Los Angeles is about to take a star turn on soccer's biggest stage, but a new ranking suggests fans heading to SoFi Stadium may want to lower their expectations — and pack bug spray.
Last among the host cities
A study by the ticketing platform SeatPick scored SoFi Stadium in Inglewood the worst of all 11 U.S. host venues for the 2026 World Cup on a "fan experience" measure, KTLA reported. SoFi landed at the bottom with a composite score of about 5.82 out of 10, according to the published rankings.
The study judged venues on a set of off-the-field conditions: in-stadium beer and water prices, nearby hotel rates, summer heat, local violent-crime rates and mosquito activity — drawing on public data from sources including the FBI, NOAA and the pest-control company Orkin.
What dragged LA down
SoFi struggled across most of those categories. The study cited stadium concession prices of about $14 for a beer and $7 for a bottle of water, average nearby hotel rates around $383 a night, and a top-of-the-chart mosquito risk score for the Inglewood area. It also flagged local violent-crime figures — though, as criminologists often note, neighborhood-wide crime statistics don't map neatly onto the heavily secured environment inside a stadium on match day.
It's worth being clear about what the ranking measures and what it doesn't. SeatPick is a for-profit ticketing marketplace, and its scoring reflects external costs and conditions, not the quality of SoFi itself — its sightlines, technology or the roar of a packed World Cup crowd. The $5-billion venue is widely considered one of the most advanced stadiums in the world.
How the rest ranked
At the top of the list was Gillette Stadium outside Boston, with a score around 8.08, helped by cheaper concessions, milder summer weather and a near-zero mosquito rating, the rankings showed. Houston's NRG Stadium finished just above SoFi at the bottom, dinged for extreme heat and high local crime figures but buoyed by lower prices.
For Angelenos, the takeaway is less about civic pride than practicality. SoFi will host some of the tournament's biggest matches, drawing huge international crowds to Inglewood, and a World Cup ticket has never been a bargain. The study's most useful advice may also be its simplest: budget for the concessions, hydrate before you go in, and bring the repellent.
