On the World Stage

The FIFA World Cup 26™ has come to the Bay Area, putting San Francisco in the international spotlight. In this episode, we speak with Mayor Daniel Lurie about how the city prepared to take the world stage for the tournament. We also bring SFMTA Major Special Events Lead Tony Henderson into the conversation to discuss how Muni and other public transit systems got ready to help people get to matches in Santa Clara and watch parties in San Francisco. And we swing by an opening match watch party to chat with a few fans and get into the spirit.

Transcript

MELISSA CULROSS, HOST: The 2026 FIFA World Cup men’s tournament is underway, and it’s come to the Bay Area. So, what’s a good way to get to a match or a watch party?

SF MAYOR DANIEL LURIE: Well, I mean, we have the greatest transit system going.

MELISSA: Welcome to Taken with Transportation, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s official podcast. I’m your host, Melissa Culross, and in this episode, we’ve got World Cup fever….

MELISSA: It’s a sunny, very warm Thursday afternoon, and we’re at Thrive City where fans have gathered to watch the opening match of the tournament. (sound) Most of them are wearing green jerseys and rooting for Mexico as the team takes on South Africa. We ask a few of the folks here how they’re feeling.

FAN-1: I feel great. It’s the best way to spend a sick day.

FAN-2: It’s a great day. It’s beautiful outside. The sun’s out. The sun’s shining. Mexico’s up, and it’s only gonna be better from here.

FAN-3 It feels emotional. I think just being around everyone. It’s such a fantastic thing to see. It’s, it’s, it’s quite…it’s quite amazing. 

FAN-4: Viva Mexicooooo! Woo!

MELISSA: Those fans went home happy, as Mexico defeated South Africa in that match 2-nil. A few days earlier, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie spoke to the press about the FIFA World Cup. This tournament is being played in the United States, Mexico and Canada…including matches in Santa Clara and events in the city by the bay.

DANIEL LURIE, MAYOR OF SAN FRANCISCO: The World Cup will bring energy to neighborhoods across San Francisco. For the next month, people will get together in every one of our 11 districts. They’ll gather in places like this pub on Haight Street to catch matches with friends. They’ll head to neighborhood watch parties. They’re gonna fill restaurants and bars throughout commercial corridors here in San Francisco. 

MELISSA: We had a chance to sit down with Mayor Lurie at City Hall to talk with him about how San Francisco…a world class city…is on the world stage for the tournament. We began by discussing what it has taken to get ready. 

MAYOR LURIE: We’ve been spending months and months preparing. Public safety, transit, our Department of Emergency Management. We’ve coordinated with agencies across the region. We’re ready. San Francisco and the Bay Area knows how to do big events, and we are fired up.

MELISSA: Let’s talk about big events because have a little bit of experience with this. You, of course, were Chair of the Super Bowl 50 host committee in 2016. How did your experience in that chair position inform how the city prepares now?

MAYORLURIE: It was a interesting experience, you know, over ten years ago. I spent a couple of years planning for Super Bowl 50. You know, we had a new stadium down in the, in the Peninsula and South Bay. But all the events were here in San Francisco. But we had to move people back and forth, which is where, you know, transit and transportation were so critical. Um, and we spent a year working on it. And we pulled off an incredible game. So good that they came back, and they came back for Super Bowl 60. We saw the economic impact ten years ago. It tripled this time around. But once again, it takes everybody, uh, working together, coordinating, collaborating. And it was a regional event. It took regional collaboration, and it was, it was a great event for San Francisco and for the region.

MELISSA: Can you talk a little bit more about that collaboration, both between city agencies and with the private sector?

MAYOR LURIE: Well, it’s a lot of sitting down, scenario planning, game planning, practicing, you know, on other games. You know, lesser games, regular season games in the event of a Super Bowl. But we also, you know, had the NBA All-Star game. You’re, you’re working with the private sector to raise funds to pull off, you know, whether it’s Fan Fest and, and entertainment zones, uh, for the fans to watch the game, or just a Super Bowl Village. So, it really requires private-public partnerships to pull off these great events. We’re gonna see it again this World Cup.

MELISSA: You mentioned transportation. Transportation, of course, is essential, and it’s the subject of this podcast. How is San Francisco uniquely qualified to move so many people around, whether it’s to watch parties or down to Santa Clara?

MAYOR LURIE: Well, I mean, we have the greatest transit system going. Uh, we got Muni, of course. Uh, we have BART. I know the two agencies are collaborating and coordinating to make sure that fans can get to and from the stadium. But really importantly, also to get people to and from our great neighborhoods. What we are really looking forward to with this World Cup is the over 90 watch parties at restaurants and bars. We’re gonna have fan zones where people can watch on big screens at Thrive City and the East Cut, uh, amongst other places. So, we are really encouraging people to use transit because it’s, it’s fast. It’s reliable. It’s affordable. And it’s the best way to get around our great city. 

MELISSA: You know, you are a native San Franciscan. How do you feel about these events, personally? How exciting are they for you?

MAYOR LURIE: I’m a huge sports fan. I’ve been to a few World Cups in my capacity as Chair for Super Bowl. You know, that was another way we learned how to pull off big scale events. I’m a huge soccer fan. I’m a huge football fan. I’m a basket… You know, Warriors, Giants, Valkyries, Bay FC. I’m always in on sports. So, World Cup…most watched sporting event in the world. You know, and Super Bowl is, it’s not far behind. So, the idea that we’ve been able to host both of these events in our city and in our region is… First off, it’s never been done before, and what better region to do it than ours.

MELISSA: And are there any teams you’re rooting for in particular?

MAYOR LURIE: Well, for World Cup, Team USA. C’mon. You’ve gotta go for the home team. So, excited to see what they can do. Really hopeful that they win their group so that we could potentially see them here in San Francisco and in the Bay Area on July 1 for that first…the knockout round, the round of 32. So, I’ll be watching eagerly, with anticipation, how they perform. And then, you know, just, I love all the different countries and all of our great communities that are gonna come together to watch these events. And I think you’re going to see the excitement build.

MELISSA: Do you have any specific World Cup plans?

MAYOR LURIE: I’m gonna try potentially to get down to a game down at Levi’s, but I’ll, I’ll be out and about. You can be sure of that, and I’ll be taking transit. I’ll be taking Muni there. 

MELISSA: Okay, well, thank you so much, Mayor Daniel Lurie. Is there anything else you’d like us to know about how San Francisco’s ready?

MAYOR LURIE: No, I appreciate all of operators the folks that keep our buses moving. The maintenance team. I went out, and I did a nighttime Fix It visit in the tunnels. It was incredible to see how hard our SFMTA employees work each and every day. So, I appreciate all of them. And, uh, just have fun over the tournament of World Cup, and let’s go, San Francisco.

MELISSA: Here at the SFMTA, we also have been preparing. And since the Bay Area matches are being played at Levi’s stadium, people will, of course, be heading to Santa Clara. SFMTA Major Special Events Lead Tony Henderson says planning for that has been a group effort.

TONY HENDERSON, SFMTA MAJOR SPECIAL EVENTS LEAD: Muni has been working really closely with our regional transit partners, BART, Caltrain and VTA, to make sure we have a coordinated plan in place to get everyone to and from the matches. For people who are starting or ending their journey in San Francisco, that may include riding Muni to connect to either BART or Caltrain where they will connect with VTA to take them to the stadium. One thing of interest this time is that some of the games are starting actually pretty late in the evening, uh, with one as late as 9 p.m. So, for the people returning, we will be running extra service at night to help connect from both BART and Caltrain to the Union Square and SoMa areas, which will connect with a lot of the hotels in that region. :43

MELISSA: We ask Henderson what goes into this kind of coordinated transportation planning.

TONY: It’s a lot of conversations. It’s, um, getting to know people at our partner agencies…we already have a lot of great connections there…and start talking about what’s needed to move people. The fact that we do need to go across multiple systems, we’ve actually gone a level higher here in the amount of coordination that we’ve been doing to really make sure that we are serving people as they’re going to and from the matches. And we’ve been talking for months, figuring out how we can best do this. We didn’t want anyone getting back to San Francisco, then not have anywhere to go. So, that’s why we’re running the extra shuttle. So, the coordination has allowed us to make sure we’re all on the same page there. Also, one of the great things that we did here is, we really made sure to cross reference all of our information on each other’s websites. So, you don’t need to visit MTA’s website and then BART’s website and then VTA’s website to figure out what to do. You can visit any one of those, and it will give you the information on what you need to do to travel to and from the matches.

MELISSA: Speaking of the website, you can go to SFMTA.com-slash-World Cup for that transportation information and links to our partner agencies, as well as event information. Meanwhile, the half dozen Bay Area matches will be over on July 1, but the tournament continues until the 19th. And that means watch parties in San Francisco will continue. So, how will Muni accommodate the people heading to those events?

TONY: We are expanding weekend capacity. Where we on some lines run one-car trains, we’ll be running two-car. We’ll also really be monitoring how things are going. If we are starting to see a lot of excitement building around a certain team. If we’re seeing a lot of excitement building around various matches, we’ll take a look at that and see if there’s anything more that we need to do at that time. It’s a six, a little bit over six weeks, total. So, uh, there’ll be a lot to see how things progress.

MELISSA: This is not Henderson’s first major event, and that makes us a little curious about his experience and work history. And we ask him about it.

TONY: So, my background’s actually as a civil and traffic engineer. My role right now is a special assignment to work on the special events. Normally, I am on our Muni Forward transit engineering team. I really got started working on the organizational aspect of the agency during COVID. Where I was on our operations center. Then that led me to work on large events such as APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, which brought, I’m saying off the top of my head, I wanna say 28 world leaders. That might plus or minus a few. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the number, including then-President Biden and then-Vice President Harris. So, it was a very high security event and had a lot of unique transportation needs associated with that. Then it’s kind of morphed over time to doing other large events. I worked on the NBA All-Star, on the recent Super Bowl. So, it’s been an interesting path going from being an engineer into this more organizational and operational side.

MELISSA: Finally, we ask Henderson if he has any advice for fans heading out to enjoy the tournament here in the Bay.

TONY: First and foremost, have fun. Make sure you pack your patience. There will be a lot of crowds. Give yourself extra time. You don’t wanna be late for kickoff because you cut it too close on transit. Make sure you’re checking all the stadium requirements of what you can and cannot bring in. Same, if you’re going to any of the fan parties. But really, just be ready to have a good time. Give yourself extra time and enjoy the matches.

MELISSA: Thank you for joining us on Taken with Transportation. We’re a production of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and you can find the latest episodes at SFMTA.com-slash-Podcast, as well as Apple, Spotify, our YouTube channel or wherever you listen. And again, you can find transportation and event information for the 2026 FIFA World Cup at SFMTA.com-slash-World Cup. I’m Melissa Culross, be well and travel well.