One week ago this morning I woke up with a severe case of public space withdrawal. No fan zone to assess. No matches to attend. The plazas were barren. The trains seemed hushed. The untethered flag bunting flapped listlessly against the sports bar awning. WHERE DID EVERYONE GO?
Local officials had made Los Angeles a promise: to bring the World Cup to every community. Overall, I would say they succeeded. But what did that look like in practice? And what else did we glean from this experiment? Here are 39 reflections — one for each day — on LA's summer of soccer.
1. The best World Cup party was the one in your neighborhood. As I trekked back from my fourth fan zone midway through the second week, I realized my strategy to prioritize FIFA-mandated activations was flawed. The real gift was traveling the shortest distance to find the closest connection to your community. And although the most successful examples were the 100 watch parties attended by over 40,000 people 19 in LA parks, this type of connection didn't need to be facilitated by the city. During the steamy Sunday final as we headed home from CicLAvia, I spotted the ultimate watch party: a group of neighbors clustered in the carport of their dingbat apartment, TV loud, grill hot, wading pool filled, kids kicking a soccer ball on the driveway. That's what it was all about.
2. Metro was behind the wheel in more ways than one. People rode transit. To the matches and everywhere else. But it was really about the attention to detail that tied it all together. A DJ playing "California Love" as you stepped off the K line platform.The soccer ball stickers showing the name of the transit agencies who had loaned us buses. A craft area set up inside the Hollywood & Highland station giving parents a shaded spot to wait out a connection. There's so much more to write about this — and I will — but Metro was the public agency that demonstrated how to properly plan and execute on this moment, and everyone should be following their lead into 2028.
Metro employees at a Downtown Inglewood station activation
3. LA is dangerously unprepared for extreme heat. If the tournament had gone into this past week, with highs over 90 in the basin, little relief at night, and enough humidity to make the backs of your knees sweat, this would have been a very different World Cup.
4. 'Bring your own shade' isn't just a suggestion. I could tell the temperature in the photos I took at every outdoor watch party based on one simple observation: were the country flags handed out actually being waved or used to create tiny tents over people's heads? Hats weren't enough for this glaring heat. Shade structures were complicated by view lines. Someone needs to hand out branded parasols. (Should this someone be Torched? What other megaevent-watching merch do you want?)
5. Inglewood needs to get serious about traffic. James Butts, are you reading this? I'd like to speak directly to James Butts. Buddy, I know you have a lot on your plate but if you want to be forever mayor, you have got to get your streets in order. Pretty much every complaint, from neighbors getting blocked out of their driveways to the few hiccups in Metro's very reliable shuttle service, were due to your inability to manage your lanes.
6. FIFA actually stands for Fencing In Fans Always.
7. The state of LA's right of way embarrassed me so much that I found myself constantly apologizing to tourists. And not just the broken sidewalks. The weeds, the trash, the darkened streetlights, the trash, the empty tree wells, the trash. Like I wrote previously, if we're not cleaning up for the World Cup, what makes anyone think we'll clean up for 2028?
8. The FIFA stores suuuuuucked. I could never tell if they were picked over or poorly stocked, but even the quality of merchandise was embarrassing. Here's an official shirt I saw at the Hollywood & Highland one:
Dude, they didn't even try. Also, is that actually an air hockey table?
9. The brand activations were also pretty pathetic. Look, I just think these sponsors could do a lot better. No shade to people who stood in line for two hours for a Bank of America-branded charm bracelet. (No, seriously, there was no shade.)
10. But the worst was Home Depot. While Boycott Home Depot protesters staged actions at SoFi and LASEC's headquarters, the FIFA sponsor somehow had a booth inside the Mexico hospitality house with a step-and-repeat. Thankfully, there was not a whole lot of stepping and repeating.
11. Yes, there was also an Airbnb "experiences" counter in Grand Central Market, and it will probably be there for a few years because Airbnb is a global sponsor of both FIFA and the IOC.
12. But the Coca-Cola takeover basement of Grand Central Market was a very pleasant place to visit. I spent a lot of time recharging in the AC here.
14. Drinking beer in the street is really fun. Aside from the roving vendors handing Modelo tall boys out of rolling coolers — we salute you — it was nice to see so many city-sanctioned beer gardens. At theNorth Hollywood block party, Council District 2 plopped a beer garden — although it wasn't a North Hollywood brewery? — right in the middle of Magnolia. Metro even set up a beer garden on the Little Tokyo/Arts District station plaza — beer by Sapporo, cocktails by Wolf & Crane — as part of a watch party for the Japan vs. Netherlands game.
15. It shouldn't be that hard to drink beer in the street. Where were the temporary al fresco expansions so more bars and restaurants could take over streets and parking lots? LA should have piloted an entertainment zone like the ones Santa Monica, Long Beach, and Culver City tested this summer.
16. We're going to have to find a way to move a lot of this stuff indoors. When the doors of the A line swung open in Pomona, I almost rode the world's longest light rail line back to LA. Imagine my relief arriving at the Fairplex and seeing that someone had the sense to stage the watch parties in an air-conditioned buildings.
Loved the beer hall vibes at the Fairplex
17. We're also going to have to find a way to move a lot of this stuff after dark. I'm not sure how easily that happens in 2028 when Olympic and Paralympic events are programmed all day long. On that same trip to Pomona, I visited the new Knight Riders Cricket Ground that will be hosting LA28 cricket exactly two years from now. The Fairplex moved the fair to spring — but is still hosting the Summer Games outside?
18. Because on a sunny 94-degree day, the surface temperature of asphalt is 147.3 degrees.
Yikes
20. 7-Eleven's limited-edition Powerade Blood Orange Kick Slurpee was the best official beverage of the tournament.
21. But I can't believe we're still doing single-use plastics??? I was astounded by Coca-Cola in particular handing out squishy petroleum-based polyethylene bottles of Diet Coke at fan zones. Surely we have rules against this sort of thing?
Hydration break! If you read anything on Torched that helped you navigate the World Cup, you should really become a paid subscriber. You'll get stickers, early access to content, and an invite to the paid subscriber party in September — almost certainly the best megaevent microevent of the year!
22. The crowd booing any mention of Gianni Infantino was a highlight of every match.
23. The World Cup trophy made from stacked La Croix boxes in the Silver Lake Gelson's was better-looking than the actual trophy. And yes, people were watching the games at the wine bar.
The trophy itself is Limoncello, in case you were curious
25. There didn't seem to be any plan for bad air quality. It was grotesque to watch the players sprint the length of a fossil-fuel branded field — ARAMCO ARAMCO ARAMCO ARAMCO — while I monitored Watch Duty to track the smoke plumes from Boyle Heights to Ontario (Canada). Heat, yes. Lightning, yes. But FIFA had no protocols in place for air quality: "Climate-related risk are assessed as part of overall tournament planning and managed in close coordination with host cities, stadium authorities, and national agencies." What does that look like for LA in 2028 — and who makes those decisions?
27. The party's actually still going. Santa Monica Mayor Caroline Torosis turned the State of the City into its own watch party activation as a way to hype upcoming megaevents. Goal City, which organized and promoted watch parties at bars around the city, is pivoting to Watch City to create communal viewing events "from college games and Drag Race to season finales, special airings and cultural moments." Need to feel something in public? Outdoor concerts abound; I opted for LACMA's Friday jazz night last week. And if you really want appointment viewing at odd hours, there's always The Clock.
28. Kick It in the Park needs to keep kicking it, in the park. I'm glad to see my go-to website listing the city's free watch party schedule remains up — now we need to add all the upcoming city programming like movie nights and pool parties. Why aren't the mayor's Summer Night Lights events in city parks already posted here?
30. I could have spent the entire tournament writing about neighborhood soccer stores. They would spring to life in the hours before every match, selling the jerseys of the day.
31. The best paid/free fan zone combo was Downtown Burbank, where organizers staged a free block party all along San Fernando Boulevard then tucked the ticketed experiences into semi-permeable lounges on the side streets.
32. I had to physically restrain myself from straightening every single one of those saggy FIFA-branded fence wraps. How can we innovate here? Oh, I know, HOW ABOUT NO FENCES.
33. No one has range like Nike, which built a fake street soccer venue inside the Grove and organized an authentic neighborhood one at Niky's Sports in Westlake. Still can't believe Rick Caruso approved that fruit vendor.
36. LA needs to champion vendors during these events. While Venice's fan zone organizers kicked vendors off the boardwalk, some fan zones did incorporate vendors into their plans. How about proactively organizing night markets, rentable kiosks, and free vendor carts?
37. The Rally Wagon epitomized LA's DIY spirit. The felt-and-glue mobile workshop popped up at station activations and fan zones, giving kids and adults a low-stakes, high-reward opportunity to manufacture their own team merch — or Minecraft flags or Pokemon masks — without the prescriptive nature of the brand activations.
My kids would run directly to the Rally Wagon every time
38. We still need more places where children can roam freely. My watch party criteria always included a key indicator: could kids play a self-directed game of soccer? We know LA doesn't have enough parks, but can we use the events of the next two years to truly reclaim spaces for kids in alleys, parking lots, streets?
39. The best World Cup party was the one in your neighborhood — but!
🥵 Hot Links will remain on a hydration break as I recharge and rethink the best way to deliver megaevent rrnews to you, the people. As always, open to your suggestions for what Torched can do for you
Alissa Walker
Alissa Walker
Alissa Walker
Alissa Walker
Alissa Walker
Alissa Walker
Alissa Walker
