Kick Off Placemaking in Your Community with the NJTPA’s New Streets to Stadiums Guidebook!
By: Melissa Hayes
North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority
This Article was originally published March 2, 2026 on the North Jersey Transportation Authority’s blog. See the original post HERE.
As excitement builds for the world’s largest international soccer tournament, communities across our region are presented with a unique opportunity to shine on the global stage.
With New Jersey hosting eight FIFA World Cup matches, including the Final in July, the NJTPA worked with the Hillier College of Architecture and Design at NJIT and the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University to develop a placemaking guide for communities to elevate our shared spaces and foster meaningful connections among residents and visitors alike.
“Hosting eight FIFA World Cup matches, including the Final, in East Rutherford is an extraordinary moment for Bergen County and all of New Jersey,” said Bergen County Executive James J. Tedesco III, who represents the county on the NJTPA Board of Trustees. “Events of this scale bring global attention and a meaningful opportunity to strengthen our communities. The NJTPA’s Streets to Stadiums guidebook provides practical ideas to help towns create welcoming public spaces, support local businesses, and turn the excitement surrounding the World Cup matches into lasting economic vitality and a source of community pride.”
From Streets to Stadiums: Transforming Public Spaces to Celebrate the World’s Game offers helpful tips on organizing soccer-themed events and activations, along with considerations for your planning process. With this guide, you’ll find inspiring ideas for staging your event or crafting a soccer-themed demonstration project, along with a list of materials and instructions for using them. We encourage you to mix and match proposed events with the complementary street activations to foster a sense of place, community, and togetherness around the games.
Such events may include local fan fests or mini soccer tournaments! You’ll also discover a variety of materials to support your efforts. These activities can:
- energize public spaces
- boost your local economy
- strengthen community bonds
“When we learned that the games would be coming to our great state, we saw an opportunity to take what we have learned over more than a decade and offer best practices that our communities could implement to capitalize on this unique opportunity,” said NJTPA Executive Director David W. Behrend.
Join in on the creativity, celebration, and community-building around the world’s game. Whether activating a central plaza or downtown, enhancing neighborhood parks, or reimagining transportation corridors, placemaking initiatives can help bolster the economy by bringing people together and supporting local businesses.
“As one of the TMAs located at the heart of where the FIFA festivities will take place, EZ Ride is excited to support NJTPA’s initiative to create this interactive guidebook and we are proud to help share it with stakeholders, communities, and municipalities eager to participate in the celebration,” said Krishna Murthy, President & CEO of EZ Ride.
If your community has questions about where to start, what makes sense for your community, or the process for organizing such events, please contact demonstration@njtpa.org.
