When the final whistle in the USA-Bosnia and Herzegovina match blew at 7:06 p.m. on Wednesday, it ended the Bay Area’s time hosting the World Cup — and capped off a whirlwind 18-month stretch of marquee sporting events. 

It started with the NBA All-Star Game in February 2025. One year later, there was Super Bowl 60. And now, a successful six-match run at the FIFA World Cup, making Levi’s Stadium the only stadium ever to host both the Super Bowl and the World Cup in the same year.

“It feels pretty surreal,” Zaileen Janmohamed, the CEO for the Bay Area Host Committee, told SFGATE in an interview before a private event in San Francisco on Tuesday, one day before the USA-Bosnia match. “When you look at all of the events in front of you, it feels like there’s a lot to do and you don’t know what the end looks like. So now that I can see the end, from a core-event perspective, it feels pretty amazing because we were able to do what no one’s done before.”

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Janmohamed and the BAHC hosted Tuesday’s event as half-celebration of what they’ve accomplished, half-declaration that there’s more to come. Earlier in the day, the BAHC announced the formation of a “Leadership Council” that will “transform” the committee into a permanent organization to continue to bring top sports events to the Bay Area.

USA fans cheer before the FIFA World Cup game between the United States and Bosnia and Herzegovina at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on July 1, 2026.

USA fans and Team USA celebrate a goal during the FIFA World Cup match against Bosnia and Herzegovina at Levi’s Stadium on July 1, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif.

“There have always been kind of ad hoc committees created around [bidding for and hosting events],” San Francisco Giants President and CEO Larry Baer told SFGATE on Tuesday. “It’s a lot of work that’s re-creating the wheel. Now, [the BAHC] can do it as an ongoing, sustaining group.”

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Baer joins pretty much every other major Bay Area professional sports team’s president as a member of the BAHC’s board of directors. Golden State Valkyries President Jess Smith said the board’s monthly meetings have been a valuable resource for the leaders to build........

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