It was enthusiastically billed as a prelude to the World Cup. The 2024 Copa America in the United States was seen by some as a dress rehearsal. Boldly, it was staged as a football festival in Atlanta, Dallas and 12 other U.S. cities. It also felt like an appetizer for the most spectacular sporting event on earth: the Men’s World Cup, which will return to North America in 2026 and be bigger and more extravagant than ever before.
But four weeks of turmoil have seen the Copa America fall apart, and on Sunday it descended into chaos.
Instead of generating more interest in soccer in the U.S., it has sparked questions and concerns about the country’s preparations for 2026.
The concerns are manifold and understandable. The 2024 tournament, a national championship, has been plagued by heat, empty seats, criticism of the stadium, unprofessional behavior and ultimately chaos. The semifinal ended in a brawl between players and fans. The final, postponed because of security concerns, left thousands of fans distressed at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, the site of the 2026 World Cup.
But the events of the past four weeks don’t necessarily mean 2026 is doomed.
This was a sloppy tournament poorly organised by the South American football confederation CONMEBOL.
FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, has already committed a great deal of time, money and manpower to planning for the 2026 World Cup, which will be the first that FIFA will run entirely on its own, rather than delegating responsibility to local organizing committees.
And FIFA has certainly been keeping a close eye on local officials in World Cup host cities over the past month. The Copa America “was not a tournament that we were involved in in terms of planning,” Lauren LaRusso, co-chair of the New York/New Jersey 2026 World Cup hosting committee, told Yahoo Sports last week. “But from a soccer perspective, it’s the second-biggest tournament ever, so it’s been useful to observe.”
Many of these tasks were related to fan flow, security and transportation, but in these areas past men’s World Cups and the 2024 Copa America were very different.
World Cup Security Perimeter
The very obvious, foreseeable and preventable problem in South Florida on Sunday was the lack of a security perimeter outside Hard Rock Stadium.
Past World Cups, and plans for 2026, have called for fencing or barriers to be erected around stadiums and perhaps parking lots to be cordoned off, with fans and vehicles herded into extra checkpoints a few hundred feet away from the venue.
In theory, no one would be able to get close to the stadium gates without a ticket or ID, and if someone did manage to get through, security would have a better chance of controlling the situation.
That doesn’t guarantee order: the 2021 Euros final and the 2022 Champions League final saw violations and chaos, and thousands of ticket-less fans desperate to watch the matches could lead to trouble.
But that wasn’t the main problem Sunday. The problem was that some fans (it’s unclear how many) who didn’t have tickets were allowed to get very close to the stadium gates. The World Cup, the most-watched event in sport, hasn’t seen anything like this since 2014, when about 100 Chilean fans broke into the media center at the Maracana in Brazil. Most, if not all, of the fans were detained, and the mayhem didn’t spread.
Unfortunately, but understandably, the Copa America fiasco could mean a stronger security and police presence in 2026 than planned, potentially making attending matches a more cumbersome process and causing inconvenience.
But a repeat of Sunday’s scenes seems highly unlikely.
Match day crowds
One of the real challenges predicted by the Copa America is the terrible transportation to and from the stadiums: Many of the 11 venues in the U.S. scheduled to host the World Cup are not easily accessible by public transportation.
Countless fans have been trapped in long car lines over the past month from New Jersey to Kansas City and beyond, some missing kickoff, and World Cup organizers know there will be an even bigger influx of fans in 2026.
They may be better prepared than CONMEBOL or local authorities were this summer. They’ve already got their transport plans in place. They’ll have shuttle buses in place. They’ll come up with other solutions. They understand that this is a concern.
But there’s only so much you can do in a stadium surrounded by highways, concrete and asphalt, and many fans will have to turn to ride-sharing services, which will make the World Cup even more expensive. (Hopefully they won’t have to walk down a dangerous hill with no stairs, as some fans did at a ride-share drop-off point outside Arrowhead Stadium earlier this month.)
Soaring ticket prices, growing festive enthusiasm
Another frequent complaint from Copa America fans has been the high cost, with the cheapest and furthest tickets costing hundreds of dollars for some matches.
There are two aspects of the World Cup spin here that are still somewhat uncertain:
1. For the Copa America, CONMEBOL has signed deals with stadiums in the U.S. and ticketing partners such as Ticketmaster. The infamous “dynamic pricing” system has caused ticket prices to skyrocket. FIFA, on the other hand, will not rely as much on third-party ticket brokers. At least not until now. FIFA usually handles ticket sales itself. We’ll know more about the specific process next year.
2. But the World Cup is a flashier event than the Copa America. FIFA may still set sky-high prices. When bidding to host the tournament in 2017, North American officials suggested that the cheapest “category 4” tickets would be relatively affordable. But the final say is not theirs, but FIFA’s.
The positive thing about the Copa America was the huge interest and the sense of celebration. True, about 23% of the seats were empty, but on average, more than 49,000 people attended the matches, despite the exorbitant ticket prices. Tickets for the big teams like Argentina and Colombia were sold out. The atmosphere was fantastic.
Traveling supporters gathered in Times Square and outside the team hotel. Colombian fans and fireworks lit up Miami on the eve of the Copa America final before chaos erupted. Argentines partied twice outside MetLife Stadium in Jersey. Those parties, not the tears and fear, should have been the tournament’s unforgettable sights.
Can the World Cup schedule ease the heat?
Another unavoidable concern throughout the tournament, from the opening round to the final, was the heat. On Sunday, fans fainted in the crowds, but players also suffered earlier in the tournament. At least one Uruguay player, Ronald Araújo, finished the match feeling dizzy. The next day, an assistant referee collapsed. He was taken to a nearby medical facility and later released. CONMEBOL confirmed he was “dehydrated.”
Concerns about 2026 may be a bit overblown by the blistering heatwaves hitting the U.S. in June and July. But on the other hand, the planet is warming and this could become the new normal. Of the 11 U.S. cities scheduled to host the World Cup in June and July 2026, 10 recorded temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit in June, with some exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
In some countries, open-air stadiums will alleviate this concern – making the match a more comfortable experience – but travelling to and from the venue is still a concern and something to consider.
The most important variable FIFA can use is kick-off time: Organizers can’t completely neutralize heat and humidity, but they can, for example, start the match in Kansas City at 9pm local time instead of 5pm, filling the afternoon slot with an indoor match.
We’ll see if that happens. The problem is the broadcast schedule. I’ve covered this issue in detail in my previous Copa America article.
Grass pitches a ‘big challenge’
Of course, the main problem with indoor sports is the surface: Laying and maintaining grass at an NFL stadium such as AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, is a “huge challenge,” 2026 World Cup chief Heimo Silgi said during a visit to Jerryworld last year.
The preparations for the 2024 Copa America have been a frequent subject of criticism from players and coaching staff: The pitch at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium “was awful” on the night of the opening match, Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez said, and throughout the tournament he, his teammates and opponents said other players weren’t much better either.
But there’s a crucial difference between the Copa America surface and those already being developed for 2026: the World Cup process will be much more intensive.
In Atlanta, for example, a temporary grass field was installed on top of the artificial turf just days before the start of the Copa, in the very stadium where irrigation and ventilation systems are already installed in preparation for the World Cup. FIFA has invited experts from the Universities of Tennessee and Michigan State University to lead the research. They are already working on growing a very special grass that will be the basis for the “hybrid” stadium for the 2026 World Cup.
That doesn’t mean the fields will automatically be perfect — the grass will likely be a topic of conversation as the tournament approaches — but the World Cup shouldn’t be a Copa America-style disaster, here or elsewhere.