Pam Kramer is acutely aware of how many days are left until the 2026 FIFA World Cup: “Six-hundred and fifteen days from today,” the CEO of Kansas City’s local host committee said earlier this month. “I start every conversation with the number, because the World Cup is going to start whether we’re ready or not.”
Fundraising is a key part of preparation for the event’s 16 host cities — 11 in the U.S., three in Mexico and two in Canada. In addition to lobbying municipal, state and county leaders for grants, host committees are counting on the sale of local market sponsorship packages under a first-of-its-kind FIFA Host City Supporter program to help cover the costs associated with hosting World Cup matches, which are expected to be in the low nine-figure range.
In the eight months since FIFA revealed which matches each city would host, however, local organizing committees have yet to announce any supporter brands. (Note: Houston’s World Cup host committee website now lists NRG, construction infrastructure company Quanta Services, Houston Methodist hospital and bottler Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages as supporters, though it has not put out an official announcement.) Seattle’s deal with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, announced in March 2023, remains the only agreement announced under the program.
“This is the biggest opportunity we have for private fundraising,” said Kramer, whose committee is working with Kansas City, Mo.-based agency Integrity 9. “We’ve been very fortunate in Kansas City — we have public support, public funding from both the state of Kansas and the state of Missouri, the city of Kansas City, Mo., and Johnson County, Kansas. But we will need this host city supporter program and other private donors to raise the money.”
Seattle’s deal with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians is the only official agreement under the supporter program.courtesy of fifa
Other host committees, such as New York/New Jersey, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Miami, aren’t expecting to receive much, if any, public assistance in covering the costs of hosting the matches, making the supporter program even more critical to their efforts. Each city is allowed to sign up to 10 supporters, and companies are limited to two host city deals each.
Several host city leaders and marketers said they are valuing the host city supporter designations at $5 million, with outliers in either direction based on market size and match schedule. While some host cities have received commitments from brands and just have yet to announce — Philadelphia, for example, has five — others are still in the early stages of the sales process.
FIFA introduced the Host City Supporter program for the 2026 World Cup in response to the host cities’ fundraising needs, but has been careful to ensure the host cities’ efforts don’t detract from the value of its broader and more lucrative commercial deals with blue-chip global brands. A key element of this has been restricting host cities from signing supporters from sectors in which FIFA has an existing partner or hopes to sign one.
At its core, the Host City Supporter designation offers brands three things. First, the right to use host city supporter branding, which does not include the official FIFA World Cup marks. Second, access to premium tickets and hospitality at World Cup matches in the host city. And third, the right to activate within fan fests held in the market, which one host city leader called the “crown jewel” of the packages.
Some host city leaders say, however, that a lack of clarity about what FIFA is allowing them to sell to supporters continues to keep them from finalizing deals. Several described the nature of the offerings as “evolving” over the past year through discussions with FIFA’s growing Miami office staff focused specifically on the 2026 World Cup.
For example, cities are unsure exactly which assets or how much activation space cities can offer supporters within their fan fests — locations for many of which have yet to be announced — or how many premium tickets can be included in each package. While city leaders have the opportunity to upsell FIFA’s main commercial partners with Host City Supporter packages, they’re not sure what they can offer that would be additive because they lack insight into what FIFA has already promised them.
Given the somewhat limited and nebulous nature of the assets provided by FIFA, host cities are creating additional exposure opportunities to offer potential supporters, such as youth soccer tournaments and public art installations.
“The most important aspect for host cities is to really find creative, out-of-the-box ideas that can complement what FIFA grants you as assets and rights with intellectual property, hospitality and fan festival,” said Nicolò Zini, vice president of commercial development for FWC26Miami. “We’re building value outside of that to make sure that our value proposition for the brands is compelling and whole.”
The Bay Area Host Committee is taking a different approach, operating outside the confines of FIFA’s Host City Supporter program by developing broader BAHC branding and building packages around three major upcoming events: the World Cup, the 2025 NBA All-Star Game and Super Bowl LX, to be played in February 2026 at Levi’s Stadium. The BAHC in the past few months has signed sponsorship agreements with Boston Consulting Group and EA Sports, neither of which is technically FIFA Host City Supporter.
“The way we’re positioning it, we’re bringing other things to the table that don’t necessarily rely on the exclusive use of that IP within that event,” said Bay Area Host Committee President and CEO Zaileen Janmohamed. “You get Bay Area Host Committee IP, sustainability of that IP — we’re not building just a one-event organization, we’re building a sports commission that is going to last for the long term.”
In addition to the 10 supporter designations, cities can solicit donations from an unlimited number of companies or individuals. Donors could still be granted tickets and hospitality rights, but would not receive access to the host city supporter IP.
