San Jose will hire a “czar” to quarterback the coordination of the major sporting events in its backyard in 2026 — including the FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl LX and NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games — as the city looks to maximize its visibility and a significant infusion of cash into the local economy.
Along with the three marquee sporting attractions that will be played at either Levi’s Stadium or the SAP Center, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact, San Jose officials see 2026 as an opportunity to showcase the city and bring thousands of tourists back regularly by creating “events around the events.”
“We have the Super Bowl, six World Cup matches, and March Madness, and we want to capture that energy,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan told The Mercury News. “We need a dedicated and experienced executive with a history of coordinating major sporting events.”
San Jose is allocating $350,000 for the 12-month executive leadership position.
While San Jose just approved the role, city officials have already begun the planning, engaging numerous city departments and business partners, including, but not limited to, the Bay Area Host Committee, San Jose Chamber of Commerce, San Jose Downtown Association, the San Jose Sports Authority, and the city’s professional teams.
“This is a short-term position which will be critical to playing a coordinating role across city departments and also with participating partners,” Assistant Economic Development Director Kerry Adams-Hapner said. “We anticipate that this position will also help to influence and coordinate with state and federal agencies, with our (intergovernmental relations) department advocacy for additional funding in the form of earmarks for both public safety and infrastructure as well as other needs. We see this also as an opportunity to pursue fundraising and sponsorship goals and using partners like Team San Jose and the Sports Authority as fiscal agents, fiscal sponsors, so that when we do receive grant funding, we can be very nimble and spend that funding very quickly.”
Some of the policy work that San Jose has started includes preparing updates to city code for special events, signage, and creating an entertainment zone in the downtown area. It is also developing a model for its “Fly, Stay and Play” campaign to encourage tourists to utilize San Jose Mineta International Airport, which Mahan noted was ranked by the Wall Street Journal as the best midsize airport in the country.
When Levi’s Stadium previously hosted the Super Bowl in 2016, San Jose Sports Authority Executive Director John Poch said that was not a point of focus like it is today. Although San Jose cannot host the Super Bowl fan festival because its convention center does not meet size requirements, city officials are “optimistic” that the NFL will select it to host media day at the SAP Center, which could draw more than 5,000 accredited media members and generate $760,000 in economic impact.
“So some of the things we learned is that by having the media day here first and the game at the end of the week, we’ll do a free shuttle to the city if they want to go to the Fan Fest in San Francisco,” Poch said. “If you have one of our hotel key cards, we’ll have a shuttle, whether it’s the train with Caltrain or whether we charter buses. We’ll do a transportation loop so they can go to the city, but they’re going to come back to the better city.”
Officials have conservatively estimated that Super Bowl LX, slated for Feb. 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium, will create a $100 million to $160 million economic impact over the course of the week.
The city is also looking to host festivities at sites such as San Pedro Square, Plaza de Cesar Chavez, the SAP Center, and other local theaters and auditoriums.
Despite the Super Bowl taking place more than 15 months from now, at least 3,700 hotel rooms have also been booked so far.
One of the Super Bowl teams will stay downtown at the San Jose Marriott and practice at San Jose State University. The other team will stay in Santa Clara and practice at Stanford University. NFL officials were in San Jose Monday for a final walkthrough of how the city will host the teams.
Levi’s Stadium is also one of the 16 venues, including 11 in the U.S., hosting World Cup matches. The stadium will host six matches between June 13 and July 1. Over the six weeks the tournament lasts, the city estimated an economic boost of between $270 million and $360 million.
Besides using the Signia by Hilton, FIFA intends to lease downtown office space between October 2025 and July 2026. Teams will stay at the San Jose Marriott and Hilton downtown, while officials have selected the Hotel Valencia as the VIP and family hotel. San Jose intends to host watch parties at San Pedro Square, other downtown attractions and city-wide restaurants and venues that express interest. It also plans to curate outdoor dance and concert series depending on teams selected to play locally.
The city received an up-close look at how successful those could be this summer when similar events were held at San Pedro Square for the 2024 Copa America tournament.
“We’ll find out who the teams will be in December of ’25, though that will give us the opportunity to hone the kind of outreach and opportunities for bringing the kind of events and participants to specific games like we did with the Colombian delegates,” Economic Development Director Nanci Klein said.
Although the NFL and FIFA have forced San Jose to wait on the details of its plans, Poch said the city’s proactive approach has kept it from falling behind.
“We can still plan what we would like to see as a celebration for our community because what we have that no other city has is a diversity like no place else in the country,” Poch said.
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