SoFi Stadium

SoFi Stadium opened in 2020 and immediately set a new standard for NFL facility design. Located in Inglewood, immediately adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport, it features a fully enclosed translucent roof and a dual-sided video board suspended above the field that is the largest in professional sport. The stadium hosts both the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers.

Los Angeles is the second-largest city in the United States and has one of the most internationally diverse populations of any American city. Football’s roots run deep here through large Mexican, Central American, and South American communities. LA Galaxy and LAFC both draw large crowds, and the city hosted the 1994 World Cup at the Rose Bowl, still the most attended World Cup in history.

The IANA timezone is America/Los_Angeles, UTC-7 during Pacific Daylight Time across the June and July tournament window. A 20:00 kickoff at SoFi Stadium is 23:00 in New York, 04:00 the next morning in London, and 12:00 noon in Tokyo.

For viewers in Asia and Oceania, Los Angeles offers some of the most convenient kickoff times of the entire tournament. An 18:00 local start is 10:00 the following morning in Tokyo and 12:00 noon in Sydney. European viewers face the steepest challenge: most LA matches fall between midnight and 04:00 UK time.

SoFi Stadium hosts 8 World Cup 2026 matches: 5 group stage fixtures, 2 round of 32 matches, and 1 quarter-final. With knockout football guaranteed, it is one of the flagship venues of the tournament.

World Cup History

The Los Angeles area’s World Cup story is anchored by the 1994 tournament and one of the most memorable finals in the competition’s history.

The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, about 20 kilometres northeast of downtown Los Angeles, served as the centrepiece venue of USA 1994. It hosted the final between Brazil and Italy on July 17, 1994 in front of 94,194 spectators. The match ended 0-0 after 120 minutes. Roberto Baggio, Italy’s talisman who had carried his team to the final almost single-handedly, stepped up for the decisive spot kick in the shootout and sent it over the crossbar. Brazil became world champions for the fourth time.

The 1994 World Cup as a whole set attendance records that stood for years. The Rose Bowl’s group stage matches also drew enormous crowds, with fixtures approaching the stadium’s capacity of over 90,000.

SoFi Stadium is a completely different venue from the Rose Bowl: newer, enclosed, technologically advanced, and in a different part of the LA region. But the tradition of hosting the world’s biggest football tournament in this city continues in 2026, three decades on from the penalty that Baggio missed.