World Cup organizers in Boston and Philadelphia are asking fans who don’t have match tickets to avoid coming to the stadium on game days.
“The people who should come to Gillette on a game day are people who have a ticket to the event,” Jim Nolan, COO of Kraft Sports and Entertainment, said Wednesday. “So if you don’t have a ticket, don’t come to Gillette.”
Boston and Philadelphia were two cities involved in last month’s World Cup tailgate scare, when Boston organizers had an apparent mixup with FIFA and declared that tailgating would be banned at the stadium “per FIFA policy.” FIFA strenuously denied that any such policy existed, and Boston eventually said that tailgating would in fact be permitted.
Nolan said on Wednesday that organizers in Boston “are 100% allowing tailgating for all FIFA matches, but again, that is just for ticket-holders.”
FIFA’s requirements for larger security perimeters than NFL games are eating into space used for parking and partying. Philadelphia has more than 21,000 parking spaces at its sports complex; it’s unclear how many will be available during the World Cup. Boston organizers have said that Gillette will only have 5,000 parking spaces available for the soccer tournament, way down from the 20,000 open for Patriots games. (Fans who still want to drive can part at 5,000 more “satellite lots” along a nearby highway.)
When the tailgating story was circulating, Philadelphia organizers at the time seemed to suggest tailgating would carry on as normal, with fans welcome to drink and grill in the enormous South Philadelphia parking lot that surrounds the sports stadium complex there. An Eagles spokesperson told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the matchday experience “will be consistent with all major ticketed events we host at Lincoln Financial Field.” The host committee’s statement at the time said that “fan experience plans are still being finalized,” but the group was committed to celebrating the city’s “game-day culture.”
“Philadelphia is a city defined by its fans and its traditions, and that will not change when the world arrives for FIFA World Cup 2026,” the statement said.
Now, local organizers are clarifying that fans will need to have a match ticket to tailgate outside the stadium, and those without tickets will need to go to the free Fan Fest at Lemon Hill—in a completely different part of the city.
“It is a change for Philadelphians to know that this is not like a traditional Eagles game, where there are 25,000 people here who have no tickets, and are here for that part of the party,” Meg Kane, CEO of Philadelphia Soccer 2026, said on Wednesday.
Philadelphia is running one of the biggest Fan Fest operations of any World Cup host city, with one central celebration spanning all 39 days of the tournament. Many other host cities have divided their Fan Fests into smaller regional watch parties, trimmed down the number of days a central event can happen, or charged fees to offset costs. The city is discouraging fans from driving by requiring special parking permits for cars near the Fan Fest site and increasing bus service.
“For those who don’t have tickets, we would like you to go tailgate at Lemon Hill, if you will, but without the cars,” Kane said. “A fully pedestrian experience.”
Nolan similarly encouraged fans to go to Boston’s Fan Fest instead of coming to the stadium. “There are many, many ways to celebrate, we just strongly urge people not to come here,” he said.
Limited tailgating to ticketed fans is one way organizers can try not to repeat what happened at last summer’s Copa América final at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, a security disaster in which unticketed fans stormed and breached the venue’s gates, delaying the match and resulting in dozens of arrests, including the president of the Colombian soccer federation.
