As the 2026 FIFA World Cup draws closer, local headlines ponder Atlanta’s “readiness”  for the eight matches the city is hosting in June and July. MARTA makes hasty improvements to transportation infrastructure before the arrival of 300,000 tourists for the games. Businesses brace for impact. Floyd Hall is reading those same headlines. He, too, wonders if the city is ready. Hall is focused less on infrastructure and more on what this summer’s World Cup can tell us about Atlanta and its local communities.

Games of Atlanta’s Legacy, or G.O.A.L., is a multimedia journalism project that will explore development, investment, displacement and opportunity in the context of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and other large sporting events. In the months leading up to and following the World Cup, Hall will capture lived experiences and perspectives of Atlantans through essays, interviews, audio, video and photography.

Floyd Hall is an Atlanta thought leader with a lengthy resume of arts and non-profit endeavors. In 2020, he co-founded Canopy Atlanta, a journalism nonprofit that collaborates with residents to tell the stories of their own communities. As Creative Producer at Science Gallery Atlanta, Hall curated interdisciplinary exhibits that blended art and science. He also served as Executive Director of Atlanta Contemporary. 

“There aren’t that many cities that can say they’ve hosted the Olympics, a World Cup, a Super Bowl. That’s a very short list,” Hall said in an interview with Atlanta Way 2.0. “I want people to understand how special and rare it is that we get to be a destination for these large events while simultaneously understanding how special and rare we are, absent these events.”

In an introductory essay published April 3, Hall reflected on the potential impact of the World Cup on Atlanta, Atlanta as a destination and Atlanta 30 years after the 1996 Olympics.

“This moment is a perfect time to examine and celebrate who we are, how we got here, what we value, what makes us unique and what we need to improve upon for the future,” he wrote. “This is the time to refine and reflect on our own narrative, and be confident with reaffirming it within the global context that the World Cup provides.”

Through G.O.A.L., Hall hopes to ensure that this narrative reflects the lived experiences of Atlantans impacted by the World Cup.

“As we consider this global game, I think it’s important to really try to tap into the local communities that have really embraced that sport, both informally and formally. How do we expand or just begin to better notice how this game has grown in our midst and who has been pivotal to helping that happen?” Hall said.

G.O.A.L. will focus on communities in Downtown Atlanta and around Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the World Cup matches will take place.

Hall said, “I think there’s kind of this assumption that not many folks live Downtown. Sometimes people think of Downtown as very much tourism and commerce and not neighborhoods.”

Hall intends to shine a light on residents of Downtown, a neighborhood that will be transformed when an international community descends on the stadium for the World Cup. He wants to know what life is like “for the individuals who will be welcoming all of us to their front porch?”

“When you read something that I’ve written, I hope that people may begin to see their communities and our city maybe a bit differently, not for what it looks like exactly in this moment, but where we’ve been to get to this moment, but then where we see the capacity to grow from it,” Hall said. 

His audience? People who love Atlanta, pay attention to Atlanta, and root for Atlanta.

“That’s really who this is for — it’s those folks who buy into both what we are and what we can become,” Hall said.

The post The World Cup is coming to Atlanta. Floyd Hall is taking a deeper look. appeared first on SaportaReport.