Fashion District announced as site of 2026 World Cup volunteer center

Philadelphia Soccer 2026, the local organizing committee for next year’s World Cup, announced Monday that the Fashion District will serve as the city’s volunteer center for the tournament.

Starting in October and running through June and July 2026 — when six World Cup matches at Lincoln Financial Field are expected to bring a half-million soccer fans to town — an empty, 18,000-square-foot space inside the Market East mall will become the primary hub for up to 4,500 volunteers from around the world.

The announcement comes six months after the 76ers ditched a plan to build a $1.3 billion arena in Market East.

“Fashion District Philadelphia’s selection as the site of Philadelphia Soccer FIFA World Cup 26 volunteer center represents a significant victory for our city,” said Mayor Cherelle L. Parker in a statement. “The center will not only help power critical volunteer efforts supporting FIFA World Cup 26, but also generate significant economic activity for our local businesses, restaurants, and hotels. We are proud to support this effort and the thousands of volunteers who will ensure that next summer’s tournament is a success.”

Every host city is tasked with selecting a volunteer site for the event, said Alison Grove, senior director of operations and strategic partnerships for Philadelphia Soccer 2026.

Located in the heart of downtown, the Fashion District was an obvious choice for the Philly matches, she said. It’s within walking distance of 6,000 hotel rooms and connected to the city’s main transit hub.

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By calling it the “World Cup Campus,” the hope is that the center can be “an accelerant and catalyst” for East Market, Grove said.

“We really want to make a statement for Philly and the nation,” she said in an interview. “Hopefully, this will be a legacy moment for Philly Soccer and the World Cup and showcase and jump-start some revitalization on East Market.”

Grove — who ran the volunteer programs for the Republican National Convention in 2000, and chaired the volunteer committees for the Pope’s 2015 visit, and Democratic National Convention in 2016 — expects an outpouring of volunteers from all over the region, the nation, and the world.

“It should be a real cross section,” she said. “Big soccer fans. Big Philly fans. Our region has a real appetite to be part of these events, and the World Cup is a huge event with an international following. They’ll be coming from different states and different countries and they will choose Philadelphia as where they want to volunteer.”

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The official application process starts next month, and is expected to run well into the fall. Anyone interested can register on FIFA’s website. Grove said that among those registered so far, around half are from the Philadelphia area and half are not — and 40% of the non-local applications are from other countries. Among those international registrants, Philadelphia is the No. 3-most requested site out of the World Cup’s 16 host cities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

The 2026 World Cup is set to be Philadelphia’s biggest ticketed event that summer, with six matches scheduled at Lincoln Financial Field — including a Round of 16 game on July 4. It falls during a packed stretch of major events, as the city celebrates America’s 250th anniversary, also known as the Semiquincentennial.

Philly is also hosting the 2026 MLB All-Star Game and a pumped-up Fourth of July concert that will officially commemorate America’s big milestone.

“Housing our FIFA World Cup 26 volunteer center at the Fashion District Philadelphia underscores our belief in the area’s potential to welcome and serve thousands of individuals,” said Dan Hilferty, board cochair of Philadelphia Soccer 2026. “The volunteer center will act as an immediate economic driver.”

All of the Fashion District’s 80 stores will operate as normal. But the 850,000-square-foot mall will definitely become a soccer hub, said Grove, who expects around 8,000 applications to fill out the volunteer workforce.

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Some people stepped up to volunteer at the Club World Cup this summer, hoping that would get them toward the front of the line for this year. Grove said any such applicants will be among the first people considered, but they will have to go through the whole training and background check process.

The hiring process, Grove said, will be a combined effort by FIFA and the local committee. Volunteers will work media operations, hospitality, greeting attendees at hotels and transportation hubs, and guest operations. They’ll also be posted at the stadium and fan zones, outfitted in World Cup volunteer uniforms. They will be provided shift meals and exclusive swag.

Applicants who are accepted will have training from late December through March, with work officially starting up to a month before the World Cup kicks off on June 11. Philadelphia’s first tournament game is June 14.

The working period will run through the final on July 19. That’s for a few reasons, including that Philadelphia plans to have games on its fan zone’s big screen for the entire tournament. Organizers also expect many volunteers working games at MetLife Stadium in north Jersey — whose eight games include the final — to commute from here, since it’s cheaper than staying in New York.

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SEPTA and the airport will have their own ambassadors. So will the city’s Visitors’ Center, which announced in April that it plans to recruit 10,000 “Phambassadors” for a wide range of roles throughout 2026.

Each of the host cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico will have its own volunteer center. Though each will have its own distinct local flavor, Grove said “they will all be branded and built out in the same way by the same company and FIFA directs that.”

With build-out starting in September, the Philadelphia space will serve as a recruitment and training location, a welcoming space for volunteers to connect and engage. It will include big screens where volunteers can watch games between shifts, and other activities for passing down time including an in-house FIFA museum.

There will be a similar museum at each host city’s volunteer center, and FIFA hasn’t decided yet how it will divide up its artifacts.

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Though the museum and viewing areas will be exclusively for volunteers, Grove said there will be events in the space for the public leading up to the World Cup.

The story has been updated with more comments from Grove and additional information about the volunteer center.