SAN JOSE, Calif.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0U.S. Soccer,\u00a0in partnership with\u00a0the San Jose Earthquakes, the San Jos\u00e9\u00a0Sports Authority, the City of San Jos\u00e9\u00a0and\u00a0the Bay Area Host Committee\u00a0announced today that Soccer Celebration presented by El Camino Health in San Pedro Square Market will be\u00a0the\u00a0official\u00a0watch party location for the U.S. Men\u2019s National Team\u2019s FIFA World Cup 2026\u2122 Round of 32 knockout stage match against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday, July 1, at 5 p.m. PT.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since the outset of the World Cup on June 11, San Jose has taken the lead nationwide for tournament buzz as the preeminent place to experience the games outside the match venues themselves. Hosted by the Earthquakes in partnership with the San Jos\u00e9 Sports Authority and the City of San Jos\u00e9, San Pedro Square Market has been the epicenter of the Bay Area watch parties. As the only location showing all 104 World Cup matches with free admission, more than 350,000 total fans have brought their passion and pride to Soccer Celebration during the group stage alone, with attendance for the first three USMNT games reaching as high as 25,000 spectators\u2014easily one of the largest watch parties in North America.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now with the biggest USMNT game in Bay Area history coming on Wednesday,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0only fitting that the\u00a0largest\u00a0watch party in the region matches the\u00a0magnitude\u00a0of the game and the unwavering enthusiasm of its fans. The\u00a0first addition to San Pedro Square Market\u00a0for this event\u00a0will be an unprecedented fourth giant screen\u00a0to\u00a0provide\u00a0spectators another option to see the action alongside the now iconic 450-square-foot video wall bookending the viewing area on North San Pedro Street. In addition, the El Camino Health Togethering Zone\u2122 will be joined by several new soccer activities, partner activations, Earthquakes player appearances and more,\u00a0as\u00a0well as special\u00a0U.S. Soccer\u00a0activations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Additional San Jose viewing options are available at Creekside, Santana Row and Alum Rock. For more information, please visit the SJ26 World Cup<\/a> website.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n While the past two weeks have once again\u00a0demonstrated\u00a0the sport\u2019s massive popularity in the region, the numbers unequivocally show that San Jose and the South Bay have always been one of North America\u2019s true soccer capitals, historically and today.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n San Francisco Bay Area Stadium has been filled to at least 99% capacity for all five World Cup matches this summer, with two reaching the full-house number of 68,827 fans. In the 1994 FIFA Men\u2019s World Cup, Stanford Stadium averaged\u00a0nearly 82,000\u00a0fans over six games\u2014including the USMNT\u2019s last knockout round match on home soil, a 1-0 loss to Brazil in the Round of 16. In 1999, Spartan Stadium was a host venue for the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup and was part of a record total attendance of 1.194 million fans that stood for 16 years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Since\u00a0the Earthquakes set the foundation\u00a0for Bay Area soccer\u00a0in 1974, they have grown the game\u00a0in the region\u00a0the following decades, winning MLS Cups in 2001 and 2003 and\u00a0building\u00a0PayPal Park in 2015.\u00a0As one of\u00a0the signature\u00a0soccer-first stadiums in North America\u00a0when it opened,\u00a0it has hosted the MLS All-Star Game, a USMNT World Cup Qualifier, seven U.S. Women\u2019s National Team matches\u00a0with capacity crowds,\u00a0several major international friendlies,\u00a0and last year alone,\u00a0the USMNT in the Concacaf Gold Cup and the NWSL Championship.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In addition to hosting matches in the 2024 Copa America and 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup that cracked 70,000 spectators,\u00a0Levi\u2019s Stadium has played host to\u00a0Earthquakes\u2019\u00a0games in the previous two seasons that surpassed 50,000 fans, setting both the respective Leagues Cup and club standalone attendance records. And with the Quakes currently tied on points for first place in the Western Conference, they\u00a0enjoyed multiple sellouts of PayPal Park\u00a0heading into the World Cup break and will aim to continue that trend when they return to\u00a0domestic\u00a0league play in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n San Jose will only build on this unstoppable momentum from this World Cup\u00a0on the international level as well, with\u00a0Summer\u00a0Olympics\u00a0soccer coming to PayPal Park\u00a0in 2028.\u00a0<\/p>\n About San Jose Earthquakes\u00a0<\/p>\n The San Jose Earthquakes, one of Major League Soccer\u2019s original clubs, are the epicenter for soccer in Northern California, playing at the highest professional level in the United States.\u00a0The club won MLS Cups in 2001 and 2003 and took home Supporters\u2019 Shields in 2005 and 2012.\u00a0The Earthquakes are based out of PayPal Park, an 18,000-seat soccer-specific stadium that opened in 2015 and is the first cloud-enabled venue in MLS. The organization was originally founded in 1974 in the North American Soccer League, and in 2024, celebrated its 50th anniversary of positively\u00a0impacting\u00a0communities around Northern California. For more information about the Earthquakes, visit\u00a0www.sjearthquakes.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n About the San Jose Sports Authority\u00a0<\/p>\n The San Jose Sports Authority is a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase the City of San Jose\u2019s economic development, visibility, and civic pride through sports. Serving as the City’s sports commission since its\u00a0inception\u00a0in 1991, the Sports Authority has provided leadership and support to attract and host hundreds of sporting events in San Jose and the South Bay. The Sports Authority also supports and\u00a0operates\u00a0community,\u00a0youth\u00a0and amateur sports programs, including the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame and the REACH Youth Scholarship Program. To learn more, visit\u00a0www.sjsa.org.\u00a0<\/p>\n SJ26, an initiative of the San Jose Sports Authority, is dedicated to delivering world-class sports and entertainment experiences that\u00a0showcase\u00a0the best of San Jose. Through fan fests, watch parties, community celebrations, and major sporting events, SJ26 creates opportunities for residents and visitors to come together while supporting local businesses and highlighting San Jose as a premier sports destination. Alongside the San Jose Earthquakes, City of San Jose, and Bay Area Host Committee, we are excited to create the atmosphere for USMNT fans to experience San Jose. For more information visit\u00a0sj26.sanjose.org\/world-cup.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE, Calif.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0U.S. Soccer,\u00a0in partnership with\u00a0the San Jose Earthquakes, the San Jos\u00e9\u00a0Sports Authority, the City of San Jos\u00e9\u00a0and\u00a0the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-377623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377623","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=377623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}