Los Angeles to host World Cup games for 3rd time: 5 things to know about the City of Angels

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles is famous for its sun, sand and surf, celebrity sightings, and an endless variety of food and entertainment.

It’s set to become a World Cup site again. The 1994 men’s final was played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, which also hosted the 1999 women’s final.

Los Angeles is hosting eight matches, including the U.S. opener vs. Paraguay on June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, which is being called Los Angeles Stadium during the World Cup.

Los Angeles County has the largest foreign-born population of any U.S. county. ICE enforcement actions in recent months have targeted public locales and resulted in thousands of arrests. Visitors will also notice the city’s long-running homeless crisis and the highest gas prices in the country.

Within walking distance of LA Stadium is Inglewood Park Cemetery, the final resting place for such notables as Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald and Cesar Romero (the original Joker in TV’s “Batman”). The Santa Monica Pier marks the end of historic Route 66. Griffith Park is home to the Observatory, the LA Zoo, the Hollywood sign and hiking trails. Four major movie studios offer tours. For arts and culture, check out the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Getty Center or the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Los Angeles is a premier food city, with Latin, Asian and Middle Eastern among the cuisines that rival anything to be found abroad. Among the city’s popular stops are Langer’s Deli for the No. 19 pastrami sandwich, In-N-Out Burger, Philippe the Original for French-dip sandwiches, the original Randy’s Donuts in Inglewood near LA Stadium, Quarter Sheets for pizza, Grand Central Market, Spago in Beverly Hills, and trendy Holbox for Mexican seafood near Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The party gets going at the official FIFA Fan Festival from June 11-14 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with tickets costing $10 per day. There will be 10 fan zones scattered around the area open on various dates from June 18 to July 19. Four of them are free — Downey, Union Station in downtown LA, Magic Johnson Park and Whittier Narrows Recreation Area in South El Monte. Tickets at the other locations, including Venice Beach and Burbank, range from $5 to $25 per day with costlier VIP options. Besides live match broadcasts, there’ll be food, live music, beer gardens, art, interactive games and cultural activities.

Los Angeles is notorious for its traffic. Five of the eight matches start at noon PT; the other three are at night. With limited and expensive parking at the stadium, most spectators will want to use public transportation or ride share. Metro bus or rail (roundtrip tickets are $3.50) will drop riders at one of 15 pickup locations, where free buses will take them to the stadium. Other options are park-and-ride locations with direct service to the stadium, walking or getting dropped off. Early-bird pricing for reserved parking at all locations ranges from $12 to $102.

Arrive a few hours early at Los Angeles Stadium to navigate long security lines and congestion. Tailgating is limited to the Pink Lot, if it’s allowed during the World Cup. There’s a clear bag policy in effect. Only credit, debit or mobile pay is accepted inside. Fans can bring one unopened 20 ounce or less bottle of water. A translucent canopy with panels that can open for ventilation covers the 70,240-seat stadium, which opened in 2020 and will host the opening ceremony and swimming competition at the 2028 LA Olympics. The stadium has open sides that can leave the seating bowl subject to wind.

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

FILE - Traffic moves along the Interstate 10 freeway in Los Angeles, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Seagulls rest by the lake outside SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The Griffith Observatory is seen against the backdrop of a hazy Los Angeles skyline, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Tourists take selfies with the Hollywood sign in the background in Los Angeles, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A person kicks a soccer ball in a park beneath the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Children swing in silhouette near the Santa Monica Pier, which displays the "End of the Trail" Route 66 sign in Santa Monica, Calif., Nov. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

President Donald Trump and several top administration officials are joining with a cast of mostly conservative Christian clergy this Sunday on the National Mall in Washington for a prayer gathering billed as a "rededication of our country as One Nation Under God” upon America’s 250th birthday.

But some critics call the Rededicate 250 event an effort to “hijack” U.S. history with a false, Christian nationalist narrative — one they say fuses American and Christian identities and threatens a constitutional separation of church and state.

The daylong program is being organized by a nonprofit called Freedom 250. Its website describes it as a public-private partnership “leading the presidential programming for America's 250th anniversary,” which culminates with the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4.

Congressional Democrats have questioned the organization's structure and finances, which they see as a Trump-controlled end run around a separate commission charted by Congress a decade ago to prepare semiquincentennial events.

Organizers expect thousands of people to attend Rededicate 250, which will include worship music, prayers and speeches from Cabinet heads and other Republican officials, along with religious leaders and others. Trump and several other speakers are addressing the crowd by video, while others will speak in person. The scheduled participants include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

"Our founders knew two simple truths," Hegseth said in a promotional video for the event featuring a montage of Cabinet secretaries.

"Our rights don’t come from government, they come from God. And a nation is only as strong as its faith,” added Hegseth, whose use of Christian rhetoric to justify the U.S. and Israel's war against Iran and in other official settings has drawn scrutiny.

Another promotional video for Rededicate 250 blends various Christian and American imagery — scenes of a cross laid on an American flag, a robed choir, people raising their hands in worship — along with a brief scene of a man praying while wearing a Jewish skullcap. Voices of prominent preachers are heard, one proclaiming, “Faith in God is the value that most shaped America.”

Religious leaders on the Rededicate 250 program include several longtime Christian supporters of Trump, among them evangelist Franklin Graham and pastors Paula White-Cain, who heads the White House Faith Office; Robert Jeffress; and Samuel Rodriguez. Also scheduled are Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron and Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, the only faith leader on the program representing a non-Christian faith.

Musicians on the program include Grammy-winning contemporary Christian artist Chris Tomlin.

Some leading participants portray Rededicate 250 as a Christian gathering.

“I believe it’s a moment when the Body of Christ, the church, comes together and will boldly declare that America still needs God,” said Georgia pastor Jentezen Franklin in a social media video posted on X. “This is an opportunity for believers to stand together as one nation under God. ... I’m honored that they’ve asked me to speak and share the Gospel.”

Johnson noted that the event comes 250 years after Congress declared May 17, 1776, a “day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” on behalf of the Revolutionary cause.

Critics say Rededicate 250 is shaping up to promote Christian nationalism — whose adherents typically believe that the United States was founded as and should be a Christian nation.

“What should be a broadly unifying celebration has been politically hijacked and wrapped up in this MAGA narrative that tries to rewrite our history and promote the president’s agenda,” said U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

Huffman said the movement erases the diversity of America’s religious and nonreligious populations throughout its history and threatens the constitutional protections against government-established religion.

The event "would have the founders rolling in their graves,” said Huffman, a California Democrat. He co-chairs the Congressional Freethought Caucus, which emphasizes separation of church and state.

“They have narrowly defined what it means both to be American and to be Christian, and they are wrapping that in the official sanction of the U.S. government," Huffman said.

He said it's a movement that doesn't speak for all Christians, noting Trump's recent sparring with Pope Leo XIV.

The Rededicate 250 event is occurring in tandem with other White House initiatives appealing to Trump’s loyal base of conservative Christians, particularly white evangelical Protestants.

Several participants — including Graham, White-Cain, Dolan, Barron and Soloveichik — also serve on the Religious Liberty Commission. That Trump-appointed panel is preparing a report on its findings after a year of hearings, many of which were focused on conservative Christian and right-leaning political grievances. Its chair, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, repeatedly denies that the Constitution establishes a separation of church and state.

Several participants in Rededicate 250 joined with Trump himself in a Bible-reading marathon.

And a separate Trump administration task force recently alleged discrimination against Christians under Democratic President Joe Biden — a report criticized by progressive groups as “advocacy dressed up as investigation.”

That report alleged that such a bias resulted in heavy fines imposed on two Christian colleges — Grand Canyon University for allegedly deceiving thousands of students over program costs, a decision later reversed, and Liberty University for its handling of crime statistics and sexual assault cases. Choirs from both colleges are performing at Rededicate 250.

About 2 in 10 U.S. adults and about one-quarter of Republicans, said the federal government should declare Christianity the official religion of the nation, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in April.

Some 43% said the government should not do so, but should promote Christian values, while 38% said it should do neither. The report said 13% of U.S. adults and 18% of Republicans said the government should stop enforcing the separation of church and state.

Historians generally agree that the founders’ religious beliefs varied, that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t establish an official religion and that it was significantly influenced by Enlightenment thinkers.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which advocates a strict separation of church and state, hopes to stage a demonstration elsewhere in Washington on the day of the rally.

“This is the government putting on a Christian nationalist event,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, the foundation's co-president. “Even if it is accepting private money for it, it’s still putting it on. It’s outrageous.”

Brian Kaylor, a Baptist pastor and president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way, a progressive site covering faith and politics, said that while the Continental Congress did call for a day of prayer, the founders crafted the Constitution to prevent the establishment of religion. Two early presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, thought such official events were harmful to religion, he wrote.

The event "simply doesn’t represent what type of nation the founders later decided to create,” Kaylor wrote.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)