On April 15, 2025, FIFA President Gianni Infantino arrived in Atlanta to see the city that would host fourteen high-profile soccer matches across two consecutive summers. He toured Mercedes-Benz Stadium with Mayor Andre Dickens, announced a $1 million FIFA donation to Atlanta youth soccer programs, and offered a comparison that captured the scale of what was coming: "A World Cup is like plenty of Super Bowls. So we'll have 14 Super Bowls, Mayor, in two months here in Atlanta."
The math was aggressive but not wrong. Atlanta was set to host six FIFA Club World Cup matches beginning June 14, 2025, followed by eight FIFA World Cup matches — including a semifinal — in the summer of 2026. No American city outside of the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area was scheduled for more World Cup activity.
The Economic Ambition
Mayor Dickens did not understate the financial opportunity. "If we do this right, this could be over a billion dollars in revenue," he told reporters during Infantino's visit. The figure accounted for direct spending by fans — tickets, hotels, food, transportation — as well as the downstream effects of global television exposure and the long-term tourism marketing that comes with hosting a World Cup.
To capture that revenue, the city was coordinating through Showcase Atlanta, a public-private partnership designed to ensure that local and small businesses — not just national chains and hotel groups — benefited from the influx. Dickens emphasized that the economic plan extended beyond the stadium district: watch parties, cultural festivals, and activations would be organized across the city to spread visitor spending into neighborhoods that rarely see major-event tourism dollars.
Club World Cup First
Before the 2026 World Cup, Atlanta would serve as a proving ground during the 2025 Club World Cup — FIFA's expanded 32-team tournament featuring top club sides from every confederation. The six matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium functioned as a dress rehearsal: testing the stadium's configuration for soccer, stress-testing the city's transportation and hospitality infrastructure, and giving Atlanta's organizing committee live-event experience before the far larger 2026 tournament.
Youth Investment
The $1 million FIFA donation to youth soccer programs carried significance beyond the dollar amount. Atlanta's youth soccer infrastructure — anchored by organizations like Soccer in the Streets and its StationSoccer program at MARTA stations — had been building grassroots participation for decades. FIFA's investment signaled that the international governing body saw Atlanta not just as a venue but as a soccer city, one where the sport had community roots that predated the World Cup bid.
Infantino's visit lasted a single day. The preparations it represented would take two years and reshape downtown Atlanta's infrastructure, hospitality capacity, and international profile in ways that would outlast both tournaments.
Original reporting by Georgia Public Broadcasting, April 15, 2025.