There’s a chance that South Africa will only play one game in the United States during the upcoming Fifa World Cup. Unless Hugo Broos’ boys make history and reach the knockouts for the first time. Catch all the 2026 FIFA World Cup action live on SuperSport.
That game takes place in the alluring city of Atlanta, where the jaw-dropping Mercedes Benz Stadium (MBS) awaits Bafana for their group game against the Czech Republic on June 18.
The stadium is undoubtedly one of the world’s great sporting cathedrals. The MBS is one of the many sporting assets owned by AMBSE, the sports and entertainment conglomerate started by Home Depot founder Arthur M Blank, a soccer-loving, deep-pocketed, philanthropic son of Atlanta.
The MBS is usually home to the Falcons of the NFL, but the astroturf has been removed and a snooker-table smooth mix of bluegrass and rye is being laid ahead of the big kick-off. The venue is a sensational piece of sporting architecture - 72-000 capacity with a unique ocular, roof-opening mechanism that resembles a camera lens. The halo board encircling the roof opening is one of the world's largest video displays, a continuous live HD, LED feed visible from every seat.
Since opening in 2017, the MBS has hosted more than 50 major events, including concerts featuring Beyonce and Jay-Z and sporting events like Super Bowl LIII (2019), Copa America (2024), the FIFA Club World Cup (2025) and the MLS All-Star Game (2018). Besides Bafana’s group game, the stadium will host seven other Fifa World Cup games, including a semifinal.
The stadium is located in Atlanta’s walkable downtown and is an easy MARTA underground ride away. Hosting the games will be a cinch. The biggest challenge might be how the Mercedes Benz signage on the roof is masked, given Fifa’s insistence on scrupulously clean, sponsor-free venues.
Cheaper, more accessible and friendlier than the usual hotspots like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, Atlanta is renowned for its famously laid-back southern hospitality. But don’t let that fool you. This is a progressive, modern, diverse, cutting-edge city too.
It also has a number of South Africa-specific connections.
Atlanta is the city where a talented young footballer from Soweto called Kaizer Motaung spent time between 1968 and 1975 playing for Atlanta Chiefs. Motaung returned home determined to create his own team. The vision, name and logo for this new team all borrowed liberally from their owner’s Atlanta experiences.
Atlanta Chiefs spawned Kaizer Chiefs, and a South African footballing dynasty was born.
During Motaung’s Atlanta sojourn, iconic American Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. King was born and bred in Atlanta, and today his birthplace and resting place are hugely visited tourist shrines in the city. Like South Africa, Atlanta has a long history of overcoming oppression.
Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympic Games, and was thus the city where the new South African flag fluttered for the first time following the country’s return from sporting isolation. Iconic Rainbow Nation memories from those Games include the men’s marathon win by Josia Thugwane and Penny Heyns’ double gold in the swimming pool.
Elsewhere in Atlanta, the 22-mile Atlanta Beltline is a vibrant green lung that links neighbourhoods via wonderful walking, cycling and running routes. There are tons of hotels, given Atlanta’s status as a major conference city. Magnificent bars and restaurants too.
Atlanta is also where Coca Cola was invented in 1886 and where CNN was founded and headquartered 101 years later. It’s the home of Delta Airlines, and the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport is the busiest in the world, largely because more than 80 per cent of Americans live within a two-hour flight radius.
There’s a direct flight between OR Tambo and Atlanta for those wanting to add to the 35 million or so annual visitors to this unofficial capital of the American South.