Years before the 2026 FIFA World Cup turned droves of uninitiated Georgians into rabid footy fans — and before the Brits discovered the wonder of Waffle House hashbrowns — Georgia O’Donoghue had a vision for one of the biggest parties Atlanta had ever seen.
“Atlanta is good at this,” says O’Donoghue (BBA ’11), who served as chief operating officer of Atlanta’s 2026 World Cup Host Committee. “We just do big events well. Part of it is our structure and our footprint … (but) it’s also the way we view hospitality. We plan events in a way that feels like a continuous experience. We’re welcoming you into our home.”
Over two years, O’Donoghue helped rally civic and business leaders to host more than 500,000 fans from 89 countries for a month. In the end, Atlanta received rave reviews from travelers and locals alike, setting a new standard for what large-scale sporting events could look like in Atlanta.
“I feel like the city has reached a new tier,” O’Donoghue says. “I hope people realize that our mighty little town can do big, mighty things when we all come together, align on our goals and processes and work together to invite the world into our city.”
Team building
O’Donoghue, who graduated from Terry with marketing and economics degrees and a certificate in personal and organizational leadership from the Institute for Leadership Advancement, is no stranger to big events. Before she was tapped to help lead the host committee, she served as vice president of operations at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and ran business operations for Atlanta United.
Getting the teams and 70,000 fans inside the stadium was table stakes, she says. Building out the logistics to welcome and care for more than 500,000 fans over the course of a month? That was the tricky part.
“The stadium was the easy part — they do this all the time. Everything else was the big beast,” O’Donoghue says. “That’s what kept you up at night. It wasn’t how the match was going to go — it was everything else.”
That’s where she tapped the team-building skills she’s been honing since her days in ILA.
Every month, O’Donoghue gathered 45 representatives from the City of Atlanta, MARTA, the Atlanta Police Department, business associations, the World Congress Center, Atlanta’s Department of Transportation, the airport and others.
The focus was to build connection between all the stakeholders. O’Donoghue was there to make sure those connections were secure.
“I always (started) with, ‘This is what I’m trying to accomplish. This is why it matters for you. I’m going to share everything I can with you. … My goal is to make you look good and make this city look good. And if we can do that together, then we all win.’”
Instead of viewing each service — transportation, ticketing, training sites, health and safety, lodging — as a siloed vertical, O’Donoghue wanted the group to look at them as one system so the customer experience was smooth, from the airport, to MARTA, to their hotel, to the FIFA Fan Festival, to the stadium.
“We (planned) based on the consumer journey,” she says. “If you know how you are going to receive people and where they’re going next, you can improve that journey.”
‘The city showed up’
When O’Donoghue and her team were thinking about the customer journey, they were thinking about fans traveling 3,000 miles to watch a match — but they were also thinking about all the fans (or soon-to-be fans) in the metro area.
“We were very intentional about making sure this felt like an event for the entire city,” she says. “We wanted Atlantans to be part of the experience, to come downtown, welcome visitors and enjoy this incredible moment alongside fans from around the world. Our goal was to embrace the energy that comes with hosting a global event and make sure our community felt connected to it.”
From post-match celebrations in Underground Atlanta to the Fan Festival, which gave people a way to be part of the excitement without spending thousands on a match ticket, to watch parties in Decatur, Candler Park and elsewhere, Atlantans embraced the excitement of the spectacle.
“The city showed up,” O’Donoghue says. “I can’t give enough credit to all the people in so many neighborhoods that said, ‘Look, this is going to happen with us.’ Even people that don’t love sports or don’t live in Atlanta, they really felt this deep in their soul. I love the pride that people feel for Atlanta now.”
Next up for O’Donoghue and the city is Super Bowl LXII, taking place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2028. O’Donoghue only had a few weeks between the end of the World Cup and her new role as COO for the Atlanta Super Bowl Host Committee.
“Doing major events well means we are all over the news all over the world. I’m just hopeful that people start realizing how amazing Atlanta is and continue to build our city’s reputation.
“We know we’re great,” she adds, “but we want other people to know.”