\u201cWe\u2019re trying to make things convenient,\u201d said Conan Cheung, the chief operations officer for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or LA Metro, the second-largest transit agency in the country, servicing more than 305 million riders in 2025.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a marked departure from the experience fans have reported ahead of this summer\u2019s World Cup, which was marked by complaints<\/a> over difficulty getting access to buy tickets, high ticket prices, shifts in seat locations after they were purchased, high fees and expensive game-day transportation.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no standardized fare set across the board,\u201d Cheung said of World Cup<\/a> transportation. \u201cWe\u2019ve made a commitment to keep our system accessible. The way we\u2019re planning the entire program is to ensure that we support people from the minute they decide to come to L.A. for the World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n Workers are getting SoFi Stadium ready to host World Cup matches this summer.<\/p>\n (Eduard Cauich \/ Los Angeles Times )<\/p>\n \u201cWe also want to make sure that your excitement and your experience for the World Cup starts and ends on Metro.\u201d<\/p>\n LA Metro has been able to hold costs down in part because it received $9.6 million in funding from the $100 million Congress gave the Federal Transit Administration to support transportation to and from World Cup stadiums. LA Metro is adding about 300 buses to its regular fleet to handle the additional demand, with shuttles servicing nine direct routes to SoFi and various fan zones.<\/p>\n Roughly 200 of those buses will lent to LA Metro from 11 regional transit agencies. Additional security officers also will be added.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel prepared,\u201d Cheung said, \u201cbut you never know what\u2019s going to happen. We\u2019ve done enough major special events to know that you can do all the planning in the world, but you need to make sure that you have contingencies in place and you\u2019re prepared to pivot at a moment\u2019s notice.\u201d<\/p>\n A case in point: when Game 3 of last fall\u2019s World Series went into extra innings, LA Metro immediately extended the operating hours for Metro buses and trains, ensuring people had rides home when the game ended just shy of midnight.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of our preparedness is going through tabletop exercises,\u201d he said. \u201cThe point is to ensure that the flow from the parking, from the transit connection and walking up made sense and was intuitive and easy to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Metro trains don\u2019t run directly to SoFi, Cheung has added shuttle buses to take fans from the stations to the stadium. Portable restrooms and hydration stations will be available. And nine park-and-ride sites will be set up around L.A. and Orange counties. Reserve and pay for a parking space and everyone in your car can ride to the stadium for free. (Be sure to bring a lot of friends since the parking fees range from $59 to $102 for the June 12 opening match.)<\/p>\n A pair of visitors from Japan rush to catch a Metro bus in March.<\/p>\n (Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Cheung said LA Metro has been preparing for the World Cup almost as long as some of the players. When Taylor Swift brought her Eras tour to SoFi in the summer of 2023, LA Metro used that as something of a dress rehearsal for the World Cup, expanding late service and adding free shuttles from nearby train stations.<\/p>\n That increased ridership by 25%, which meant less traffic on the roads and freeways leading to the stadium. A repeat of that could be crucial during the World Cup since five of the eight games played at SoFi are scheduled to start at noon local time.<\/p>\n And just as the Taylor Swift concerts prepared LA Metro for the World Cup, now the World Cup will help inform preparations for the 2028 Olympics.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the strategies that we\u2019re doing now \u2014 the process for working with not only local jurisdictions, state and federal agencies, as well as the other transit agencies in the regions \u2014 we\u2019re setting up ways that are going to help not only for the Olympics and Paralympics, but anytime we need to pull together to support our communities for special events [or] natural disasters.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information on LA Metro services in and around the World Cup, go to www.metro.net\/riding\/world-cup<\/a> <\/p>\n![\"Workers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777555007_539_.jpeg\")
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