From the Publisher: A World Cup on the Rocks

Journalists have written entire internet volumes about the 2026 FIFA World Cup and its impact, including thousands of words right here by our own team at SportsTravel.

But has anyone written about the rocks yet?

Here’s a World Cup angle you won’t see anywhere else because I’m not sure what family would be as willing to do what mine recently did to express its interest in the event. While hands will be wrung over the true economic impacts of the FIFA spectacle, it should not be forgotten that the World Cup will draw untold and unforeseen passion all the way down to the local level.

And in our case, our back deck.

Paint by (48) Numbers

A few weeks back, my 16-year-old son — already weeks into his summer break here in Colorado and with plenty of time on his hands — had the brilliant if not slightly crazed idea that we should pull some rocks from the side of the house (48 of them to be precise) and paint the flags from every participating country on those rocks. From there, we could put them on the deck during the tournament, arranged by group, to chart the teams that advance.

There have been worse ideas in this house.

But execution is another story.

With my wife and I on board — and our Australian shepherd, Roxie, running around the backyard not sure what in the world we were doing — we turned our outdoor table into a painting studio and got to work.

Step 1: Pull some rocks from the side of the house

Step 2: Wash those rocks

Step 3: Use permanent marker to write the name of each country on the underside of the rocks

Step 4: Paint the tops of those rocks white so we could start with an even base

Step 5: Descend into a dark level of madness in an effort to emulate 48 flags that we soon learned run the difficulty level from pre-school color basics (looking at you, France) to levels of insanity that should probably be studied by a team of researchers in a lab (looking at you, Ecuador)

An Impressive Array

That’s how we found ourselves over several nights on the back deck, multiple brushes at work, and toothpicks available for the fine touches. After turning the rocks over with the names of the countries on the bottom, we each grabbed whatever rock was closest, called up the real flag on our smartphones for reference and painted away. (My wife got the big prize, landing the United States.) You could in theory move on to another rock if the flag proved too daunting, but we by and large stuck with what we grabbed. In the end, my son did the majority of the work but each of us ended up with a fair amount.

And in the process, each of us discovered talents we never knew we had. And each of us produced a series of individual masterpieces that I’d like to believe future generations of art lovers (or at least my son’s kids if he ever shares this story) will forever remember us by.

For my son, it would be hard to top the effort put into that Ecuador flag, with its intricate images topped by a bald eagle …

But consider his efforts at Mexico …

And also of Saudi Arabia, where his toothpick work on Arabic letters is already a thing of legend in the backyard even if they are a bit interpretive …

My wife’s intricacies in the Austrian state flag were something to behold, including the feather work on this crowned black eagle …

And how about Brazil? This was impressive …

Do I fault her for snickering when she pulled the impossibly easy France from the pile? Well, a little bit, but good for her. You got what you got in this exercise.

As for me, Croatia was nearly my downfall. The checkerboard situation. The crowns on the top. The goat (?) in the middle. I had a positive overall impression of Croatia before this exercise. Now, it’ll take a minute to overcome the mental torture of this rock before I consider a visit.

And Portugal, we need to talk. I know it’s Cristiano Ronaldo’s final World Cup. But this flag was my final World Cup effort and truly the best I could do.

Lastly, kudos to my son for his vision of a centerpiece rock that included an entirely serviceable recreation of the World Cup trophy, mixing several colors to create that creepy gold.

Family Matters

What to make of all this madness? Well, I do have a thought.

The 11 U.S. host cities that raised their hand to host have been through a lot. And they will hopefully reap the rewards of their considerable effort, compromises and patience. I truly wish the best for them from an economic, visibility and quality-of-life perspective. The industry should watch closely as FIFA returns in 2031 with the Women’s World Cup to a group of host cities that will be more skeptical and ask deeper questions about what that will entail.

Although the travel angles of the World Cup story are crucial to our industry, there is also no questioning the passion for this event that exists around the world, beyond the people filling the seats in those stadiums or tromping around those fan fests. There are people like my son who are just swept up in the spectacle from a distance, caring enough to turn the event into a lesson in geography, statesmanship and art.

As I sat around our table on three gorgeous Colorado early evenings, paint on my fingers, learning about these flags and sharing this unexpectedly joyful experience with the two closest people in my world (and Roxie still wondering what the heck was happening), I was already left with a lifelong memory that I’ll remember quicker than the name of the country that eventually wins. When future editions of the World Cup come around, my family will no doubt share some warm laughs over our 2026 painting experience. (Here’s also hoping — pleading — that the exact same 48 teams qualify next time so we don’t have to paint anything else. Surely FIFA has a clause buried in their contracts to require this, right?)

And our industry should never forget that in the end, this kind of family bonding is just as important as any other data point that emerges from one of the biggest and most important sports events in the world.

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Jason Gewirtz is senior vice president/content for the Northstar Meetings Group and the publisher of SportsTravel.