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The World Cup will be held at 16 different venues this summer, 11 of which will host NFL games each fall and winter.
One might think there won’t be much change on the safety front, but whatever NFL fans see, it’ll be that on steroids, and for good reason.
Forty-eight teams will compete for the coveted trophy in North America in 104 games, and almost everything we are used to seeing when we attend a sporting event will be thrown out the window.
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Fans pass through security during a U.S. men’s national team community training session at the Great Park Championship Soccer Stadium in Irvine on June 8, 2026, ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. (Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images)
To use MetLife Stadium, which will host the finals, as an example, NJ Transit train tickets are $98, Penn Station will be closed to non-World Cup attendees four hours before the games, and there is no parking available other than “premium parking” at nearly $300 at the nearby American Dream shopping center.
But on the safety front, there are massive changes because for the vast majority of fans in attendance, everything will be new.
“When you have different people from different countries who have flown with different languages, currencies and are not familiar with metro systems, you have to put more layers of rigor,” said Peter Evans, CEO of security company Xtract One Technologies, in an interview with Pak Gazette Digital.
Evans also mentioned how in an intense political environment, the environment could get testy quite quickly.
“There are people who have flown just for that game and spent a lot of money. They may bring their political opinions or issues they want to make a statement about at an event like MetLife Stadium, which has global attention and scrutiny. The security risks are different than a Super Bowl,” Evans said.
Teams like Evans’
“People start planning these activities years in advance because there is a lot of complexity involving local law enforcement, DHS, FBI, CIA and Interpol. It takes a lot of coordination around technology, social media scanning and even anti-drone activities. It’s particularly complex now because of artificial intelligence software, smartphones and drones,” Evans said.
MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will host matches during the 2026 World Cup. (Getty Images)
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“Security personnel do not see each other as competition. They share a common interest in protecting people. You will see organizations like ours partnering with competitors to offer the right solution.”
It also shouldn’t surprise anyone if President Donald Trump attends multiple games: He attended the Club World Cup final at MetLife last July and just attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals. If that’s the case, Evans said it should be announced sooner rather than later “so people have time to prepare accurately.”
“You have many more layers because these activities are a potential target for someone seeking notoriety and impact. When you add a president to the welcoming ceremony, it just increases the levels of security that much more and requires coordination,” he said.
Considering the number of matches in such a short period, Evans believes security teams will change protocols on the fly and take notes from previous matches across the continent. And while it’s almost impossible to avoid conflict completely, Evans believes it’s possible to minimize the risk as best as possible.
“I think people would be very surprised at how much sharing and coordination happens. We see this with arenas and stadiums; for example, during a Harry Styles tour, all the venues would come together to share what they learned, like people hiding objects in Big Bird or banana suits. There is an incredible amount of coordinated sharing and debrief calls after each event to allow time to adjust before the next game,” Evans said.
American fans go through security checks as they arrive to watch training in Irvine, California, on June 8, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Image Images)
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“The main focus is to minimize the risk and minimize the impact. There are millions of people who attend with their children and families. Ultimately, you want to make sure that no one in that group of fans is negatively affected. Will someone get drunk and cause disorder? Probably. How quickly can that risk be contained so that the general population has the experience they should have?
“The victory: no one gets hurt.”
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