The 2026 FIFA World Cup has arrived in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and if you are old enough to remember the last time it happened, you are already doing the math. That was 1994. Thirty-two years ago. And if you were alive then, buckle up, because the distance between that world and this one is going to hurt.

Back then, the World Cup fit in 52 games across NFL stadiums

In 1994, FIFA brought the tournament to the United States with 24 teams, 52 matches, and a collection of venues that were, generously speaking, improvised. The host country had no purpose-built soccer stadiums. So the World Cup was played in converted NFL stadiums, some of them with artificial turf, according to FIFA records. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, the Silverdome in Detroit, and Giants Stadium in New Jersey. The world’s sport is played on fields designed for a different game entirely.

Credit: Getty Images.

The final was contested at the Rose Bowl on July 17, 1994, in front of 94,194 fans. Brazil beat Italy in a penalty shootout. It was the first World Cup final ever decided by penalties. Roberto Baggio, the Italian star who had carried his team to the final, stepped up last and sent his shot over the crossbar. Brazil won. Baggio stood alone at the spot with his head down, and that image became one of the most iconic in the tournament’s history.

And then there was Andrés Escobar. The Colombian defender scored an own goal against the United States on June 22, 1994. Colombia was eliminated. On July 2, ten days after the own goal, Escobar was shot and killed outside a nightclub in Medellín. He was 27 years old. His murder remains one of the darkest chapters in the sport’s history.

Gas was $1.11, and you did not think twice about filling the tank

Here is the number that will stop you cold. In 1994, the average price of regular gasoline in the United States was approximately $1.11 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Today, the national average in June 2026 is near $3.20 per gallon, down from a May peak of $4.55 per gallon during the Strait of Hormuz closure. In California, drivers are paying $5.87.

A gallon of milk cost around $2.50 in 1994, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today it costs $4.22.

The average home in America sold for $154,175 in 1994, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The average home sale price in the first quarter of 2026 was $514,600. That is a 233 percent increase. The average movie ticket cost $4.08 in 1994. Today it costs $16.08 nationwide.

The gut punch: the minimum wage

Now, here’s a wild figure. In 1994, the federal minimum wage was $4.25 per hour, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2026, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. It has not changed since 2009. Meanwhile, gas has tripled. Homes have more than tripled. Movie tickets have quadrupled. The minimum wage has gone up by $3 in 32 years.

On June 17, 1994, the most-watched event in America was not a soccer match

The 1994 World Cup was not only competing with itself for America’s attention. On June 17, 1994, one day after the tournament’s opening matches, a white Ford Bronco traveled at 35 miles per hour down a Los Angeles freeway while 95 million Americans watched on live television. O.J. Simpson, the NFL Hall of Famer and actor, had been charged with the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. The slow-speed chase lasted nearly two hours and was one of the most surreal moments in American broadcasting history. The World Cup was on one channel. The Bronco was on every other one.

That summer held everything at once. On June 24, 1994, The Lion King opened wide in theaters. In April of that year, Kurt Cobain died at 27. Friends would premiere in September. Forrest Gump was the number one film at the box office. The internet existed mostly in university labs and government offices. Amazon was founded in July 1994, according to Amazon’s corporate history. Google did not exist until 1998. There were no smartphones. To know the score of a World Cup match, you either watched it live or you waited for the evening news.

What was playing while Brazil lifted the trophy

The soundtrack of that summer belonged to a specific, deeply earnest kind of pop music. Boyz II Men spent 14 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I’ll Make Love to You,” tying the all-time record at the time, according to Billboard. Ace of Base, a Swedish group, had broken into the American mainstream with “The Sign” and “All That She Wants.” All-4-One’s “I Swear” was inescapable. Mariah Carey was at the peak of her Music Box era. Janet Jackson ruled the R&B charts. Green Day released Dookie and changed what pop-punk meant. West Coast rap was being redefined by Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, according to Billboard’s year-end charts for 1994.

Today, the Billboard Hot 100 is led by Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish, and Bad Bunny.

In 1994, the scandal was about a land deal. In 2026, it is about Jeffrey Epstein

The dominant political controversy of the 1994 World Cup summer was the Whitewater investigation, an inquiry into President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton’s involvement in a failed real estate venture in Arkansas. In August 1994, a special three-judge panel appointed Kenneth Starr as independent counsel to lead the investigation. Several Clinton associates were eventually convicted, but no charges were ever brought against the President or First Lady.

That was the scandal. A land deal. Lawyers, depositions, and Congressional hearings were confusing to most Americans.

In December 2025, the Department of Justice released hundreds of thousands of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex trafficker. In January 2026, three million more documents followed. The files were heavily redacted. Trump’s name appears hundreds of times in the released documents, according to PBS NewsHour. Flight records in the December 2025 release showed Trump flew on Epstein’s plane at least eight times in the 1990s. The most recent tranche of documents revealed that members of Trump’s inner circle, including Elon Musk and Howard Lutnick, had extensive documented interactions with Epstein over the years.

In 1994, the President was being investigated for a real estate deal from the 1970s. In 2026, the sitting President’s name appears hundreds of times in the files of a man convicted of sex trafficking minors, and those files were made public with portions blacked out.

The world came to America twice. The country it found is unrecognizable

Forty-eight teams are here now. The stadiums are bigger and purpose-built. The screens are huge, and the streams are instant. You can watch every match on your phone, alone in your kitchen, while reading real-time analysis from journalists in seven languages. The infrastructure of fandom has never been more sophisticated.

And yet, gas costs three times what it cost the last time this happened. A home costs three times what it cost. The minimum wage has gained only three dollars in thirty-two years. The political conversation has moved from a real estate controversy in Arkansas to three million redacted pages connected to a sex trafficking case.

The World Cup is back in America. The game is the same. Everything around it has changed beyond recognition, and not all of it for the better.

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