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Bright America is proud to be among the founding organizing leaders of the Welcome Standard initiative.
BY OLIVIA TROYE
I own two soccer jerseys.
A green one. A blue one.
Some people find that complicated. I don’t, because both of them are stitched together with something that has nothing to do with borders or politics. They’re made of memory. Of family. Of what it means to belong somewhere.
Growing up, soccer was the language my mom’s side spoke when they wanted to feel whole. My uncles, my cousins, crammed around whatever TV had the best signal, switching between Spanish and English depending on the moment, depending on the emotion. Nobody code-switched for soccer. You just felt it.
El Tri was the team. Still is, for that part of me.
I don’t think people fully understand what it means to cheer for Mexico when you’re American. It’s not a political statement. It’s not confused loyalty. It’s memory. And, it’s the smell of my mamagrande’s (grandma’s) kitchen during a World Cup match. It’s my uncle losing his mind over a goal like it personally vindicated every hard year he’d ever had. It’s learning what it means to want something badly, to invest yourself completely in something that might break your heart, and to do it anyway, every four years, with the people you love.
That’s not divided loyalty. That’s inheritance.
And then there’s the USMNT (U.S. Men’s National Team), the team I watch as an American, full stop. I root for this program with real investment. Frustrated by the missteps, genuinely excited about where this generation is headed. The talent is real. The potential is there. And with a World Cup coming to this very soil, the pressure and the opportunity are both enormous.
And then I went to Miami.
I recently sat across from business owners, community leaders, hospitality workers, people who have built something in their cities, who have poured themselves into their neighborhoods, who serve people every single day. And what I heard wasn’t just excitement about the economic windfall coming this year from being a World Cup host city — it was something more complicated than that.
It was a question, really.
Will we be ready? Will everyone feel welcome here?
Five million visitors. Eleven host cities. A global audience of five billion. The 2026 FIFA World Cup isn’t just the largest sporting event in the history of North America, it’s a referendum on who we are as a country right now. On whether we can look the world in the eye and mean it when we say “welcome.”
That question hit me differently than it might have hit someone else in the room.
Because I know what it feels like to show up somewhere and wonder if you belong. I’ve lived in the space between identities my whole life, professionally, personally, politically. I’ve been in rooms where people looked at me and made assumptions. I’ve also been in rooms where someone made an extra effort, asked a genuine question, made space, and the difference between those two experiences is everything.
That’s what Welcome Standard [ [link removed] ] is about.
It’s a voluntary pledge for hospitality businesses — restaurants, hotels, bars, retailers — in World Cup host cities. A commitment to a warm welcome, a safe environment, inclusive service, and community pride. It’s not a mandate from the government. It’s not a corporate PR campaign. It’s a coalition of owners and operators saying: when the world walks through our door, we want them to feel how warmly welcomed they are.
The business case is real. Hotels in host cities are forecasting revenue lifts of up to 25% during the tournament, and the multiplier effects for restaurants and retail are citywide. But when I talked to the people in Miami who are part of this, they weren’t leading with the revenue numbers. They were leading with something else. They were talking about their staff — many of whom are immigrants, many of whom speak multiple languages, many of whom are the communities that soccer fans from around the world will be looking for when they land in an American city and wonder if there’s a place here for them given the political climate here in the United States. They were talking about what it means to their neighborhood to be seen as a host city, not just a backdrop, but a genuine part of the story. They were talking about legacy.
That word keeps coming up when I think about 2026. Legacy.
What does it mean to host the world? What story do we tell about ourselves when 5 million people land on our shores, walk into our restaurants, take a cab through our cities, and watch matches in our stadiums? What do they bring home with them — not just memories of goals and upsets and trophies, but a feeling about us? About America?
I grew up watching soccer teach me that you can hold more than one home in your chest. That love isn’t zero-sum. That the moment a goal goes in, the eruption in the room is the same whether the chant is in Spanish or English, because joy doesn’t need a translator. This tournament has a chance to say something true about who we are. Not a sanitized, press-release version of America. The real one. Complicated, multilingual, loud, proud, argumentative, generous, and beautifully imperfect.
But that only happens if we’re intentional about it. If the businesses in host cities actually prepare, and hospitality workers feel supported and trained and seen. Will the communities that make these cities what they are get to be part of the celebration, not just the backdrop for someone else’s?
Welcome Standard is one piece of that. A practical, local, voluntary framework that gives businesses a way to show up right. To put the badge in the window and mean it. When the world arrives, and it is coming, whether we’re ready or not, it will judge us one interaction at a time. The greeter at the hotel desk. The server at the table. The shopkeeper on the corner.
My cousins and uncles taught me something about what a real welcome feels like, how it lands, and what it means to someone who traveled a long way and doesn’t know if they belong.
Let’s give the world that feeling.
To everyone already part of the Welcome Standard coalition: the restaurant owners, hotel operators, small business leaders, and community organizers who raised their hand and said “yes” — thank you! Genuinely. What you’re doing matters. The world will feel it, even if they never know your name.
And if you’re a business in a host city and you’re not yet part of this, there’s still time. Sign the pledge. Train your team. Put the badge in your window. Show the world what your city is made of. Learn more and sign up at welcomestandard.org [ [link removed] ].
This Thursday, June 11th, at 3pm ET, the kickoff match to the World Cup begins. I’ll be hosting a watch party as Mexico and South Africa faceoff, and everyone is invited. Come join me HERE [ [link removed] ]. Fair warning: I will scream, I will cheer, and yes, I will probably cry. Ninety minutes of pure rollercoaster, every single time. I can’t help it. I never could. Oh, and I invited the mariachis. If I miss you in my hometown in Virginia, I will also be in Los Angeles next week. Come join me HERE [ [link removed] ]. ⚽🇺🇸🇨🇦🇲🇽

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