Both can be football. Both can be true. Both shall kick it on a stage that has mastered the art of ‘doing both’ in all corners of perennial bucket list life for sportourists (made-up definition: sports tourists). From beachside beauty to Bay Area bustle, Hollywood history to Silicon Valley social networking, chop sticks to churros.
California fortifies mega-host status this year as Santa Clara welcomes Super Bowl 60 to Levi’s Stadium on February 8, before joining SoFi Stadium and Los Angeles as one of 16 host cities for the 23rd edition of the World Cup between June 11-July 29.
LA flexes its soccer roots once more as home to the 1994 World Cup final and one of the founding cities of the MLS since enriched on the global landscape by David Beckham and Heung-Min Son hysteria, SoFi awaiting as a world-leading epitome of stadia glitz with its 70,000 square-foot display haloing a cacophonic bowl.
The Super Bowl meanwhile returns to the Bay a decade on since Von Miller and the Denver Broncos stifled Cam Newton’s Carolina Panthers to lift the Lombardi Trophy, Levi’s awaiting as a centrepiece to renowned innovation and ambition while evoking Bend It Like Beckham nostalgia adjacent to Santa Clara training ground.
America’s Golden State will come to a halt. Yet a breathless episode looms as two of the biggest sporting parties on the planet trade notes.
Sky Sports flew out to California to get the fan experience ahead of their historic year of sport…
- For further information, head to VisitCalifornia.com
- For further information on San Francisco, visit SFtravel.com
- How California is gearing up for historic 2026 of sport
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“You tell me another place in the world where you walk in somewhere, and as long as you’re wearing the same colour jersey or uniform, you’re high-fiving a complete stranger in five seconds,” said San Francisco 49ers president Al Guido.
“It doesn’t happen in life. We’re all consumed with our day jobs, go to a coffee shop in the morning, everybody’s looking down at their phone. That’s the beauty of sports.”
Only fragments of dust kicked up by trudging feet could blemish a crystal blue sky as vantage point perfection awaited upon sweaty ascension to the top of Mount Lee. Only scuffled gravel, the heavy breathing of a puffed-out hiker or the jogger who apparently frequented this route while carrying a boombox could disrupt the silence. Only stripes of December sunshine threatened to impair vision of the 45-foot letters reading Hollywood over which we peered.
The Los Angeles skyline glistened in all its glory, peacocking a blend of pristine nature and showbiz opulence as the Santa Monica Mountains played backdrop to cinematic iconicity, Beverly Hills hutzpah, famed Sunset Strip soirées and, lurking like an omnipotent palace in the distance, SoFi Stadium with all its NFL-leading 3.1 million square feet within Hollywood Park’s 300 acres.
It had been here where Austin Butler’s Elvis Presley biopic staged the King of Rock and Roll’s career comeback plot, buoyed up by tension-spiking music and a smirk indicative of resurfacing swagger as if drawing inspiration from the entertainment capital laid before him. For this easily-romanticised writer, it was hard to escape the same insistence of star power that Los Angeles could ooze and exemplify, and in turn harness to accentuate sporting magnificence and drama like that of a World Cup.
It was also been here where the Los Angeles Rams once adjusted the sign to read ‘Rams house’ after their Super Bowl LVI triumph, and where the Los Angeles Dodgers lit up the ‘D’ in blue after winning the World Series.
“Why is LA important to the World Cup? There’s so much in Los Angeles that I don’t think you do a World Cup in the US without LA playing a major role,” said Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission President and CEO Kathy Schloessman.
“We like to be on the big international stage. We know how to do these events bigger, better than most. You aren’t going to be at World Cup matches the whole time you’re here, so it’s a great opportunity for us to show off our city.”
Some 400 miles away, a fierce wind howled through the door of the Tony Bennett suite at Oracle Park – home to the MLB’s San Francisco Giants – as two vocalists synonymous with the Bay collided within a beacon of its sporting DNA. Chase Center – headquarters to the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries – could be seen to the right as it joined Oracle Park in lining the water, where the direction of a dwarfing cargo ship lured eyes left and towards the Bay Bridge as it peaked through the fog and into vision above the stand.
Trade in land for sea and a San Francisco Bay Cruise offered the complementary view from the other side, a perimeter of the sunset-kissed Golden Gate Bridge, a wave-swatting Alcatraz Island and the commanding city skyline assembling to yield its own big-stage authority.
Before us towered two titans of the life experience industry, at the nucleus of which lies all-encompassing range tailored to anyone and everyone.
“I’ve lived here now for 20 years, I don’t think there’s another region in the world, definitely in the US, where you have a diversity of people, where no matter who you are, where you come from, or how old you are, you feel welcome in the Bay,” said Bay Area Host Committee President and CEO Zaileen Janmohamed.
“Bay Area Style. What I love most is that we have this family mentality that just makes you feel included.”
Where Denzel Washington glides between multiple Hollywood genres with award-winning craft and Dodgers talisman Shohei Ohtani boasts pitch-and-hit supremacy, Los Angeles hops between the recharging tranquillity of Manhattan Beach strolls, the generation-bridging film education of the 100-year-old Chinese Theatre and the oomph-evoking rooftop bar pizazz of the Whisky Hotel and Desert 5 Spot, the latter of which sees country vibes meet a 360 degree city view that demands Rick Ross’ Stay Schemin’ as an appropriate balcony theme tune.
Where Apple, Google, Netflix and self-driving Waymo taxis dare to advance the technological world and where Christian McCaffrey ignites the 49ers as one of football’s elite Swiss army knives, their Bay Area base dares to bet its versatility against the multi-tasking might of staging both a Super Bowl and World Cup in the same year.
“There’s a curiosity about people here, they want to learn more and do more and push more, and there’s this part where it doesn’t matter what challenge you put in front of us,” said Janmohamed. “Combine those things with just great food and wine, a great sports town, it’s such a great consolidation of things that make up a person.
“Bay Area style is showing people a little bit of swagger and a little bit of pride and a ‘hey, you can come in here’.”
Los Angeles. Where you can sip coffee in Central Perk, step into Batman’s cave and stand where Toby Maguire planted his famous upside-down kiss on Kirsten Dunst at Warner Bros Studios. Where bronzed weight-lifters, seasoned roller-skaters and pick-up basketball games forge the unofficial Venice Beach Olympics indicative of LA’s sporting obsession. Where LeBron James vs Michael Jordan debates span both basketball and the Bugs Bunny-accompanied big screen.
Venture outside the slick 1960s ambience of LA’s Whisky Hotel and 2,827 walk-of-fame stars embedded along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street sat on your doorstep. Step outside The Culver Hotel and both Venice and Santa Monica beach await just a short taxi ride away, a partnership with the city meaning World Cup guests will also be granted direct stadium transport on the SoFi Express.
“It’s an opportunity to talk about the greatness of LA and what it’ll bring from people around the world that are coming here to appreciate soccer,” said Los Angeles Chargers Chief of Staff Fred Maas. “Not only will you see a stadium like no other in the world, it will also be a magnet for opportunities both in the venue as well as outside the venue.
“The town has embraced it and there’ll be extraordinary things to do that you can’t do anywhere else. LA is such an incredible place and it’s really not just one city, it’s a dozen different cities and experiences.”
And San Francisco. Where a short boat ride separates you from visiting sea lions at Pier 39 one minute to standing in a cell and walking in the footsteps of Al Capone on Alcatraz Island in another. Where you can watch Steph Curry sink threes at Chase Center before sinking whisky in the Warriors guard’s own bar The Eighth Rule.
Curry’s bar is situated within The Westin St Francis hotel, which poses as a second-century San Francisco landmark while overlooking Union Square with door-side cable-cars as a perfectly-placed access point to every Bay Area box to tick. From the Theatre District to Fisherman’s Wharf to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Then again, Steph is always in range.
Behold Cosm Los Angeles, a sport’s fans vision of heaven brought to life in the form of an 87-foot diameter LED dome piloted by revolutionary technology to create a shared reality viewing experience capable of showcasing both live sporting events and movies. It is your VR headset on steroids, transporting you to any given stadium’s best seat in the house and close enough to see the eligible sixth offensive lineman’s eyes light up fearfully in the huddle upon being told the ball is coming his way. Sports fandom redefined.
Behold John’s Grill, a symbol of San Franciscan culinary history as the first restaurant built downtown in 1908 in the wake of the 1906 earthquake. Once famously referenced in The Maltese Falcon, it now clobbers the boundaries of modern dining by matching jazz-serenaded steak heaven with block parties fronted by some of the world’s top DJs on the adjacent Ellis Street every third Thursday of the month. Its cocktail of class and carnage, inspired by third generation Greek-Mexican family owner and Olympiakos fan John Konstin Jr, beckons as a unique one-stop-shop for visiting fans of all ages and a picture of Bay Area progressiveness.
Oracle Park guide Jim had been the quintessential ambassador for Bay Area sport. Once upon a time fans could have heard the noise coming from an Oakland As game should they be playing at the Coliseum on the same night as the Giants, he recalled. He passionately championed San Francisco’s sporting heritage, revelling in the city-wide jubilation when the Giants’ proposed relocation to Florida collapsed in the 1990s, rejoicing over the magic Candlestick Park had radiated before the 49ers moved to Santa Clara, hailing the weird and wonderful ways in which the late Willies Mays’ No 24 jersey was honoured – which included planting 24 palm trees around his statue and Oracle Park asking the United States Postal Service to change their address in his name.
Hollywood Sign tour guide Sarah had in her own way typified LA’s versatile design and its proclivity for showmanship by balancing life as a rising comedian with the job as a pun-brimming encyclopaedia of local knowledge tasked with steering tourists up its most recognised landmark. She would tell the story of Welsh philanthropist Griffith G Griffith, how he accused his wife of plotting against him with the Pope and how he donated 3,015 acres to the City of Los Angeles that would eventually become the famous Griffith Park, where ‘Views.’ is the customary Instagram caption. And she would also direct fellow visitors to women’s sports bar ‘Watch Me!’, singer Anderson Paak’s live music venue Andy’s, the popular 33 Taps sports watering hole and the $20 smoothies at Erewhon in Beverly Hills. Yes. $20.
“I’m here for the sports,” said an Australian man on the same hike in response to said smoothie.
Between them they were flag-bearers for Californian curiosity and charisma, eager to parade their home’s entertainment brawn and equally-inquisitive to learn about the world so eager to visit this year. There had been an open-arms feel wherever you stepped foot, from baristas to uber drivers, from bartenders to businessmen, all promising-meets-teasing the sports trip of a lifetime for those heading to the West Coast.
The eyes of the world are coming. The eyes of the world are, too, already here. For California proudly remains one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse destinations on the planet.
The gravity of Son’s switch from Tottenham Hotspur to Los Angeles FC in 2025 would amplify as much, elevating soccer once more in a city that is home to one of the largest Korean communities outside of Korea.
A step into the Korea Town-adjacent neighbourhood of Larchmont Village tipped its own hat to LA’s cultural power as Mexican restaurant Tu Madre delivered a clinic in fusion with its Korean BBQ steak burrito – a can’t-shut-up-about-it personal highlight of our trip. There was Little Armenia and China Town and Little Ethiopia and Filipinotown, all of which coincided with LA’s reputation as a prized location for Mexican cuisine outside of Mexico itself such is the enormity of its Hispanic and Latin American communities.
San Francisco was no different, the vibrant and expertly-crafted murals of its Mission District championing latino culture with messages of political rights and female empowerment as a unique art exhibition breaching the confinements of your conventional museum. Elsewhere China Live is nestled at the heart of one of the largest Chinatowns in the country, while the city is also home to one of just three official Japantowns in the US.
Californians are well-tuned to the task of welcoming the world to their shores. In fact, it is no task, but instead the norm.
LA’s Lakers have won 17 NBA Championships, the Sparks have won three WNBA Championships, the Rams have won one Super Bowl, the Dodgers have won eight World Series titles, the Kings have won two Stanley Cups, the Galaxy have won six MLS Cup Championships.
The Bay Area’s 49ers have won five Super Bowls, the Giants have won eight World Series Championships, the Oakland Athletics won four World Series titles, the Warriors have won seven NBA Championships, the San Jose Earthquakes have won two MLS Cup Championships.
It is a cauldron for culture, for education, for arts, for community, for sporting stardom, blending calm, chaos, legacy and history as the Super Bowl and World Cup come to town.
Sky Sports visited Los Angeles and San Francisco with Visit California; watch Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara live on Sky Sports NFL on Sunday February 8
Which World Cup games are in California?
Following Friday’s official World Cup draw, here is a breakdown of the confirmed and prospective games in California next summer.
* Text bolded = Los Angeles
*Text non-bolded = San Francisco
Group B:
- June 13: Qatar vs. Switzerland – Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara
- June 18: Switzerland vs. UEFA Playoff Winner A – SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
Group D:
- June 12: USMNT vs. Paraguay – SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
- June 19: UEFA Playoff Winner C vs. Paraguay – Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara
- June 25: UEFA Playoff Winner C vs. USMNT – SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
- June 25: Paraguay vs. Australia – Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara
Group G:
- June 15: Iran vs. New Zealand – SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
- June 21: Belgium vs. Iran – SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
Group J:
- June 16: Austria vs. Jordan – Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara
- June 22: Jordan vs. Algeria – Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara
Round of 32:
- June 28: Group A runner-up vs. Group B runner-up – SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
- July 1: Group D winner vs. Group B/E/F/I/J third place – Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara
- July 2: Group H winner vs. Group J runner-up – SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
Quarter-finals:
- July 10: Round of 16 match 5 winner vs. Round of 16 match 6 winner – SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
