A new bill will be introduced to the United States House of Representatives on Tuesday which seeks to authorize $50million worth of federal funding every year for host cities to use towards transportation and infrastructure of major sporting events.
A draft of the bill, which has been seen by The Athletic, will be introduced by Rep. Rick Larsen, a Democrat who represents Washington’s second congressional district. He is also the co-chair of the Congressional Soccer Caucus. In a phone call with The Athletic, he said the bill will be jointly introduced by Republican Rep. Burgess Owens, indicating bipartisan support for the initiative.
Mr. Larsen’s home state of Washington will host six games during the men’s World Cup in 2026, including the United States men’s national team’s (USMNT) second group stage game and two knockout games. Rep. Owens may have a local interest because his home state of Utah will host the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2034.
The bill will be known as the ‘Transportation Assistance for Olympic and World Cup Cities Act of 2025’.
Qualifying events would include the Olympics, Paralympics or Special Olympics, as well as the men’s and women’s FIFA World Cups, plus any multi-day international sporting events as determined by the transportation secretary. The bill will ask for $50m to be authorized for each fiscal year. The amount that can be given to an individual host city will be capped at $10m and the bill says that the administration should “allocate amounts evenly to each host metropolitan planning organization” for an event.
The 2026 men’s World Cup, co-hosted by U.S., Canada and Mexico, will be spread across 11 host cities in the U.S.: New York/New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Atlanta, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco Bay Area.
Hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars have already been committed to the World Cup and Olympics. Earlier this year, President Trump’s domestic policy bill — coined as ‘One, Big, Beautiful Bill’ — set aside $625m in federal funding to aid the security costs of hosting the World Cup in 2026. The bill also included an additional $500 million to be made available for “state and local capabilities to detect, identify, track or monitor threats from unmanned aircraft systems (otherwise known as drones)”, which has also become a key security concern for World Cup stadiums and fan festivals. The bill also included $1billion set aside for security, planning and other costs related to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
The World Cup host cities, as per their contracts with FIFA, are expected to carry many of the security costs for the tournament, both at stadiums and in surrounding areas. Many have already dipped into the pockets of city and state taxpayers and funds and sought private support and donations. The vast majority of revenue from the World Cup also goes to FIFA, including ticketing, parking, in-stadium sponsorship and hospitality packages. Host cities are able to sell local sponsorships for fan festivals.
The costs of hosting the tournament are starting to mount for local authorities. As previously reported by The Athletic, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who represents New Jersey, has previously said MetLife Stadium has already spent $37m on upgrades to enable it to host the final and that New Jersey will take on “$65m in costs for things like transit security for all hubs, bridges, tunnels, and airports”.
Miami-Dade County has already approved $46m for services associated with the World Cup. The spend on local taxpayer dollars has received some pushback, particularly after the Miami-Dade mayor previously asked county departments to make submissions for 10 per cent spending cuts.
Rep. Rick Larsen, however, insists that the economic impact of the World Cup means taxpayers dollars should receive a healthy return.
“I would point to Seattle, which projects the minimum $929million that’ll be generated just in King County alone over six World Cup matches,” he said on Monday.
The report of this estimate was made by Oxford Economics, which was contracted by Visit Seattle, the official marketing organization of Seattle and King County.
Mr. Larsen says the broader region will have additional benefits for hotels, restaurants and day-trips. He says: “I can’t tell you there’s give me a one for one investment – that’ll all be decided after the games are done – but we’re looking at hosting a Super Bowl sized game every day for three weeks in the United States. That’s going to require a massive investment to make this happen.
“The U.S. is benefiting from having people come to the United States and having the best that we can offer. I hope we offer our best, both on the field and off the field. The investment of $50million a year is somewhat peanuts compared to the potential return on investment in return.”
He added: “Host cities are finding they’re in varying states of readiness. This isn’t just for World Cup. It is a bill thinking for a long term about the need cities have when these large sporting events come to the U.S. and need help.”
Mr. Larsen says that the target is to get the funding into the appropriations bill for transportation by the end of January to ensure it passes through the House, the Senate and the White House in time for the World Cup.
Mr. Larsen also played down concerns that games could yet be relocated from World Cup host cities, amid concerns expressed by President Donald Trump about safety in cities run by Democrat mayors.
“We do big events there all the time,” he said, insisting Seattle is safe and bristling at what he called the President’s “empty threats”.
He added: “Big soccer games happen there. We had 70,000 people at the Leagues Cup final between Seattle and Miami. It went great.”
Rep. Owens, the Republican who is jointly introducing the bill, said: “As the host of the 2002 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, Utah knows how to welcome the world, and we’re gearing up to do it again in 2034.
“I’m proud to be Utah’s top advocate on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and to co-lead this effort to give host cities across America the dependable federal partner they need while preparing to host major international sporting events like the Olympics and World Cup. This support strengthens transportation planning, boosts local collaboration, and ensures the United States is ready to shine on the global stage.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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