Atlanta’s World Cup Will Run on Rails
- Jason Longshore
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Atlanta is not preparing to host the World Cup by inventing something new.
Atlanta is preparing by scaling what it already does every single day.
That was the clearest message from Thursday morning’s media roundtable with the Atlanta World Cup Host Committee, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, MARTA, and the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. The focus was mobility, airport operations, and the visitor experience. The underlying theme was even bigger.
Atlanta’s advantage is movement.
This is a city built on logistics. A global crossroads where millions pass through, where neighborhoods connect through rail lines, and where downtown becomes walkable in a way few World Cup cities can match.
The tournament will bring the world here.
Atlanta believes it is ready to move it.
The Airport as Atlanta’s First Impression
Ricky Smith, the general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson, framed the airport not as a facility, but as an experience.
“The airport is kind of the living room for the city,” Smith said, the first place visitors will encounter Atlanta and the last place they will remember when they leave.
Hartsfield-Jackson is not bracing for scale. It lives inside scale. The airport handles more than 100 million passengers a year, roughly 330,000 travelers every day. That volume is part of the city’s identity, and the World Cup will simply be the most visible version of what Atlanta already does.
The goal this summer is not only efficiency. It is a sense of place.
Smith emphasized that visitors will be greeted with a “wholesome Atlanta feel,” but also with something deeper. International supporters should see themselves reflected in the airport experience, through marketing, customer service, and the way Atlanta welcomes the world.
The first World Cup memory for many fans will not be a goal.
It will be the moment they step into Atlanta.
MARTA as the Backbone of the Tournament
If the airport is the front door, MARTA is the connective tissue.
Rhonda Allen, MARTA’s deputy general manager, made it clear that Atlanta’s rail system will be central to the World Cup experience. Visitors can travel from the airport to downtown in about twenty minutes, for $2.50 one way.
That is not just convenient.
That is transformational for an event of this scale.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be served directly by two nearby stations, including the SEC District and Vine City, placing fans within steps of the gates. Centennial Olympic Park, the Fan Fest footprint, and downtown attractions sit within the same transit and walking ecosystem.
Atlanta is not asking visitors to solve transportation.
Atlanta is offering them a map.
Allen also highlighted a significant modernization arriving at the perfect time. MARTA will transition next month to its new Better Breeze system, allowing riders to tap and pay directly at fare gates with credit cards, debit cards, and mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
For international visitors, that matters. It removes friction. It makes the system legible.
It makes Atlanta feel easier.
A Downtown World Cup City
William Pate, president and CEO of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, returned repeatedly to one of Atlanta’s defining strengths.
Accessibility.
Eighty percent of the U.S. population can reach Atlanta within two hours. The city ranks among the top in international nonstop flights. And once visitors arrive, the experience compresses quickly into a walkable downtown core.
Pate noted that more than 13,000 hotel rooms sit within walking distance of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, alongside hundreds of dining options and major attractions clustered around Centennial Olympic Park.
The World Cup will not be a single venue event.
It will be a city event.
Pate also emphasized that visitors will have down days between matches, creating opportunities to explore Midtown, Buckhead, and Atlanta’s neighborhoods. The tournament is expected to spill outward through watch parties, cultural gatherings, food events, and community celebrations across the metro area.
You do not need a ticket to have a World Cup experience in Atlanta.
That experience will live in the city itself.
Matchday Will Look Different
One of the most important practical notes of the roundtable was also one of the simplest.
Parking will not be the same.
Georgia O'Donoghue, vice president of operations and COO of the Atlanta World Cup Host Committee, explained that FIFA will control key lots around the stadium footprint, as it does for major global events. Fans should not expect the matchday routine of an Atlanta United or Falcons game.
Atlanta is encouraging something else.
Ride MARTA. Walk from downtown hotels. Treat the last mile as part of the experience, not an obstacle.
This is not a warning.
It is a philosophy.
A World Cup matchday is meant to feel like a festival, not a traffic pattern.
Atlanta’s World Cup Identity
Near the end of the roundtable, a question was posed that cut through logistics and into meaning.
What makes Atlanta a World Cup city?
O'Donoghue answered with pride. Atlanta is already a global city, shaped by diversity, neighborhoods, culture, music, food, and hospitality. Pate returned to the infrastructure and experience that has made Atlanta a consistent host of major events. Smith offered perhaps the simplest conclusion of all.
Atlanta does not need to prove it is world class.
It needs to remind people.
The World Cup will test every host city’s ability to move people, communicate clearly, and create joy at scale.
Atlanta believes that is what it was built to do.
The world is coming.
Atlanta is ready to move with it.
What Comes Next
The Atlanta Host Committee will submit its final transport mobility plan later this month, with FIFA operational planning accelerating toward the opening match.
This summer is arriving quickly.
And in Atlanta, the World Cup will not just be played inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
It will run through the airport terminals, along the MARTA lines, across Centennial Olympic Park, and into the neighborhoods that make this city feel like home.