Kick It: A Potty Problem

Welcome back to Kick It, the AJC’s newsletter for all things World Cup. If you’re not signed up, let’s rectify that. We’ll be sending updates — cup-dates, if you will — with the latest news, conversations and fun stuff all through this summer’s World Cup tournament matches in Atlanta.

A COMPLICATION YOU PROBABLY HAVEN’T THOUGHT ABOUT BUT WILL DEFINITELY BE THINKING ABOUT NOW

(Photo Illustration: Chris Skinner | Source: Pexels)

Everyone knows the hopeless feeling of having to use the restroom while out and about and there being no restroom to use.

Now multiply that problem by 300,000 international visitors in town for World Cup matches.

The bottom line? Atlanta doesn’t have enough public bathrooms for such a public.

April M. Ballard, Ph.D., M.P.H., a faculty member at Georgia State University’s School of Public Health, brought this problem to our collective attention and now it’s hard to think about anything else. Her whole breakdown is definitely worth a read.

This is what makes a public bathroom, she said:

• free
• open to everyone
• no purchase
• no badge
• no restricted building

She and her team surveyed ATL’s potty scene, and it was bleak:

• 30 facilities “resembled public bathrooms”
• Only 18 passed the full rubric
• Of those 18, “only three were open 24/7, four required permission, five were single-stall facilities and only five were located downtown.”

Now, everyone pees. For young children, the elderly and people with health conditions, the ability to do so with dignity is especially important. Plus, it’s the very bare minimum we can do if we want to display that famous Southern hospitality.

Ballard says there are some quick options the city can invest in, like temporary waterless toilets, or partnerships with community toilet programs.

HOW DO WE STACK UP, COMMODE-WISE?

That got me to thinking where we stand, nationally and internationally, when it comes to public restrooms.

I consulted the Portland Loo website, a public restroom design project based in Portland, because they had the best name and most legible data.

🚽 According to them, the cities with the highest density of public restrooms are:

• Madison, WI
• Oakland, CA
• San Francisco, CA

🚽 The countries with the highest density of public restrooms are:

• Iceland
• Switzerland
• New Zealand
• Finland
• Australia

Don’t you feel enriched by this knowledge?

NOW, BACK TO THE FUN STUFF: ATLANTA’S (FREE!) FIFA FAN FESTIVAL

Remember, for the duration of the World Cup, it's not Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It's Atlanta Stadium. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

You don’t need a ticket to enjoy the World Cup in Atlanta, and over the next few months we’ll tell you all about the bars, events, parties, meetups, restaurants, pop-ups and various other fetes that will round out your experience.

Of note right now is the FIFA Fan Festival, Atlanta’s official two-week World Cup celebration.

• The festival will be held in Centennial Olympic Park for 16 days, from June 12 to July 15.
• It will include live music, food, games and kid-friendly activities. We’ll let you know when there’s more details to share.

How to get in on the action:

Yes, the event is FREE. However, you do have to register for tickets. Registration opens Thursday, March 26. Get access here.

🎉 IMPORTANT: You’ll get a wristband or QR code to enter, and you must bring an ID with you.

UPCOMING MATCHES

Why wait until June for some action? We’ve got two pre-tournament international friendlies coming up in ATL. Both are at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

• Saturday, 3/28: U.S. v. Belgium at 3:30 p.m. ET
• Tuesday, 3/31: U.S. v. Portugal at 7 p.m. ET

OTHER THINGS TO KNOW

Think tickets are too expensive? So do our European friends. Soccer fans across the pond launched a formal complaint with the European Commission against FIFA over inflated World Cup ticket prices.

This summer is also the 30th anniversary of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Two members of Play Fair ATL, a watchdog group dedicated to making the World Cup games equitable for everyone in the city, explain how Atlanta can learn from its past missteps on the international stage.

Cristiano Ronaldo (everyone knows who that is!) won’t play in Portugal’s friendlies against the United States and Mexico ahead of the World Cup because of a hamstring injury. Someone send him a care package.

Here’s how to follow all the AJC’s World Cup coverage

GOOD GAME!

Thanks for reading Kick It! We’ll be back in your inbox April 7 with some deep dives into nerdy soccer stuff and a look at soccer love around Atlanta. If you have a World Cup tip, a story idea or a recommendation, drop us a line!