This article was produced by the nonprofit journalism publication LA Public Press. It is co-published here with permission.
Los Angeles taxpayers are still in the dark about how much the city is spending to host eight matches of this year’s FIFA World Cup. Two weeks from the start of the men’s soccer tournament, the two private organizations that have answers aren’t sharing details with the public.
Although World Cup games in L.A. will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood and not at public venues, government agencies including the city of L.A. are spending an unknown amount of tax dollars paying for costs related to hosting the tournament.
“Taxpayers will not be on the hook,” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass told LA Public Press at a World Cup promotional event in Koreatown this week.
Yet a recent review by ProPublica of host cities’ contracts with FIFA, soccer’s nonprofit governing body, found that “almost all of the costs” of organizing and hosting World Cup matches — including transportation, stadium upgrades, street cleaning, and security costs — will fall on taxpayers.
LA officials haven’t revealed how much is being spent on security for the games. By comparison, the Los Angeles Police Department said this month that security costs for the 2028 Olympics in LA would amount to more than $1 billion.
The Los Angeles World Cup 2026 Host Committee’s final contract with FIFA, outlining costs to taxpayers and any revenue sharing, hasn’t been publicly shared.
A preliminary version of the LA’s host committee’s agreement with FIFA, attached to the city’s 2018 legal analysis of the agreement, said the contract is “confidential” and can only be made public by a court order or relevant legislation.
The 2018 report said the contract won’t allow LA to collect revenue to defray costs and that FIFA’s bidding process didn’t give city staffers enough time to “conduct a full financial analysis and implement measures to protect the city's general fund.”
The FIFA men’s World Cup will be played across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico from June 11 to July 19. FIFA, a Switzerland-based nonprofit, said it expects to earn $11 billion in revenue from the 2026 games and estimates that activity by World Cup attendees and fans will generate $47 billion for host cities, including $343 million for the LA region’s economy.
LA’s host committee is led by the nonprofit organization Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission. Both groups are headed by Kathryn Schloessman.
The host committee includes representatives from the Los Angeles Rams, SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, and the city’s professional soccer teams the LA Galaxy and Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC). LA’s city government is not part of the host committee, according to the nonprofit organization’s website.
At an event in Koreatown on Tuesday highlighting public screenings of the World Cup, LA Public Press asked LA Mayor Karen Bass to comment on the lack of a disclosure of the host city agreement with FIFA.
Bass called the contract situation “an internal matter.”
When LA Public Press asked the mayor whether she is pushing the city’s World Cup host committee to disclose any FIFA contracts, Bass didn’t answer the question but said the city “needs to have all the information” about the agreement between the two private entities.
“Those are two private organizations, people need to understand that is not the city,” Bass said. “What our job is is to make sure the watch parties are safe and venues are secure and people have a great time.”
The LA World Cup 2026 Host Committee didn’t respond to an LA Public Press email asking how much LA tax money will be used to cover any costs related to hosting the games.
As a reporter with LA Public Press approached Bass at Tuesday’s event to ask her directly about the host city contract, a staffer with the mayor’s office at the event asked for the question to be shared with them beforehand. After hearing the question, the staffer said Bass wouldn’t provide comment and asked whether the article would indicate that Bass didn’t know details about the public disclosure of the contract.
Asked for comment on the interaction, the mayor’s spokesperson Yusef K. Robb said the office was “nothing but helpful” at the event and called the reporter’s retelling of the situation “cuckoo bananas.”
In a legal analysis published in September of LA’s World Cup host agreement with FIFA, Towson University researcher Robert Sroka said public access to the contract is critical for public accountability.
The analysis said host city contracts generally protect profits for international sporting organizations like FIFA while leaving taxpayers on the hook for any financial liabilities.
“There is minimal even theoretical opportunity for the host city to turn a profit,” Sroka wrote in the paper. “FIFA is a ‘you do, you pay, we take’ proposition.”
FIFA is facing criticism from fans who denounce high ticket prices, including tickets priced at $2 million each for the tournament’s final match in New Jersey. The attorney generals of New Jersey, California and New York are investigating FIFA’s ticketing practices following fans’ complaints about rising ticket prices and allegations that FIFA assigned seats in different stadium zones than the ones fans bought tickets for.
In LA, tickets for the U.S. team’s opening match start at more than $1,000. In Seattle, where ticket prices have fallen in recent weeks, fans can buy a ticket to the Qatar vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina match for $200.
Some LA soccer fans are boycotting the tournament due to confirmation that ICE agents will be at SoFi Stadium during the tournament.
