The world is coming to Santa Clara.
From June 13 to July 1, 2026, Levi’s Stadium will host six FIFA World Cup matches — five group-stage games and one Round of 32 knockout — pulling tens of thousands of fans, dozens of national teams, and a tide of jersey-clad humanity toward our usually-sleepy stretch of Highway 101.
The Bay Area is a 2026 World Cup host city. For three weeks this summer, our airports will buzz, our hotels will be fully booked, our BART and Caltrain platforms will turn into a Tower of Babel of football chants, and Tasman Drive will cease to be a road and become a state of mind.
This is the biggest sporting event the region has ever hosted — bigger than Super Bowl 50, bigger than the All-Star Game, bigger than anything we’ve thrown at the world before.
And whether you have tickets, want them, or just want to know what on earth is about to happen to your commute, this is the only Bay Area guide you need.
I’ve put it together as a local who has spent more than a decade exploring every corner of California, written about it for years here on Travel Realizations, and watched the South Bay swell during big events.
Below: every match date, how to get tickets without getting fleeced, how to actually get to Levi’s without losing the will to live, every fan zone across the Bay, where to eat, where to stay, what you can and can’t bring through the gate, and the secret reason every Bay Area fan should be obsessively rooting for one specific group.
Let’s go.
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