Atlanta has a bathroom problem, long before that first World Cup match whistle blows.
As faculty at Georgia State University, my team and I surveyed public and private bathroom options in 15 key areas across the city. We identified 30 facilities that resembled public bathrooms, but once we applied the true test — free, open to everyone, no purchase, no badge, no restricted building — there were just 18. And those 18 came with major limitations: Only three were open 24/7, four required permission, five were single-stall facilities and only five were located downtown.
Near Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the heart of the World Cup, Atlanta has no guaranteed public bathrooms.
The only two options inside Centennial Olympic Park are operated by the Georgia World Congress Center, which can and does close them for events or at its own discretion. Access is never guaranteed. All other nearby facilities have limited hours or are behind security checks or fare gates.
Meanwhile, Atlanta’s five automated public toilets, installed in 2008, are reaching the end of their life cycle. The one behind City Hall has been nonfunctional for more than a year.
This is clearly not just a World Cup issue
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Every day, parents with young children, older adults, pregnant people and those with chronic health conditions struggle to move comfortably through our city without knowing whether a bathroom will be available.
For our neighbors experiencing homelessness, the lack of bathrooms is not an inconvenience. It is a danger and dignity crisis. The city criminalizes public urination and defecation, yet leaves people with nowhere to go.
The consequences are public, visible and expensive. Businesses have built gates or walls to prevent urination and defecation outside their buildings.
Others have posted “No Public Restroom” signs to their windows. And sidewalk cleanings downtown are costly. That is money spent managing symptoms of a problem we refuse to solve.
During World Cup, bathroom shortage will be impossible to hide
Credit: Brandie Banner Shackelford, Marcus Cain, Adriana Williams, Chip Daymude, Marlene Ehirim
Credit: Brandie Banner Shackelford, Marcus Cain, Adriana Williams, Chip Daymude, Marlene Ehirim
A car-dependent city will suddenly become a walking city for hundreds of thousands of visitors spending hours in fan zones, transit hubs and streets that currently lack infrastructure to support them. When there aren’t enough bathrooms, people improvise. Atlanta’s global reputation should not depend on how quickly we can pressure-wash sidewalks.
Other global cities have treated bathrooms as critical event infrastructure. Tokyo assessed bathrooms ahead of the Olympics. Seattle, another FIFA host, plans to operate hundreds of staffed public bathrooms.
Atlanta, by contrast, is behind.
The good news is that solutions are within reach: permanent solutions, World Cup-ready solutions and business solutions.
- Permanent solutions: Atlanta must invest in a network of 24/7 public bathrooms in high-traffic areas, including downtown corridors and Beltline segments. This is basic infrastructure for a city. Permanent facilities will serve residents long after the final goal is scored. Cities can lease such facilities through sustainability financing programs to spread costs over time. Advertising on the units themselves can also help cover annual maintenance costs.
- World Cup-ready solutions: Rapid-deployment units can be installed quickly with minimal utility needs, including high-tech, no-water toilets from companies like Throne Labs. These units can fill short-term gaps and ensure visitors’ needs are met.
- Business solutions: European cities like Bremen and London operate thriving community toilet programs. Bremen’s Nette Toilette pays businesses a modest stipend, often less than $100 per month, to open bathrooms to the public. Atlanta could easily replicate this with small incentives, window decals and a city-backed locator tool.
Southern hospitality should meet the most basic human need
None of these solutions are radical, and all are achievable if city leaders make bathrooms a priority.
More importantly, they would serve Atlanta long after the final whistle. With over 190,000 people downtown on an average weekday and only a handful of accessible bathrooms to serve them, we are already behind.
The World Cup magnifies the urgency, but the real question is what kind of city we want to be when fans go home.
Public bathrooms are not a luxury. They are basic infrastructure — critical to health, dignity and hospitality.
Atlanta prides itself on being a global city, but our hospitality will ring hollow if we fail to meet the most basic human need.
Hosting the world means preparing for the basics, making Atlanta a city where everyone — tourist or neighbor — can meet their needs with dignity.
April M. Ballard, Ph.D., M.P.H., is a faculty member at Georgia State University’s School of Public Health who researches how to improve access to basic needs, from sanitation to housing, to promote population health and well-being. The views expressed here are her own.
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