The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., is seen during the 1994 FIFA World Cup final. The stadium is a candidate to host games again in 2026. (Getty Images)
The World Cup dreams of 17 U.S. stadiums took a major step toward reality this week when FIFA officially announced the United 2026 bid, a joint effort among the U.S., Mexico and Canada, as hosts for the 2026 World Cup.
In the first three-country hosting plan, 10 U.S. cities and three each in Canada and Mexico will open stadium gates for the event, the first to expand from 32 to 48 teams. Of the 80 games over 34 days, expect 60 to take place in the U.S. and 10 each in Canada and Mexico. All the quarterfinals, semifinals and the championship will be played in the U.S., but the group stages will mix all three countries and Canada and Mexico will each host two round-of-32 games and one round-of-16 game, as spelled out in the United 2026 bid book provided to FIFA, international soccer’s governing body.
United 2026 won out over Morocco’s bid by a 134-65 vote of FIFA members.
While Canadian and Mexican cities and venues are set, the U.S. must whittle its list of 17 venues down to 10. The bid book provides a few early answers.
FIFA’s stadium capacity requirements for the World Cup demand at least a 40,000-seat venue for the group stage and early knockout rounds, rising to 60,000 for the semifinals and 80,000 for the championship, along with the tournament’s opening game. Already, United 2026 has said it will use MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., expandable to 87,157, for the championship. While United 2026 expects opening-day matches in all three countries, it will kick off the entire tournament either in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., or Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. The two semifinal games will likely take place in AT&T Stadium in Dallas and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, according to the bid book.
Having nearly 100 percent of the venue infrastructure in place proved a benefit to the bid, with only some minor updating and an expansion at Toronto’s BMO Field on the construction docket.
In Canada, Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium (56,418 capacity, according to the bid book), Montreal’s Olympic Stadium (55,822) and Toronto’s BMO Field (30,000 now, with plans to expand to 45,500) will host. Canada will become the fifth nation to hold both a men’s and women’s World Cup, following its hosting of the 2015 Women’s World Cup.
Mexico offers up Guadalajara’s Estadio Akron (48,071), Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca (87,523) and Monterrey’s Estadio BBVA Bancomer (53,460), which opened in 2015. This will be the third time Mexico has hosted the World Cup, and Azteca is already the first stadium to ever host two World Cup Finals (1970 and 1986).
The distance between Edmonton and Mexico City is nearly 3,000 miles, making it unlikely that teams will play in all three countries. The bid book notes plans for regional clusters for group games due to the four time zones and many miles of travel. It lays out expectations of a west-to-east flow for the knockout rounds, as seen with semifinals in Dallas and Atlanta and the final in New Jersey.
Even still, not all decisions come final in the U.S., the sixth country to host twice. Already the bids of 12 U.S. or Canadian stadium bids were cut or voluntarily pulled from consideration and nine others submitted bids that didn’t make it into the first round of consideration. That leaves 17 U.S. cities and venues still in the running for the final 10 slots.
Expect locks from MetLife, Mercedes-Benz, AT&T Stadium and the Rose Bowl. From there 13 venues vie for the final six slots.
In 1994, nine cities hosted games —the New York/New Jersey area, the Bay Area, Dallas, Boston, Orlando, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C. — and pulled in the highest average attendance in tournament history: 68,626. Of those nine cities, only Chicago and Detroit aren’t on the final list of 17, and two of the 1994 venues, the Rose Bowl and Citrus Bowl (now Camping World Stadium) in Orlando have made the final list, offering two chances for repeat as hosts 32 years later.
Camping World Stadium could benefit from its World Cup history, but will face competition from Hard Rock Stadium near Miami. Seattle’s CenturyLink Field represents the only Pacific Northwest stadium in play, after Vancouver’s BC Place dropped out of the running, leaving an entire market ripe for ticketing in a major North American soccer hotbed. Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium was always a favorite due to its ability to successfully host MLS soccer in a new NFL-size venue, coupled with its high concentration of population.. The expectation of a semifinal match solidifies its position.
With MetLife a certainty, Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium, the Boston area’s Gillette Stadium, Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, FedEx Field near Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati’s Paul Brown Stadium will vie against each other for slots limited so as not to oversaturate one region of the country.
Expect Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, with the success of nearby Sporting KC of the MLS, to attract plenty of attention in what could come down to a runoff against Denver’s Sports Authority Field at Mile High and Nashville’s Nissan Stadium for coverage of that area of the country. Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium attempts to add a second California location and NRG Stadium in Houston may have a tough road in grabbing a second venue for Texas, unless the bid committee deems multiple locations close together — and closer to Mexico — a benefit for travel.
A list of the U.S. venues still in the running to host with the capacity as listed in the bid book:
• Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, 75,000
• M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, 70,976
• Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass., 70,000
• Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, 67,402
• AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, 92,967
• Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Denver, 77,595
• NRG Stadium, Houston, 72,220
• Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, 76,640
• Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Calif., 88,432
• Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Fla., 67,518
• Nissan Stadium, Nashville, 69,722
• MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J., 87,157
• Camping World Stadium, Orlando, 65,000
• Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, 69,328
• Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif., 70,909
• CenturyLink Field, Seattle, 69,000
• FedEx Field, Landover, Md., 70,659