As California prepares to host several of the world’s most high-profile sporting events — including Super Bowl 60, the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics — the pressure is on to move millions of visiting and local fans, athletes, coaches, officials and everyday commuters safely and efficiently. These mega-events promise economic opportunity and global attention, but they also pose serious logistical challenges for our state’s transportation networks and the people who keep them running.
Levi’s Stadium and the SAP Center are set to draw an estimated 500,000 fans in a six-month period in 2026 alone — and these fans are expected to generate $1.4 billion in local economic activity from their use of South Bay hotels, restaurants, bars and retail.
How do we help fans — from the moment they arrive at the airport — use our outstanding transportation network to reach their hotels, restaurants and stadiums? Many experts experienced in planning, security and community-building efforts convened at the 16th Annual Norman Y. Mineta National Transportation Policy Summit, Beyond the Stadium: Keeping Cities Moving During Mega-Events, to answer this question.
Speaking at the summit, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan discussed the immense responsibility and opportunity faced by the city as it prepares to host these mega-events. He described ongoing efforts to attract and engage visitors in the city’s compact urban core — starting with the airport and the region’s most connected transportation hub, Diridon Station.
The city is investing in infrastructure improvements that “stitch districts” with improved lighting, public art and physical and digital wayfinding to enable easier navigation. Many of these changes, such as new signage and lighting, will be permanent improvements that will let locals and visitors alike explore the city more easily, even without a car.
To that end, the San Jose City Council recently voted to approve “entertainment zone” designations at six locations within downtown business districts to attract more crowds to the urban core, thus, taking advantage of the amazing walkability of areas hosting watch parties. This includes San Pedro Street, Post Street, the SoFA district, Little Italy, Fountain Alley and Paseo de San Antonio. This change will be piloted during the upcoming mega-events, and the city plans to continue using entertainment zone designations for future sporting events.
California Transportation Commissioner Carl Guardino emphasized these mega-events are an opportunity to shift the culture and help people see “mobility means more than a single occupancy vehicle.” Speaking at the summit, he said, “We can empower people to use transit, rail and bikes, to take advantage of the 27 systems in nine counties of the Bay Area.”
Collaboration and planning are key. Only by working together — across modes and disciplines and with academics, the public and private sectors — can we build and deliver an experience for these events unique to San Jose, ensuring visitors are able to move about and enjoy themselves safely and seamlessly in our growing, welcoming host city.
We can use this moment — when so many eyes are on our city and state — to advance sustainable, safe and cost-effective improvements like electrification, expanding transit systems and other changes that will outlast these events and continue to benefit us all.
San José Spotlight columnist Karen E. Philbrick is the executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute, a research institute focusing on multimodal surface transportation policy and management issues. Her columns appear on the first Thursday of every other month.
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