{"id":352351,"date":"2026-06-09T00:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/352351\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T00:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:23:08","slug":"san-jose-world-cup-events-include-free-watch-parties-for-all-104-matches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/352351\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose World Cup events include free watch parties for all 104 matches"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2014 With or without a ticket to the World Cup<\/a>, officials say San Jose will be the epicenter of the tournament\u2019s biggest celebrations in the Bay Area with free public watch parties and other events for all 104 matches.<\/p>\n

With the World Cup set to start Thursday<\/a>, those parties through July 19 will be centered downtown at San Pedro Square Market, with other events dotted throughout the city, such as Eastridge Center, Seven Trees Library, Evergreen Branch Library, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focal point of the World Cup in the Bay Area will be San Jose. You should all feel so proud of that and what that means for this region,\u201d Zaileen Janmohamed, president and CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee, said Monday at San Pedro Square Market in San Jose.<\/p>\n

As visitors from abroad start to arrive, San Jose officials are busy preparing for dozens of events and watch parties to complement the six upcoming matches that will take place at Levi\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\n

The venue, which will be temporarily referred to as San Francisco Bay Area Stadium according to rules established by FIFA<\/a>, will host Qatar vs. Switzerland on Saturday, Austria vs. Jordan on June 16, Turkey vs. Paraguay on June 19, Jordan vs. Algeria on June 22, Paraguay vs. Australia on June 25, and another match on July 1, depending on which teams make it through the earlier rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Jose will host both team hotels, it will host a team base camp at San Jose State University, it\u2019ll host the venue-specific training site at PayPal Park, or San Jose stadium, it will host the largest fan watch party,\u201d Janmohamed said. \u201cThis is one of those sports that everybody can be involved in, so enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Cup will kick off Thursday with matches that include Mexico vs. South Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan told this news organization the city has plenty to offer for visitors who may be venturing to the Bay Area for the first time.<\/p>\n

He pointed to local attractions such as East San Jose\u2019s Little Saigon, the Mexican Heritage Plaza, and History Park as family-friendly places to visit. A former soccer coach, Mahan also said he\u2019ll be catching several matches at San Pedro Square Market, which officials are calling the \u201cSoccer Celebration Headquarters\u201d for the duration of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Mahan said officials are estimating the World Cup to generate between $480 to $630 million, with most of that benefitting residents in the South Bay. The recent Super Bowl festivities from earlier this year added about $720 million to the Bay Area economy.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are ready to host anyone and everyone from around the world,\u201d Mahan said.<\/p>\n

Jocelyn Gutierrez, sitting at a table outside the market during Monday\u2019s press conference, said she is planning to come to San Jose to join in the World Cup fun. While she did not grab a ticket to any of the local matches, Gutierrez said she may travel to Texas to watch Portugal face either\u00a0DR Congo or Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n

As a Salinas resident, she said she is happy the biggest watch parties will be in San Jose, so that she doesn\u2019t have to go all the way to San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s things like this or events like this that brings a lot of people together,\u201d Gutierrez said.<\/p>\n

Patricia Segura, a Redwood City resident sitting with Gutierrez, said she and her boyfriend were able to snag tickets over a month ago to see the sold-out Qatar vs. Switzerland matchup at Levi\u2019s Stadium on Saturday. She said they paid about $450 per person \u2014 which is significantly cheaper than other matches, such as the USA vs. Paraguay match in Los Angeles on Friday, with tickets previously going for upward\u00a0of $1,900 each.<\/p>\n

Segura is a former soccer player and said is enthusiastically awaiting the upcoming World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love soccer,\u201d Segura said. \u201cIt\u2019s just magic that it\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on San Jose World Cup events, visit sj26.sanjose.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 With or without a ticket to the World Cup, officials say San Jose will be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,2457,47265,47073,88,90,89,1083,127,36690,47118],"class_list":["post-352351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-mexico","tag-paraguay","tag-qatar","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-switzerland","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}