EDITORIAL: A city hosting FIFA should not fear the World Cup

Gazette News Dept. May 7, 2026 56 Comments

A packed stadium section filled with fans waving American flags and English St. George's Cross flags, many dressed in red, white, and blue, cheering during an international soccer match.

Flags, strangers and pure emotion — the 2026 World Cup kicks off on June 11. Whether Coral Gables participates is still an open question. (Photo by Shutterstock)

By Coral Gables Gazette editorial board

For the next several weeks, Coral Gables occupies a unique place in the global sports landscape. FIFA, the governing body of the world’s most popular sport, has established its temporary headquarters in the City Beautiful ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Billions of people around the world will follow the tournament with a level of passion and emotion that few events on earth can match.

Yet at this moment, Coral Gables itself has no significant World Cup celebration planned. Not one.

That contradiction came into sharp focus at the May 5 City Commission meeting, where Fritz and Franz Bierhaus’s proposal once again to host public watch parties at the plaza outside the restaurant during the tournament did not receive a vote. The discussion revealed legitimate concerns about noise, crowd control, cleanliness and the use of public space for what could become a six-week event. Those concerns deserve to be taken seriously. Residents living near downtown have every right to expect order, safety, and quality-of-life protections.

But the commission also risks losing sight of something larger: the World Cup, just once every four years, is one of the rare moments when cities become stages for genuine communal global experience — spontaneous, emotional, international, and alive.

Cities across the world spend enormous sums attempting to create the kind of authentic energy that arrives naturally during events like the World Cup. Coral Gables already has a place where that energy exists. For more than two decades, Fritz and Franz has been one of South Florida’s most recognizable gathering places for international “football” fans. For six World Cups, residents and visitors have gathered there to celebrate victories, mourn losses, and embrace strangers wearing different national colors. The noise is part of the point. So is the joy.

That does not mean the city should surrender control of a public plaza without conditions. Commissioners were correct to ask detailed questions about staffing, cleanup, police presence, and the impact on nearby residents. A six-week activation in the center of downtown requires structure and accountability. But structure is not the same thing as functional prohibition.

We believe the city should work aggressively and immediately toward a negotiated solution that allows the watch parties to proceed under clearly defined operational conditions. Reduced hours for night matches, stricter sound enforcement, designated cleanup responsibilities after each event, and security requirements proportionate to the crowd are all reasonable tools available to the city. Those conditions can be written into an approval. They do not require denial.

The stakes extend beyond one restaurant. During the World Cup, visitors moving through downtown restaurants, bars, garages, and shops would generate economic activity that benefits not only Fritz and Franz but the surrounding district and the city itself. Parking revenues alone would rise substantially during major matches — a direct financial benefit to the city. The commission has worked for years to create a more vibrant downtown. The World Cup delivers that vibrancy.

The broader history between Fritz and Franz and the city inevitably shapes public perception of this dispute. The restaurant’s lease battles became one of Coral Gables’ most contentious political controversies in recent years, surfacing even during the 2024 termination of former City Manager Peter Iglesias, who has since returned to his post. That history makes transparency especially important now. Whatever is decided should be decided publicly and on the merits.

The clock is ticking for the city and restaurant alike. Supplies, food, drink, banners, staffing — the operational decisions that make a six-week World Cup watch party possible cannot wait. Fritz and Franz has hosted six World Cup watch parties in Coral Gables without a defining incident. Mayor Lago left the door open at the May 5 meeting by inviting owner Harald Neuweg to continue discussions. That is the correct approach — provided it produces a public resolution the full commission can ratify on Tuesday, May 19, before Neuweg can no longer place his orders.

The World Cup will bring noise, excitement, crowds, flags, chants, celebration and frustration. That is what is does every four years. That is humanity in public.

A city temporarily hosting FIFA should find a way to embrace that spirit responsibly rather than retreat from it.