Goleta to Serve as Host City for World Cup Team in Summer 2026

The City of Goleta will serve as the official host city for one of this year’s World Cup contenders. One international team — which has yet to be revealed — will be staying at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara and holding practices at UC Santa Barbara’s Harder Stadium in preparation for the World Cup matches starting in June.

The Goleta City Council unanimously granted approval for a contract outlining the partnership between the city and one of the World Cup teams, which includes an agreement for the city to provide safe escort for daily practices and team events. The contract will be finalized prior to the summer tournament and could include potential community events with the international team, which will be revealed in the coming months.

The partnership came to be after FIFA officials reached out to the City of Goleta to gauge interest in hosting one of the participating teams. Goleta City Manager Bob Nisbet said he was invited to a meeting along with City Councilmember Luz Reyes-Martín in December to discuss logistics of hosting a team for a major sporting event.

Nisbet said that FIFA was working on a tight deadline, and officials were eager to lock in an agreement with the City of Goleta as soon as possible. The city called a special council meeting to consider the contract on January 13.

While Nisbet could not reveal which team would be staying in Goleta, he outlined the general details of the partnership. The team and staff would all be staying at the Bacara and would have complete access to the facilities at Harder Stadium, including locker rooms and meeting areas. The safety responsibilities would be split, with the Bacara providing security at its property, UCSB handling safety at the stadium, and the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office providing escort between both areas.

The city’s contract includes the allotment of a maximum of $100,000 to account for the escort, community engagement, and any other events or costs that come out of the partnership with the team.

Representatives from UCSB athletics and Visit Santa Barbara spoke in support of the City of Goleta serving as a host city. Visit Santa Barbara CEO and President Kathy Janega-Dykes said the Bacara could expect $1.5 million from the block of 65 rooms set aside for the team, while local hotels could expect another 100 or more hotel rooms booked by media, friends, and family following the team.

“But I think more importantly, it’s really these intangible benefits that raises the profile of the City of Goleta and really puts it to a different league,” she said. “So for us, it’s about the immediate benefits, but it’s more also for long-term benefits.”

Councilmembers were generally supportive of the plan, though there were questions about the potential impacts on the community. Councilmember James Kyriaco wanted to make sure that the team’s presence at the Bacara didn’t cause any problems with access to the nearby beach, and Councilmember Jennifer Smith raised questions about the potential for a “controversial” country.

Nisbet acknowledged that certain teams could pose “different challenges” to the city. “They might bring larger crowds with them; they might for some reason have some controversy going on where that could lead to a protest or something, and we would have to provide security to manage that,” he said.

UCSB representative Johnny Whallon responded to the concerns, saying that the university would not agree to host any team that could be considered controversial to the community.

“We’ve made a conscientious decision at UCSB that we will not host a team that has any controversial elements to it,” Whallon said. “And we’ve actually made that clear to FIFA.”

Whallon said the university was in daily communication with the team that will likely be staying in Goleta, and the country’s representatives have been very supportive of the city’s ideas to host community events leading up to the World Cup matches. 

“That national team’s commitment is to be great partners with us,” Whallon said.