For anyone who grew up in an immigrant household or simply a soccer-obsessed one, the World Cup likely needs no introduction. You know the fervor—the flags hung from windows, the living rooms packed with relatives, the collective held breath before a penalty kick. To watch it on a screen is one thing. To have it play out in the streets of your own city is something else entirely.

“While this is big, and you all think it’s big, it’s far bigger than you actually know and think,” says Chris Canetti, president of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Houston Host Committee.

He’s not wrong. This summer, seven matches come to Houston’s NRG Stadium, three of them against top-10 men’s ranked teams. Beyond the games themselves, Houston is hosting a monthlong FIFA Fan Festival in EaDo, featuring all 104 matches, cultural programming, and the kind of collective celebration that only the World Cup can manufacture.

None of this happened overnight. Canetti joined the bidding process in January 2019, more than three years before Houston was officially named a host city in June 2022. From the start, he knew Houston could make the case. The city already had the infrastructure—the stadium, airports, hotel inventory, and practice facilities. “We have all these things, and then we have these other things, such as our diversity and our internationalism. We have this intangible spirit about us in this community,” he says. Getting FIFA to see it was a part of the job.

The scale of the planning is nearly as hard to grasp as the event itself. John Coppins, vice president of operations for FIFA World Cup 2026 Houston, puts it plainly: “Imagine you have to plan every birthday party for every kid in your kid’s class at school, at their houses, and their houses are spread out across three countries.”

Despite the magnitude, Canetti still felt confident in Houston’s ability to be a host. “We as a city know how to come together and mobilize to help make big things happen in a big way,” he says.

The payoff is significant. The World Cup is expected to generate $1.5 billion in local economic activity. Coppins, who spent 15 years with the USGA, predicts it will “elevate Houston and Harris County’s profile on a global stage previously not contemplated or experienced.”

He credits Houston and Harris County’s unified organizational structure as a rare advantage. “It is rarely, if ever, as consolidated and efficient as it is to have an event in Houston,” Coppins says. Between the two entities, a coordinated effort by political, corporate, and civic leaders oversees myriad touchpoints—safety and security, transportation, accommodations, stadium renovations, operations, fundraising, sustainability, human rights, and legacy. The Sports Authority Foundation and FIFA World Cup Houston Host Committee teamed up to create the legacy program Impact Houston 26, whose Freekicks Soccer initiative will refurbish 23 soccer pitches across all four Harris County precincts and continue to promote the sport long after the festivities are over.

The effort shows up in the streets, too. Beyond logistics, Houston has spent years building a human rights framework to ensure the event is safe and equitable for everyone in the city.

The host committee is being deliberate about Houston’s unhoused population, mapping existing encampments against the World Cup footprint and coordinating with the city’s homelessness response teams to avoid forcing anyone to move and connecting those in need with services. On the trafficking front, Houston already has infrastructure in place: Hotels have been required to complete annual human trafficking training since 2019, and a coalition of roughly 60 organizations is mobilizing around the issue. “Our job is to make sure the host committee’s business activity does not cause a harm,” says Minal Patel Davis, the human rights specialist leading the effort. “If there’s a potential for it to cause harm, [we must] have a mitigation in place.”

Houston, for its part, is ready. Downtown has embraced the summer deadline to provide “better, more comfortable spaces so we can entertain well,” says Kris Larson, president and CEO of Downtown Houston. Of the $30 million spent on improvements—hotel renovations among them—$29.5 million goes toward long-term investments, such as a seven-block pedestrian promenade and cool, connected corridors, including one stretching from Downtown to EaDo, where the official FIFA Fan Festival will be held.

Each project aims to make the city more walkable and welcoming for the estimated half-million visitors expected this summer. “Through the introduction of smart, more resilient structures, we’ll be able to reshape the way we enjoy our city,” Larson says.

Local or tourist, ticket lottery winner or one of the million Houstonians planning to watch on a screen, you have a whole city ready to celebrate with you. Houston’s FIFA Fan Festival caps at 7,500—marking one of the smaller footprints among host cities and one of the few remaining open throughout the tournament’s full run. The Houston Host Committee designed it to run across 34 individually themed days in EaDo.

Less watch party, more a multiday tribute to Houston that spans four city blocks, the festival includes a full football pitch that Aramco is installing and later relocating elsewhere in town; a 7v7 youth soccer tournament; and daily programming featuring both emerging and established Houston talent (including Trae Tha Truth). Themes like Asian Heritage Day, Go Tejano Day, Space Center Day, and H-Town Day on Juneteenth anchor the calendar, each showcasing a chapter in Houston’s cultural story. The festival will also include food options for various diets, including vegan, halal, and kosher, and will incorporate icons to communicate information effectively to an international crowd without creating language barriers.

Accessibility has been built into the Fan Festival, with sensory kits, lower concession counters, tables without chairs, accessible restrooms, and required staff training. Workers are considered, too. The host committee developed a contracting policy requiring vendors to meet minimum wage standards—$15 an hour, well above the state’s $7.25 minimum—and to commit to protections against labor trafficking and worker exploitation. A support hub at the FIFA Fan Festival will give workers a place to file grievances and access resources, including job training and apprenticeship programs.

As any Houstonian who has navigated the city during a signature event knows, traffic and road closures are no small inconvenience. To ease the strain, Coppins encourages residents to use Alert Houston and to practice patience, considering this might be many people’s first impression of the city. “It’s important as a part of our hosting responsibilities that people feel welcome here,” he says. He and his team also want to ensure the changes they’re making are lasting.

“We’re trying to make sure that when the World Cup is over and everybody’s gone home, that this event has been a positive thing for Houston,” Canetti says, that it’s left a legacy that helps make Houston and its residents be in a better place.”

Brittany Britto Garley contributed to this report.