Recently, NBC reported that, "Days after the high cost of World Cup fees became a political football, officials in New Jersey revealed the final price fans will face just to get to the stadium. Round-trip tickets via train to MetLife Stadium, which will host eight games, including the July 19 Final, will cost $150, an elevenfold increase on the typical cost of $12.90. A bus ride will set fans back $80."
Jeffrey St. Clair of CounterPunch reiterated that, "The normal cost of a train ticket to the Meadowlands is $12.95. During the World Cup, this same ticket will cost $150. Don't even think about driving; it will cost $225 to park. Want to take a shuttle, if you can find one near you? That'll be $80. What this means in practice is that most of the people who go to 'the people's game' won't know anything about the sport and will not go to watch [football] but to be watched by other people wanting to be watched."
If this is the anticipated experience in the New York market—home to many of the nation's wealthiest enclaves, what does this all mean for the American cities of the South who are hosting the Cup? The Houston Chronicle reported that "FIFA officials identified Houston as one of the most well-prepared host cities for the 2026 World Cup," and that the investments in transportation and public spaces will "reinforce" the city as an international tourist destination.
Showcase Atlanta is launching a $150,000 community engagement grant to fund free, public watch parties by local organizations during this summer's World Cup. This is to include as many Atlantans, both ticket and non-ticket holders alike, "because the World Cup should happen with Atlanta, not to Atlanta," CBS stated.
For the time being, AT&T Stadium will be renamed Dallas Stadium during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, according to local Texas news sources and local officials. The sports venue, home of the Dallas Cowboys, will be scheduled to host several matches, plus the Semi-Final. The temporary name alteration comes from the FIFA regulation which does not allow sponsored corporate names. The AT&T logo will be covered for the duration of the tournament. Tailgating will also be restricted.
While city officials and local organizers anticipate optimistically, journalists like Sommer Brugal and Charlotte Kramon have pointed to the importance of regional and international workers' rights ever since FIFA lost its soft power and institutional credibility in preparation for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. There, the same issues of housing, wage theft, the cycle of poverty, globalization's creation of "winners and losers," threats to migrants (in this case from Nepal and Bangladesh), rights to movement, and debt bondage, all threatened the workers and people without social and economic rights.
David Harvey, the famous Marxist anthropologist, might cite, aside from its harm to health and well-being, that capitalism will deprive the workers of the right to the city and even create accumulation by dispossession. The soccer events scheduled at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami might best encapsulate what most cities, including Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and greater North America are concerned about—protections for World Cup workers, in a region notorious for super exploitation, ahead of the 2026 competition.
In the case of SoFi Stadium, workers in Inglewood, Los Angeles have already threatened to strike if both economic rights (pay and conditions) and political and social rights (expression and threats from ICE) were not addressed. In both Texas and Florida, ICE deployment remains particularly concerning as they lead the U.S. in immigration arrests, and could use the tournament as another mechanism to repress, detain, and deport. In fact, Miami, Dallas, and Atlanta are home to the most vulnerable migrant workers as they are the host cities where ICE agents are most active.
FIFA has moved ahead with a reformed approach to human rights as it prepares to touch down in North America, but stakeholders and human rights advocates are skeptical. Amnesty International has reported that "despite football being among the most popular sports in many immigrant communities in the U.S., and millions of fans travelling from all over the world, neither FIFA nor the U.S. authorities have provided any guarantees that people will be safe from ethnic profiling, indiscriminate raids, unlawful detention and deportation."
In addition to policing, the events will also put great stress on the environment. The tournament's projected emission of nine million tons of CO2 makes this World Cup the most polluting one in history. Additionally, Katherine Passley, a co-executive director for the NGO Beyond the Bars, further indicated that "without strong labor standards, the World Cup doesn't create opportunities, but [rather] a shadow economy." Shadow economy, or informal economy, consists of legal goods and services or illegal activities that aren't reported to evade taxes or regulations.
Based on the Qatar case study and legacy, it does appear that Dallas, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, and others have anticipated Human Rights work in preparation for the tournament. For example, the Dallas 2026 Human Rights Action Plan that aligns with FIFA's rules will help to provide a focus on worker protection, humane policing, the prevention of human trafficking, and other fundamental freedoms and capabilities, and rights-based approaches to development. The Executive Summary was initially drafted in 2025.
At the same time, however, there are serious concerns. In four of the U.S. host cities, the southern cities of Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Miami, local laws both ban sanctuary cities and enhance coordination by police with ICE. In both Dallas and Houston, for example, new laws require each county sheriff to opt into the 287(g) program with ICE. Amnesty reports that "law enforcement agencies in the Dallas and Houston areas already have such agreements in place." It was considered "a shameful day for Miami" when they too entered the agreement, according to the ACLU.
In Miami, multiple local law enforcement agencies entered into 287(g) agreements, "deputizing officers to act as immigration agents," as Florida is the state that has tallied the most agreements between local law enforcement and ICE. Again, in Atlanta, Georgia, state law bans both sanctuary policies and requires a 287(g) type mechanism of coordinated political violence.
Inside FIFA has issued the claim and campaign that "Football Unites the World." This is a slogan that often fails to compete with the realities of regional hard, smart, and soft power and practices of local, state, and national governments. Local officials and community organizers are trying to ensure that all human beings get to experience a football celebration for well over a month in the beautiful weather of North America. The reality, however, for LGBTQ+ folks, migrants, marginalized people, and workers, is that America has set an unbridled, fascistic and capitalistic tone that could hurt their respective rights to movement. The threats of structural violence, violent arrests and detention, deportation, and xenophobic travel bans create an "emergency brake" situation. NGOs have upgraded the FIFA World Cup from a "medium risk" tournament to a "huge risk" or "stage for repression" event.
Cities, states, and agencies need to provide people with basic assurances that fans' and workers' rights to positive freedom and rights to liberty are expressed and allowed, just as they insist community-based security and local police efforts must commit to peace and security without reliance upon vigilantism or militarization of non-civilian-led armies of cops.
FIFA's Stadium Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Code must be presented in different languages, codified, and monitored by city and event-related officials to issue weekly reports on how human rights are being addressed, realized, and upheld to safeguard everybody. This includes HRDs (Human Rights Defenders), journalists, the press at large, soccer fans from everywhere, athletes, and workers. American cities need to uphold IHL (International Humanitarian Law) as well as global standards, something that has been neglected in the US South in modern and contemporary history, especially.
American cities need to look to international norms and see the World Cup as a global event of interconnectedness where political and economic rights are not divorced from economic and social rights. Further, following the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms can help cities like Dallas, Houston, Miami, and Atlanta navigate the politics of the World Cup. It can help steer its politicization in positive directions. Any use of anything akin to terror capitalism, like discriminatory surveillance and AI-driven systems used for political repression, must be observed. Cracking down on migrant populations and the monitoring of dissidents should be checked, and on no occasion abide under the pretext of safety.
Civil society organizations within American cities of the South can issue statements of observation; they can provide calls and demands for transparency throughout the tournament and aim to acquire municipal guarantees from American government authorities. World Cup events, fan venues, and open spaces, watch-parties, and team games are not the place for Border Patrol or any draconian measures that deteriorate from the spirit of the World Cup and the societal connection it renders.
All U.S. Southern host city committees, including Houston, Dallas, Miami, and Atlanta, should ensure that their agendas also prioritize the rights of the vulnerable and the unhoused in order to protect them from the impacts of the tournament. This includes forced evictions via disingenuous, arbitrary, and capricious beautification efforts, street sweeps, and forms of cultural commodification. The U.S. South and its people should be able to live the life they value, regardless of the profit motive the World Cup seeks.