the World Cup and say that was a net positive for their community,” Flor said. “The vast majority of kids will not be able to attend matches, just mathematically. So our responsibility is to create points of access, points of engagement for the broader community and for kids, especially.”
In the Western Washington region, that will include a particular emphasis on efforts to engage indigenous youth on tribal reservations, where the Seattle host committee will be involved in building mini-pitches for youth to play on.
There’s no question that the business of sports has changed in innumerable ways since 1994. As the sports journalist Joon Lee recently wrote for the New York Times, the incessant search for higher streaming revenue, sports betting dollars and corporate synergies means that mass-market sporting events are starting to fade as communal experiences. Global merchandising and broadcasting rights sell in the billions of dollars, and those companies expect a return on their investment. Aside from the token 22 young people that routinely flank the two teams’ starters as they walk onto the pitch, the games themselves will be for adults, not youth. The demand to attend a World Cup match will always exceed supply – yet a stadium full of corporate executives is not the atmosphere that inspires dreams and builds lifelong fans.
As Seattle’s Flor pointed out, soccer itself requires less equipment and infrastructure compared to other sports — meaning that a repeat of 1994’s enthusiasm may be felt across the income spectrum. “Soccer can play a particularly powerful role in equalizing (access),” Flor said. “Whether it’s mini-pitches or … soccer balls that have a special World Cup logo on them, it can get kids excited about playing.
“We want a healthy country, a healthy country requires healthy kids, and healthy kids need to be able to play. It shouldn’t just be something that’s available only to families that have the money to afford it.”
That message is important — but can get lost amid FIFA’s projections of $2 billion in ticket revenue.
At the very least, local host committees should take NY/NJ’s lead, and build family-friendly viewing areas into their plans rather than just corporate beer gardens. There are doubtless more creative ways young people could participate in the once-in-a-lifetime experience of hosting the world’s most-watched sporting event in your backyard.
Offer youth soccer leagues, schools and homeschool groups free walkthroughs of the stadium in the days leading up to the game. Local MLS teams whose stadia don’t regularly sell out (which is, approximately, all of them) could partner with libraries to set up a kids-go-free program to capitalize on the World Cup’s afterglow. Local businesses and Chambers of Commerce could put together a “passport” of activities that culminate in a mini prize.
The ideas are endless, but they won’t execute themselves. Organizers need to proactively seek out ways for kids to feel a sense of pride and ownership in the 2026 FIFA World Cup — or the surge of enthusiasm that followed the 1994 version may be lacking this time around.