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Tom Hindle

Ready for it? World Cup organizers turn to an unexpected comp in modeling preparations for 2026 event - Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour

The Grammy award-winning artist has served as an ideal reference point for those tasked with putting on soccer's flagship tournament

There’s a complicated list of factors that go into staging a major event. It starts with the venue. Can it seat enough people? Then there’s the security. How can you get them in and out safely? And then it’s the actual, physical event itself. How do you ensure that everyone has a good time? Can you do that?

The good news for those United States charged with organizing the 2026 World Cup, there are familiar touchpoints - other events held at the same venues. For soccer, you’d figure that natural reference points include the 2024 Copa America, major USMNT games, or even summer friendlies.

And to an extent that’s true.

“You have to learn from every event, every major event, whether it's Copa or the you know, these big touring, touring shows, I think understanding fan behavior, understanding movement patterns and how people travel,” Pam Kramer, CEO of Kansas City’s 2026 World Cup host committee, told GOAL.

But the U.S. looks to host the first men’s World Cup in the country since 1994 - as they’re planning for the crowds, the transit, the parking, the influx of people and even the noise - it turns out that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour most accurately resembles what hosting a global tournament event might look like.

“If you’re looking at something like the Eras Tour, that’s one of the sports entertainment events that people are traveling for,” Alex Lasry, CEO of New York/New Jersey’s World Cup committee, told GOAL.

  • Taylor Swift Eras tour Getty Images

    'The most comparable thing'

    It is well documented what a global phenomenon the 14-time Grammy Award winning artist’s tour was: 21 countries, 51 cities, 149 dates spanning 21 months - with three albums released in between. You probably know multiple Swifties who attended shows, or would have seen it on social media, or heard it referenced in the day-to-day.

    It was the highest-grossing tour of all time, bringing in $2B, and with good reason. This was 3.5 hours of song after song, hit after hit. In terms of attendance - each show averaged nearly 70,000 fans - and perhaps even global impact, it was as big as soccer, even if it’s hard for many fans of the beautiful game to admit.

    “It is probably the most comparable thing to the World Cup,” Lasry admitted.

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    'You are the only city'

    But while there might be an ideological clash in that notion - devout football fans will defend the game to the end - there is a real backing to it. There are 11 U.S. cities - and five more in Canada and Mexico - hosting the World Cup, with 48 teams participating. More than 6.5 million fans are expected to attend, according to FIFA.

    How can you prepare for something so massive? Most sports events in the United States are regional. The Super Bowl stadiums are flooded with corporate ticket holders and fans from the local area, more than those of the competing teams. It’s a relatively well-mannered event that happens to have a concert at half time. There are few stories of fan hysteria.

    The College Football playoff is another reference point. But that, too, has its imperfections. Pockets of the country are invested - you’d imagine that last year’s National Championship game between Notre Dame and Ohio State in Atlanta had a significant midwest following, without overwhelming national attendance.

    “You are the only city running that event at that time of year,... so we learn from that event, we do after actions to say what went well, what didn’t go well, and how we can improve,” Georgia O'Donoghue, CEO of Atlanta’s 2026 host committee, said.

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    'Always try to learn from those'

    The United States doesn’t have any matches of global scale in its yearly soccer calendar (with all due respect to the MLS and NWSL finals). This summer’s Club World Cup - running simultaneously with the CONCACAF Gold Cup - will certainly provide data points, as a test run of sorts.

    But given their frequency and ubiquitous presence at venues across the country, concerts are a natural reference point for World Cup organizers - especially since tours such as Swift’s often include fans traveling internationally to attend.

    “Concert businesses have had challenges at times. We as an organization always try to learn from those and incorporate them into our exercises,” Adam Fullerton, VP of stadium operations at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Atlanta, said.

  • Taylor Swift Eras tour 4Getty Images

    'The same way that we anticipate the World Cup guests are going to come'

    Part of the challenge in planning for the 2026 World Cup has been unfamiliarity. Soccer fans interact with the sport in different ways in every single country. Dutch fans engage in a “march to the match.” Argentinians will have a pre-game asado. English fans really, really, really love pubs.

    And rarely, if ever, have so many descended en masse into one area. Preparing for anything and everything is vital. The Eras Tour, for some host committees, offered an idea of what the logistics involved in a truly global event might look like - even in terms of physical movements of attendees to a given venue.

    “We get good experience from a lot of the events we have, where it's a third party event, where a lot of people fly into town,” Fullerton said. “Take a Taylor Swift show. That group of people stay in the downtown corridor, and they come to the stadium in the same way that we anticipate the World Cup guests are going to come.”

    It’s not just about individual behavior. The tour attracted fans from all over the globe into major cities. It became a destination, an excuse to spend time in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta - massive metropolitan areas in the United States.

    Remind you of anything else?

    “Taylor Swift, you're getting international travelers, people from all over the country, all coming to see her show,” Lasry said. “New people coming to a market who might not be familiar with the city or the region.”

  • Taylor Swift Eras TourGetty Images

    'The largest sports and entertainment event that the world has ever seen'

    For Lasry, in particular, the fact that the Eras Tour was a success - Swift played three concerts at MetLife Stadium in 2023, with a total of 217,625 fans attending - stands as confirmation that the area can cope with a massive influx of people.

    “When you look at some of the big [events] that happened recently, like Taylor Swift, that went great,” Lasry said.

    Ironically, the tour has caused some controversy among soccer fans worldwide. Real Madrid asked to move the date of a game at the Santiago Bernabeu last season to accommodate the preparation for the concert. Fans online weren’t particularly happy. But the club’s request was accepted, and Madrid’s title win solved any bad blood that might have developed.

    Although soccer fans might not like the comparison, Swift might just be as big, if not bigger, than their sport in the U.S..

    And for those who are all too well aware of the potential pitfalls of putting on a major event, reaching beyond sports might be the key to ensuring that the country succeeds in putting on 40 days of soccer.

    “There is nothing that is comparable to the World Cup,” Lasry said. “It's the largest sports and entertainment event that the world has ever seen, but I think the Eras Tour the most comparable that you're going to get.”