104 Super Bowls? Five Million Fans? The 2026 World Cup Will Be Colossal in Big Ways

It may not feel like it just yet, but there’s a party like never before happening next year. And it’s been building since 1994.

Except this bash is being compared to having "104 Super Bowls in one month." 

Having covered soccer for two decades and at five World Cups across the globe, I’ve seen some of soccer’s biggest moments — from Lionel Messi’s glory in 2022 (and his years of agony before that) to Tim Howard’s record 15-save performance for the U.S. men's national team at the 2014 edition in Brazil.

Lionel Messi won his first World Cup at Qatar 2022. Could he win his second in the United States next summer? (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

It all culminates in 2026, when the most popular spectacle in sports comes back to the United States as a 48-team behemoth, a 50-percent increase in size from any previous edition that will see the tournament span across our borders into Canada and Mexico as well.

When all’s said and done, the World Cup 2026 will be the largest event in history — sporting or otherwise. Its success will rest on the shoulders of some of the most passionate fans in the game.

But to pull it off, it’ll take expertise from the people from behind the scenes, most of whom aren’t household names. Here's what they have to say about how they’ll do it.

As a proud son of Augusta, Georgia, U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson knows exactly how to explain to folks back in his home state just how enormous the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be when the planet’s most popular event lands in Atlanta and 15 other North American cities starting next June 11.

"Depending on where you are, you try to contextualize so it’s something people can wrap their head around," Batson told me earlier this month at an