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When Croatia's national soccer team arrives in Alexandria this summer to use the city as its base camp for the FIFA World Cup, most of what the city has planned will happen behind the scenes — at least for now.
Visit Alexandria CEO Todd O'Leary presented the city's World Cup preparations to City Council on Tuesday night, offering the most detailed public look yet at how Alexandria intends to leverage its role as host of one of the world's top soccer programs. The presentation covered team amenities, marketing strategy, a Croatian Embassy partnership, media outreach, and business community activation — but O'Leary was clear that for the general public, the confirmed opportunity to engage directly with the team is limited to one event: a "quasi-public" community training session for youth soccer players planned for June.
"We're working on a community training session — a quasi-public event — where local youth sports programs, especially children involved in soccer and after-school soccer programs, will be invited to watch the team train here in Alexandria," O'Leary told council.
Everything else on the city's current event calendar is either in early planning stages, oriented toward business and tourism operators, or aimed at the international and domestic media expected to follow the team. Between sessions in Alexandria, the Vatreni will travel to their group stage matches in Arlington, Texas, Toronto, and Philadelphia before returning to train and prepare for the next round.
How Alexandria landed Croatia
As The Alexandria Brief first reported in January, Croatia selected Alexandria as its team base camp after the Croatian Football Federation evaluated more than 60 potential locations across North America. The team — known as the Vatreni — will stay at the AKA Hotel in Old Town and train at Episcopal High School, the same facility that hosted Al Ain FC of the United Arab Emirates during last summer's inaugural FIFA Club World Cup.
Croatia is ranked 10th in the world and is led by team captain Luka Modrić, widely considered one of the greatest midfielders in the sport's history. The team's group stage matches are in Arlington, Texas (June 17 vs. England), Toronto (June 23 vs. Panama), and Philadelphia (June 27 vs. Ghana). Alexandria's location — close to Reagan National Airport and within a reasonable distance of all three major cities — was a key factor in the selection.
The team will play two friendly matches leading up to the World Cup in Orlando, taking on Colombia on March 26 and Brazil on March 31.
City Manager James Parajon highlighted Episcopal High School and Hotel AKA as instrumental partners. "It's really been a good team effort," he said.
The broader FIFA World Cup runs from June 11 through July 19, with the United States, Canada, and Mexico serving as co-hosts. The tournament is expected to draw 7 million fans across the three countries, with approximately 3.7 million in the United States.
What's being planned
O'Leary outlined five areas of focus for the city's World Cup preparations.
Team amenities. The city's first priority is ensuring Croatia has what it needs to compete at the highest level — cultural and food and beverage options, places of worship, and any other support the team requires during what will be its home away from home for approximately a month.
Marketing. Visit Alexandria is developing a dedicated World Cup section of its website at visitalexandria.com, which O'Leary said was close to launching. The city is also developing Croatian-language visitor information — Croatian is not currently among the 18 languages into which the city translates key visitor materials.
Croatian Embassy partnership. O'Leary, Parajon, and Mayor Alyia Gaskins met with the Croatian ambassador to the United States several weeks ago. O'Leary described the meeting as productive, with a "laundry list" of partnership opportunities emerging from it, including cultural events that the Croatian Embassy plans to co-host in Alexandria around the tournament.
Media. O'Leary said the city expects up to 100 international and domestic media representatives per day in Alexandria following the team. The city's strategy is to seed story ideas about Alexandria to visiting journalists who will primarily be covering the sport. "Where are our opportunities to broaden out that conversation and expose more of our community to folks who are reading about the event in general?" he said.
Business community. O'Leary said the city is developing a toolkit for local businesses that want to participate, with ideas including watch parties, Croatian-themed food and drink specials, merchandise, and window and storefront decorations. Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley asked whether businesses would receive a specific kit — color choices, product suggestions — to help them opt in. O'Leary confirmed that was the intent.
A platform for sports tourism
Beyond the World Cup itself, O'Leary framed the event as a showcase opportunity for Alexandria in the competitive sports tourism market. "This is a key moment in time to be on the world stage and show how Alexandria is really in that conversation," he said, noting that the city hopes to use the visibility to attract future sports events by exposing the city to planners and decision-makers who will be in town.
The Al Ain FC base camp last summer was the first proof of concept; Croatia's selection validated it. "That came off so well — we showed very well — and that brought us the opportunity to host Croatia," O'Leary said.
What residents can expect
For Alexandrians hoping to catch a glimpse of Modrić and the Vatreni, the community training session in June remains the one confirmed opportunity for residents to engage with the team. "A lot of local youth sports, children, school-aged children, especially those that are involved in soccer programs, after-school soccer programs, will be invited to watch the team train here in Alexandria," O'Leary told council. Details on timing, location and registration are still being worked out. Cultural events tied to the Croatian Embassy partnership are also in development but have not been finalized or publicly announced.
Ryan Belmore
