The 2026 World Cup Games are taking place from June 11 to July 19 in cities throughout North America, such as Canada, the United States and Mexico. Gillette Stadium, located in Foxboro, Mass., renamed itself to the “Boston Stadium” for the event, and is set to be one of the 16 stadiums that will host games this summer. Seven matches will be held at Boston Stadium, including five group stages, a round of 32 match and one of the quarter final matches. The first game will be group stage match five on Saturday, June 13 and the seventh match is set to finish on Thursday, July 9 at Boston Stadium.
Towns surrounding Foxboro, such as Walpole, Wrenthem, Mansfield and Sharon, will be, besides Foxboro, the most affected towns neighboring the Boston Stadium. Families living in these towns, employees who work nearby and people passing adjacent towns will be affected by the significant traffic caused by the projected 65,000 number of people in attendance at the stadium. It is predicted that major limited-access highways, such as Route 1, I-95 and I-495, will be the most affected by the traffic on game days. These routes are also expected to have standstill traffic and possibly be gridlocked, with all intersections being blocked by vehicles, preventing movement. Due to this traffic on major freeways, GPS apps or devices, like Google Maps and Waze, will possibly acknowledge the buildup of traffic and therefore redirect cars to backroads and secondary roads to get to their inputted destination. However, during popular events, these
apps will guide vehicles down main roads to prevent unnecessary traffic and issues for nearby residents. If the apps do direct people through backroads, it will make it hard for residents, specifically residents in South Walpole, the closest part of town to the stadium, to leave and re-enter streets to their houses.
School officials also explained that dismissing students earlier in the day would help buses avoid the heavy evening traffic expected around the stadium. Parents and students were informed ahead of time so they could make transportation arrangements for students. In addition, after school activities and sports practices may be adjusted or canceled on major game days to ensure students and staff are able to travel home safely and efficiently. School administrators are encouraging families to plan extra travel time during the weeks that World Cup matches are being hosted nearby.
Boyden Elementary School, located on Washington Street in South Walpole, is 1.4 miles from the stadium and Old Post Road Elementary School is a little over 4 miles in vicinity to the stadium. Therefore, due to the adjacency of Walpole public schools to Boston stadium, Walpole’s school committee and superintendent made the decision that June 16 will be a designated early release date for all students in Walpole Public Schools. This decision was made to deter more congestion in streets throughout town.
The Walpole Police Department (WPD) will also be very involved in working to control traffic and ensure safety throughout the town during the chaos of the World Cup matches. The WPD will be replicating procedures used in the past during major events held at Gillette Stadium. To access the stadium, it will be encouraged that motorists use Route 1 rather than Washington Street; however, Washington Street will remain open but connecting side roads will be closed off. Over time, South Walpole was discovered as very congested and residents were disrupted due to the traffic, therefore closing off side roads in the area of Washington Street will help prevent large amounts of traffic. Police officers will also be assigned to specific areas, mainly in South Walpole, following WPD’s standard traffic management plans for stadium events.
Emergency services throughout the surrounding towns are also expected to prepare for the increase in visitors during the tournament. Ambulance crews, firefighters and police departments may need to respond to larger crowds, medical emergencies and traffic incidents caused by the heavy congestion. By coordinating with neighboring towns and state agencies, emergency responders hope to maintain quick response times and protect both residents and visitors.
The WPD had also been working with both the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (Mass DOT) and Department of Public Works (DPW) to plan out all issues and safety protocol necessary. WPD and Mass DOT are working together to minimize the usage of Route 1, as well as adding additional wayfinding signs to direct fans near the stadium to keep people on route and out of surrounding neighborhoods. Mass DOT will also assist WPD with numerous navigation apps to ensure that roads applicable to the situation will deter traffic from forming on roadways that are not open to stadium traffic. The DPW will help with deploying informational sign boards to increase awareness for the event and inform motorists of traffic queues in South Walpole along with direct people to take Route 1. The WPD plans to have a large role in helping prevent traffic in unwanted and unnecessary parts of town as well as helping to ensure the safety of residents and fans during the World Cup events.
The stadium just announced that they unbanned tailgating before world cup games after this April, initially due to FIA restrictions, tailgating was banned. However, tailgating at Boston Stadium will be diminished to a maximum of 5,000 people out of the 20,000 parking spaces available. Even though parking is limited, allowing tailgating will disperse the flow of traffic; rather than having all fans enter the stadium within an hour or two of the game, now viewers can begin showing up hours in advance to tailgate.
Transportation to the world cup games is another topic that is heavily discussed by both local residents and organizers of the event. Public transportation options, such as commuter rails and service buses, are expected to be expanded to reduce the number of personal vehicles in the stadium. Officials are encouraging fans to carpool or use public transportation whenever possible to lessen traffic congestion. Ride share services including Lyft and Uber, will likely create designated pickup and drop off zones near the stadium to organize traffic flow more efficiently. These transportation plans are intended to improve accessibility for fans while also helping local communities avoid unnecessary disruptions.
The United States being one of the hosts of the World Cup is a major deal because of the positive economic impacts due to the increase of tourism as well as creation of new jobs that the event requires. It is important to understand the causes this World Cup will have on Walpole and surrounding communities so everyone can enjoy and appreciate the event.
