2026 FIFA World Cup Tracker: No Tailgating in Boston and Price Hikes Abound

The 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States – the first World Cup to feature 48 teams and span three host nations – is now less than nine weeks away.

The entire lineup of 48 qualified national teams and the match schedule have now been confirmed and the planning stages are reaching their conclusion.

But while FIFA President Gianni Infantino has promised a “fantastic, phenomenal and colossal” event that will bring global soccer enthusiasts together, issues are also mounting – for the association and fans alike – ahead of the big kick-off in Mexico City on June 11.

Below SportsTravel Magazine rounds up the latest stories making the headlines as the World Cup gets closer:

Report: NJ Transit Planning Major Price Hike

NJ Transit is planning to increase the cost of a return trip from the FIFA World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium (known as New York New Jersey Stadium for the tournament) to Penn Station in Manhattan to more than $100, up from $12.90, according to a report in The Athletic. Nothing has been finalized, but the report said that NJ Transit — the commuter train that connects Penn Station in the heart of Manhattan to various towns in New Jersey — will charge the same price for all passengers, including children and seniors.

New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, said at a news conference on Monday, “We are not going to be paying for moving the people who are viewing the World Cup on the back of New Jersey taxpayers and New Jersey commuters.”

New York New Jersey Stadium will host eight matches during the World Cup, including the final on July 19. It hosted the FIFA Club World Cup final last summer, and train ticket prices were the standard $12.90 for that match. — Ted Keith

No Tailgating, Less Parking At Boston Stadium

Boston Stadium (typically known as Gillette Stadium) will not allow tailgating at World Cup matches this summer, according to an advisory posted on the website for the Boston World Cup matches, which cited FIFA policy.

Tailgating is part of the tradition before big games at hundreds of U.S. stadiums and ballparks, and Gillette Stadium is no different. The parking lot before a New England Patriots game, for example, is filled with fans eating and drinking before kickoff.

That won’t be the only adjustment to the pregame experience for fans going to games in Foxborough, the Boston suburb where the stadium is located. The number of parking spaces is being reduced from 20,000 for Patriots games and concerts to just 5,000 for the World Cup because of safety concerns and hospitality events. The stadium has a capacity of roughly 65,000. — Ted Keith

Price Hikes in Boston

The escalating prices for World Cup tickets has been attracting widespread attention, but so too have the prices for parking facilities and public transportation.

Earlier this week, the Boston Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) released its first batch of advance return tickets to travel from Boston’s South Station to Gillette Stadium (which will be known as Boston Stadium for the World Cup) in Foxborough. While a typical round trip would cost $20 on New England Patriots and New England Revolution gamedays, the Boston MBTA have since increased the ticket prices by a staggering 400 percent to $80 for a round trip that includes two journeys lasting between 60 and 90 minutes.

The tickets, which do not include options for concessions and are being sold exclusively through the MBTA’s mTicket app, went on sale on April 8, and FIFA says that it sold more than 17,450 return tickets on the first day of sales (including over 6,200 for Scotland vs. Haiti). The price includes trips for all commuter rail trains, buses and the subway in the region, and all ticketholders are required to have a ticket (including kids under age 11).

World Cup fans have since taken to social media to criticize the move by the Boston MBTA as “exorbitant” and “exploitative”, while others said that they had encountered difficulties within the app with repeated “Registration Failed” messages preventing them from securing transport passes. Meanwhile, the MBTA said that the $80 tickets were “more affordable” than driving to or parking at the stadium in Foxborough, which is 22 miles away from the center of Boston.

The Athletic reported last month that the price of public transportation tickets would go toward making up $35 million in investments that the Boston MBTA had put into Foxborough Station in preparation for the World Cup.

Category Controversy

Fans who had already purchased Category One tickets (the highest of four ticket categories) for FIFA World Cup matches have accused the association of misleading them over the assignment of their seats. Those at the center of the complaints said that they had been allocated seats in lower-tier sections than they had previously believed.

At the same time, FIFA has created an extra ticket category to sell prime “front row” seats, some of which are double the price of existing Category One tickets that had already been paid for. At the time of publication, prices of the new tier of tickets were reaching up to $4,105.

According to The Athletic, category boundaries at different host venues have shifted multiple times throughout the ticket sales process, which began in September last year.

In response to the accusations of misleading fans, FIFA said that the initial stadium maps were indicative only and did not guarantee specific seats in specific sections of the venues. By selling World Cup tickets according to different categories, FIFA has chosen an alternative system to what is typically used in most U.S. sports events where fans can select their exact seats.

In the current sales phase, FIFA now allows fans to select specific seats in their preferred areas of stadiums at the time of purchase, as the association said it was looking to add more clarity to the booking process.

SoFi Stadium Workers Strike Threat

UNITE HERE Local 11, a trade union representing 32,000 hospitality workers in California and Arizona, says that 2,000 employees at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, including cooks, bartenders and servers, may be forced to go on strike due to concerns about the potential presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and the use of subcontractors at the venue who are allegedly working without labor contracts.

The union has outlined several major demands to FIFA and SoFi Stadium owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment: a public commitment that ICE and Border Patrol agents will not be present at the tournament; protection for union jobs; and suitable working conditions and affordable housing support for hospitality workers.

Acting Department of Homeland Security Director Todd Lyons had previously said that ICE would play a “key part” in this summer’s World Cup.

SoFi Stadium is scheduled to host eight games at the World Cup, including the opening game for the U.S. Men’s National Team against Paraguay on June 12.

Canada Celebrates Details

FIFA has unveiled the official route for “Canada Celebrates the FIFA World Cup 2026,” described as “a first-of-its-kind program that will unite communities across the tournament co-host country.”

Supported by the Government of Canada, municipalities and commercial partners, Canada Celebrates will have 38 stops across 34 communities within a two-hour drive of more than 75 percent of Canadian residents on both the East and West Coasts, according to FIFA.

The tour gives soccer fans the opportunity to see the original FIFA World Cup Trophy up close and have photos taken alongside it.

The schedule is as follows:

East Coast:

• June 1: Mount Pearl, Newfoundland
• June 11–12: Halifax, Nova Scotia
• June 15: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
• June 18: Moncton, New Brunswick
• June 21: Québec City, Québec
• June 27: Kingston, Ontario
• July 1: Mississauga, Ontario
• July 4: London, Ontario
• July 7: Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation
• July 9: Burlington, Ontario
• July 11: Waterloo Region, Ontario
• July 15: Windsor, Ontario
• July 18–19: Niagara Falls, Ontario

West Coast:

• June 5: Whitehorse, Yukon
• June 11–12: Fort St. John, British Columbia
• June 18: Kamloops, British Columbia
• June 20: Salmon Arm, British Columbia
• June 22: Revelstoke, British Columbia
• June 24: Nelson, British Columbia
• June 27: Cranbrook, British Columbia
• July 1: Edmonton, Alberta
• July 4: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
• July 7: Kenora, Ontario
• July 11: North Bay, Ontario
• July 15: Vaughan, Ontario
• July 18–19: Brampton, Ontario

Base Camps

Now that all 48 national teams have qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, it is expected that all team base camp training sites will soon be unveiled.

As per SportsTravel Magazine‘s tracker of confirmed base camps, 34 national teams have made public their training sites/accommodation facilities, leaving 14 still to announce theirs.

Of those remaining teams, co-hosts Canada and Mexico have remained tight-lipped so far about where they will train and stay during the tournament. A number of teams — namely Iraq, Congo DR, Türkiye and Bosnia-Herzegovina — emerged via the continental and intercontinental play-offs so have had to expedite the base camp search process.

Other nations with strong World Cup pedigree including Portugal, Belgium and Morocco have yet to officially announce their base camps. Portugal is heavily rumored to be setting up camp in Miami, Florida, while Belgium is reportedly set to utilize the training facility of MLS’s Seattle Sounders. There are few substantive rumors about Morocco so far.

Furthermore, World Cup debutants Jordan and Cape Verde are also waiting to confirm their base camp training sites for this summer.

Match Officials

Following a “meticulous and comprehensive” selection process spanning more than three years, FIFA has released the list of match officials who will oversee the games.
The FIFA Team One cohort includes 52 referees, 88 assistant referees and 30 video match officials from six confederations and 50 FIFA Member Associations, representing the largest lineup of match officials in the competition’s history. The association said that the appointments had been made according to the consistency of their performances at FIFA tournaments, as well as in international and domestic competitions in recent years.

Among the key headlines, FIFA has appointed eight U.S. Soccer referees, a record for a Men’s FIFA World Cup, and there will be six female match officials with two women referees, after France’s Stéphanie Frappart became the first woman to referee a men’s World Cup match in Qatar four years ago. Tori Penso will become the first American woman referee to achieve the same feat in Canada, Mexico and the United States this time around.

“The selected match officials are the very best in the world,” said Pierluigi Collina, chief refereeing officer at FIFA and chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee. “They were part of a wider pool of officials that was identified and monitored over the past three years. They have attended seminars and officiated at FIFA tournaments. In addition, their performances in domestic and international matches were regularly assessed.

“The selected officials have received, and will continue to receive, comprehensive support from our fitness coaches and medical staff, including physiotherapists and a mental specialist. Our goal is to ensure that they’re in optimal physical and mental condition when they arrive in Miami on May 31.”

Team One will be based in Miami, where the selected match officials will meet for a 10-day preparation seminar starting on May 31. Following this event, the video match officials will relocate to Dallas, Texas, which will be home to the International Broadcast Center, while the referees, assistant referees and support staff will remain in Miami.