Fan fest in Jersey City will be open for all 104 World Cup matches next year

A fan fest at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey, will be open for all 104 games of the 2026 World Cup.

Fan fests with large video screens have been a part of each World Cup’s organization since 2006. Plans to have one in New York City’s Corona Park no longer are moving forward, but festivities in Central Park remains possible. The one in Jersey City is set.

“That is going to be the one fan fest, I believe, across the country that is going to be up and running for all games of the World Cup as opposed to just the games that are happening in our region,” Tammy Murphy, wife of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and chair of the New York/New Jersey host committee’s directors, said during an interview Monday.

Murphy’s appointment as chair was announced Tuesday along with the hiring of Alex Lasry, a former Milwaukee Bucks executive and son of former Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, as CEO of the host committee. He heads a fulltime staff of about 10.

The World Cup will be co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The tournament, expanded to 48 nations from 32, opens June 11 in Mexico City and the final will be July 19 at East Rutherford, New Jersey. Games will be played at 11 U.S. venues, three in Mexico and two in Canada, with all matches in the U.S. from the quarterfinals on.

“The final is awesome to have here and it is a huge opportunity not just for FIFA to market itself, but I think more importantly for the New York/New Jersey region to market itself as the place to do business, as the place to do events and as the center for sports and entertainment in the world,” Lasry said.

FIFA is running the World Cup itself unlike in the past, when a local organizing committee was in charge of logistics. FIFA did not respond to a request for FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Heimo Schirgi, chief operating officer of the tournament, to discuss the World Cup.

The host committee will coordinate with federal, state and local governments.

“We’re not going to really be handling what goes on inside the stadium,” Lasry said. “The soccer match, that’s going to be a lot of FIFA. We’re going to be working with FIFA on security and our day-to-day responsibilities are to raise money to help put on the fan fests, to make sure that our security and transportation are all set and then also making sure that we’re engaging with the communities to kind of explain to everyone what the benefits of this are going to be.”

Lasry, the U.S. Commerce Department’s deputy assistant secretary for travel and tourism for two years until last month, said the committee will work to ensure the tournament leaves a legacy.

World Cup USA 1994, which ran the previous World Cup in the U.S. for FIFA, transferred about $50 million in surplus money from the tournament to a newly established U.S Soccer Foundation, which has focused on funding the game in underserved communities.

FIFA has various tiers of sponsors and Lasry said the host committee will work with FIFA’s partners and be responsible deals with regional entities.

Lasry said the semifinals and championship of the first expanded Club World Cup at East Rutherford’s MetLife Stadium this July will be a dry run for the 2026 event.

“We’ll be able to look at it from a security and transportation standpoint on, OK, where did things go really well? Where do we have some gaps? What went well but that we can do better?” Lasry said.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer