The World Cup has come and gone. LA loved the tournament, with some hiccups

To understand how the World Cup went in Los Angeles this summer, look no further than the watch parties.

The city of L.A.'s events — branded "Kick it in the Park" — were neighborhood picnics. People could turn up, put up a camping chair, and watch the game in a local park.

In total, the city reports that at least 35,000 people attended them over the past month. Crowds packed Sycamore Grove Park to see Mexico take down Ecuador on a massive screen. At Echo Park Lake, people watched Lionel Messi score a hat trick in Argentina's opening match.

FIFA's official "fan zones" told another story. They were ticketed, fenced off and sometimes expensive. The one on Venice Beach had some locals in an uproar after organizers promised a free block party and under-delivered.

At another fan zone at the Original Farmer's Market, tickets were cheap but once inside, attendees were left to watch the matches from a hot parking lot. If you wanted a beer, the designated drinking area didn't have a clear view of the screens.

After 39 days of soccer, eight matches at SoFi Stadium and many more events big and small across the region, reviews of the tournament have broadly been positive.

People flocked to bars and public viewing parties. Angelenos wore green with pride to root for Mexico. New fans were, at least temporarily, won over by the beautiful game.

But FIFA, with its high ticket prices to get inside the stadium and branded events, had more mixed reviews, and faced protests, too. Some wondered what their community was getting out of all the hubbub.

A group gathered in Downtown Los Angeles last week to protest FIFA and 2026 World Cup corporate sponsors.

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Libby Rainey

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LAist

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This balance — enjoying the soccer, but being weary of what comes with it — was a throughline throughout the tournament. So was the sentiment that the World Cup was merely a warm-up lap for the coming 2028 summer Olympics.

" [It's] a tremendous opportunity for us to learn and practice for the '28 Games," said Paul Krekorian, the former L.A. City Council president who leads the city's major events office.

One example of this was public transit. Metro launched a special bus system specifically to take people to and from SoFi Stadium, and it delivered tens of thousands of people there each match. An even larger bus fleet will be needed for the Olympics, which event organizers compare to hosting seven Super Bowls a day for a month.

"The reason we were excited to take on an event like the World Cup before the Super Bowl and the 2028 Games in the first place is because this is where you get the true teaching moments," Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins wrote in a blog post about the World Cup success.

Metro unveiled its enhanced services during the 2026 World Cup on March 4.

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Courtesy of FIFA World Cup 26 Los Angeles

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Other moments during the tournament hinted at the ways mega-events can go south.

A free city watch party for the Korea-Mexico match at Seoul Park was overcrowded and chaotic when thousands more people showed up than organizers expected.

The Lineage warehouse in Boyle Heights broke out in flames during the World Cup, spewing thick smoke across swaths of the city and surrounding areas. The bad air didn't force FIFA to change plans at SoFi Stadium, but had things gone differently, it could have.

Crowds packed a block party near Mariachi Plaza to watch Mexico defeat South Korea one day after the fire sparked.

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Libby Rainey

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LAist

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And a community event in South L.A. was disrupted when someone flew a drone to take photos and the FBI, Homeland Security and LAPD descended to enforce a strict World Cup anti-drone policy. The nonprofit involved called it an unintended consequence of having high-security sporting events in Los Angeles.

All those issues — crowds, fires and security — will undoubtedly come up again in the lead-up to 2028. They also mean some people will be happy to bid the 2026 World Cup farewell.

Still, many will miss the tournament in Los Angeles, which brought thousands of us out to public spaces to be together. Many of L.A.'s communities got to celebrate their heritage. And everyone could participate. You could strike up conversation simply by wearing your team's jersey while out and about.

That collective, temporary madness is over now. But it was fun while it lasted.