In New York the countdown towards the 2026 World Cup also passes through the sidewalks, schoolyards and neighborhood streets. The socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani has launched “Soccer Streets”, a project that until June 26 will transform fifty streets in front of public schools in the five boroughs into small villages dedicated to football. The idea is simple: close the streets to traffic and give them back to the kids. Instead of cars, there will be football goals, temporary pitches, artistic activities, national flags to paint and neighborhood parties designed to involve students, families and residents.
The initiative started on May 1st and will run throughout the city, school after school, until the last day of the school year. According to the city administration, the project aims to prevent the World Cup in the United States from remaining an event reserved only for sponsors, luxury tourism and prohibitively expensive tickets. Mamdani explained that the goal is to let those who will never enter FIFA stadiums experience “the joy of football”.
Football as a public space and community opportunity
During the presentation of the program, the Mayor was filmed while playing football with the children wearing the Arsenal FC shirt. An image that well summarizes the political message behind Soccer Streets: transforming the World Cup into a widespread and popular experience, far from the idea of an armored and hyper-commercial mega event. “Let’s open the streets to the game”, declared Mamdani, underlining how the Open Streets program represents one of the most effective tools for returning public space to citizens.
In fact, in many neighborhoods of New York, the street in front of the school is the only truly open area available to children. The days organized within the project include improvised matches, training sessions, sports exercises and creative workshops linked to the national teams that will participate in the World Cup. Not just sport, therefore, but also collective moments designed to strengthen the sense of community in the neighbourhoods.
The World Cup as an event for the whole city
The project was organized together with the non-profit Street Lab and with the support of Chobani. The initiative is part of the broader “Open Streets for Schools” program, which allows schools to temporarily close adjacent streets to traffic for educational and recreational activities. The city’s World Cup manager, Maya Handa, explained that the World Cup “is not just about matches in stadiums”, but also about the ability to involve neighborhoods and create widespread participation.
And while students will play on the mini fields set up in front of schools, the city is also preparing large public events for 2026. New York will host eight matches of the tournament in the MetLife Stadium area, including the final on July 19. Five official fan zones will also be set up, one for each borough, where citizens and tourists will be able to follow the matches for free. In the meantime, however, the World Cup is already starting now. Not in the million-dollar stadiums, but among the buildings, the playgrounds and the streets closed to traffic where hundreds of kids are returning to play together.
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