The beer showers started less than seven minutes after kickoff.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The several thousand spectators who packed Pine Avenue in downtown Long Beach last Friday collectively erupted after watching the U.S. men\u2019s national team notch its opening goal of the 2026 World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some flexed the American flags that draped over their backs. Others waved red, white and blue scarves. The overarching feeling amongst the crowd? Elation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The community-uniting event was just a concept 12 months ago. But over the past year, MLS Club LA Galaxy worked to organize its Soccer Celebration across the greater Los Angeles area. And the estimated 4,500-person turnout in downtown Long Beach for America\u2019s 4-1 win over Paraguay on Friday validated a year\u2019s worth of planning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like to say \u2018soccer is better together,\u2019 and there is no better way to watch the first U.S. game of the 2026 World Cup than with your 4,000 closest friends and family,\u201d said Kara Korber, LA Galaxy\u2019s Senior Director of Business Development and one of the event\u2019s primary organizers. \u201cTo see it all come together was really rewarding.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Korber said the Long Beach portion of LA Galaxy\u2019s Soccer Celebration originated like most modern ideas: on a Zoom call.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we realized there was some real potential there, we decided to get together for a walk-through,\u201d Korber said. \u201cSo we met with the city. We walked up \u2026 and down Pine to really get a sense of the space.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a visualization exercise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Korber and her colleagues loosely mapped out areas for the large screen, a mass of fans and brand activations. They also wanted to work with local businesses, which made that portion of Pine Avenue \u2014 a block lined with restaurants and bars \u2014 even more convenient.<\/p>\n
Crafting a schedule remained challenging.<\/p>\n
The Long Beach portion of the Soccer Celebration covers the entire World Cup group stage, making it a continuous two-and-a-half-week event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of logistics that go into an event that is that long, especially when street closures are involved,\u201d Korber said. \u201cSo we\u2019re in really close communication [with the city].\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. has naturally been the most popular draw in the Long Beach watch zone so far. But organizers felt it was important to broadcast as many group stage matches as they could \u2014 47 of the 72 to be exact \u2014 on Pine Avenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the largest World Cup that we\u2019ve ever had, so we wanted to make sure that we were a home base for every community,\u201d said Jaime Alvarez, LA Galaxy\u2019s Sr. Vice President of Communications and Community Impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no entry fee for any of the matches either, reaffirming the Galaxy\u2019s commitment to accessibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The watch displays matches on a 23-foot screen while also offering foosball and cornhole. An additional fan zone on the adjacent W Broadway is only active on select days, but offers World Cup merchandise, soccer skill games and giveaways.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s an exaggeration to say that there\u2019s literally hundreds of people working on this,\u201d Korber said.<\/p>\n
That collective effort over the past year has created a unified viewing experience in the heart of downtown Long Beach. Even though several matches will be played at nearby SoFi Stadium, the city\u2019s World Cup haven will remain on Pine Avenue and W Broadway through June 27.<\/p>\n
\u201cLong Beach is our home,\u201d Alvarez said. \u201cWe have a long history of working closely with the city and of working closely with families here in Long Beach \u2026 so to come here, celebrate and have a footprint here was really important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The beer showers started less than seven minutes after kickoff.\u00a0 The several thousand spectators who packed Pine Avenue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-366354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366354","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=366354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}