Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced Wednesday that the city has received the necessary licenses from FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, to hold six neighborhood watch parties. The quadrennial tournament begins next month in 16 cities in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
“We got our licenses!” Wu said Wednesday on GBH’s Boston Public Radio. “So in addition to Fan Fest” — also known as FIFA Fan Festival™ Boston — “which is [on] City Hall Plaza, and spanning the period of the group stage matches ... we’re also hosting six different watch parties in the neighborhoods.”
Three of these will be pegged to the tournament’s two semifinals and final in mid-July, Wu said, with locations still to be determined depending on which countries are participating.
But three other watch parties already have their times and locations set.
“We’re doing Spain versus Cape Verde, Brazil versus Haiti, and Colombia versus Portugal,” Wu said. Those matches are June 15, 19 and 27, respectively.
The Healey administration had allocated $10 million in funding for watch parties throughout the state earlier this spring, but FIFA was slow to approve the majority of proposed events, leading some frustrated residents to speculate that their requested license would not be forthcoming.
On Tuesday, however, Healey sought to inject a note of optimism into the waiting game, saying that the licenses are “forthcoming.” The licenses would be provided, she added, ”in the next day or two.“
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While Wu cast the receipt of the watch-party licenses as good news, she also suggested that dealing with FIFA — which is represented locally by the host committee Boston 26 — has been challenging.
Boston is running its Fan Fest from June 12 through June 27 — though matches are being played locally through July 9, and the tournament doesn’t end until later that month. Asked by GBH host Jim Braude why Boston’s fan festival is ending early, Wu said: “The security screening protocol and infrastructure is really intense to be able to host Fan Fest and to, you know, understandably accommodate large crowds at a high-profile event like this. So it does require shutting down access to a big part of City Hall Plaza 24 hours for that fenced-off area.
“Did I wish that we could have had a much longer Fan Fest, and the private resources and committee funding to do so? Absolutely — we had talked through that,” Wu added. “But this is what we are able to do, and we are going to have the very best Fan Fest during the group stage.”
Pressed by Braude, Wu said the decision to restrict the Fan Festival’s run dates was made by Boston 26, not the city.
Boston is hosting seven World Cup matches this summer. Another 15 cities across North America are hosting the rest of the 104 matches, with the final hosted outside New York City.
Braude also asked why round-trip ticket prices on the MBTA to and from the games, which will be played in Foxborough, are $80 compared to the single digits in Philadelphia.
Wu replied that some cities have minimized the cost of transit via sponsorships. She added that the Boston area would benefit from a permanent sports-hosting commission like those found in some other cities to handle fundraising for events like the World Cup in the future.
The run-up to the World Cup matches here has been rife with drama and discombobulation, including the town of Foxborough’s reluctance to grant the required licensing for games at Gillette Stadium, which has been redubbed Boston Stadium; an ongoing disagreement between the city and state over plans to shut down a street near South Station for crowd-control purposes; and the inability of several communities that had requested viewing licenses to get a timely answer from FIFA.
Want to go to the Boston watch parties?
- Watch Spain play Cape Verde at Town Field in Dorchester: Boston’s watch party is Monday, June 15, at 1 p.m. The live match is in Atlanta.
- Watch Brazil play Haiti at the Boston Common Parkman Bandstand: Boston’s watch party is Friday, June 19, at 9 p.m. The live match is in Philadelphia.
- Watch Colombia play Portugal at East Boston Memorial Stadium: Boston’s watch party is Saturday, June 27, at 7:30 p.m. The live match is in Miami.
