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United Bid Committee reveals potential host cities for 2026 World Cup bid

Forty-four cities across the United States, Mexico and Canada have been contacted by the United Bid Committee to declare their interest to serve as potential host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, according to a press release by U.S. Soccer.

The Bid Committee sent Requests for Information (RFIs) to each city, asking for its interest in the bidding process by Sept. 5, 2017.

Out of a total of 49 venues across the 44 cities, the committee will choose 20-25 of them in its official bid to FIFA by March 16, 2018.

“The Host Cities included in our bid will be critical to its success — not only because of their facilities and ability to stage major events, but because they are committed to further developing the sport of soccer by harnessing the impact of hosting a FIFA World Cup — and looking beyond the game itself to make a positive contribution to our communities and the world,” said United Bid Committee executive director John Kristick. “We have had a great response so far and we’re looking forward to working closely with each city and determining the best venues for our official bid that we’ll submit next year.”

The 2026 edition of the international competition will be the first to feature a 48-team field, and all host venues are required to have a capacity of at least 40,000 for the group stage matches and 80,000 to be considered for the opening match and the final.

AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, leads all venues with a capacity of 105,000 while other U.S. stadiums like the Rose Bowl (87,527) in Los Angeles and MetLife Stadium (82,500) in East Rutherford, New Jersey, are also included.

Seven cities and nine stadiums in Canada have been contacted, including Stade Olympique in Montréal, Québec, which seats 61,004, and BC Place (55,165)  in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Estadio Azteca, with a capacity of 87,000, in Mexico City, leads three Mexican venues in consideration with Estadio Chivas (45,364) in Guadalajara and Estadio Rayados (52,237) in Monterrey.

See the full list of cities and venues below:

UNITED STATES

Atlanta, Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Baltimore, M&T Bank Stadium

Birmingham, Legion Field

Boston/Foxborough, Gillette Stadium

Charlotte, Bank of America Stadium

Chicago, Soldier Field

Cincinnati, Paul Brown Stadium

Cleveland, FirstEnergy Stadium

Dallas, Cotton Bowl

Dallas/Arlington, AT&T Stadium

Denver, Sports Authority Field at Mile High

Detroit, Ford Field

Green Bay, Lambeau Field

Houston, NRG Stadium

Indianapolis, Lucas Oil Stadium

Jacksonville, EverBank Field

Kansas City, Arrowhead Stadium

Las Vegas, Raiders Stadium

Los Angeles, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Los Angeles, LA Stadium at Hollywood Park

Los Angeles, Rose Bowl

Miami, Hard Rock Stadium

Minneapolis, US Bank Stadium

Nashville, Nissan Stadium

New Orleans, Mercedes-Benz Superdome

New York/New Jersey, MetLife Stadium

Orlando, Camping World Stadium

Philadelphia, Lincoln Financial Field

Phoenix/Glendale, University of Phoenix Stadium

Pittsburgh, Heinz Field

Salt Lake City, Rice-Eccles Stadium

San Antonio, Alamodome

San Diego, Qualcomm Stadium

San Francisco/San Jose, Levi’s Stadium

Seattle, CenturyLink Field

Tampa, Raymond James Stadium

Washington, D.C./Landover, FedEx Field

CANADA

Calgary, McMahon Stadium

Edmonton, Commonwealth Stadium

Montreal, Stade Olympique

Montreal, Stade Saputo

Ottawa, TD Place Stadium

Regina, Mosaic Stadium

Toronto, Rogers Centre

Toronto, BMO Field

Vancouver, BC Place

MEXICO

Guadalajara, Estadio Chivas

Mexico City, Estadio Azteca

Monterrey, Estadio Rayados

Comments

  1. Considering how difficult the heat was in the WC ’94, please pick as many indoor and less humid venues as possible. A lot of WC’94 kicked off mid day in order to catch Central European Time zone viewers. I assume it will be the same. Noon games from Orlando and Dallas were brutally slow. The final was horrible as two exhausted teams fought to a 0-0 tie through 120 minutes. We have enough coastal cities and indoor stadiums to play those day games. Put night games in the hotter climates during the group phase.

    Reply
    • Very good point. Although in the ’94 WC, the US was caught in a humid air bubble that extended even into the West Coast. I saw 4 games at the Rose Bowl and they were all mid afternoon. the first, Sweden vs Cameroun was about 89 with 50% humidity, the Swedish players look to be melting, but the later games were less humid, but still warm. And I’m from So. Cal and my office was only about 10 miles away from the rose Bowl so I would ride my bike over there to avoid the the traffic and parking

      Sweden played three times at the Rose Bowl and I had tickets for the one group stage. round of 16, semis, and third place game, and three of those games featured Sweden (who went on to third place) It was all coincidence too, I became a honorary Swedish football fans and partied wit its fans.
      They had followed the team all over the Us and just loved the hot weather. Who knew!

      Reply
    • Don’t fret over the weather. Just play the games in the southern stadiums during the winter and the northern games during the summer. Maybe the knockout rounds in the fall. After all, disrupting the leagues does not matter anymore.

      Reply
  2. start growing the grass on the plastic fields now….and please no 70 yard fields…and as for mexico even with these 3 ….the government cant guarantee no one will be shot…

    Reply
  3. The new Redskins stadium will be built in DC/NoVa by then so that site might change since it will be state of the art.

    Reply
  4. I know they are just contacting potential cities to gauge their interest, but it seems odd that only 3 Mexican cities are listed for 10 games, while 9 Canadian cities are listed. I mean, really, Regina? The seating capacity is 30,000. Although G’nR will be playing there in late August, so there’s that…

    Regardless, I don’t think we stand a chance against Morocco since their 20th largest city has 151,000 people, which is the size of Hollywood (not the California version, the Florida one)…

    Reply
    • You have to remember that with the expansion to 48 teams there will be some teams that really are not going attract a lot of fans (other than those who will want to go to a WC game and say “I was there!) Not too many people will buy tickets to see Lower Elbonia play the Republic of Dontgiveafuk, or even El Salvador play Madagascar. So there have to be stadiums that will not attract 50 or 60K, but may attract. 20-30K. The other option is to give double headers to the low attraction teams.

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      • If memory serves, the sites for specific games are assigned long before the draw happens and groups are formed. So I don’t think FIFA can monkey around the way you’re suggesting and plug in lame match ups in small venues and high-profile games at Jerry Dome. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

      • Frenchman, you’re right … although FIFA makes its own rules and often changes them to shoehorn in whatever it wants. However, as we saw with the last WC here in ’94, even though that was the last with just 52 games (they have 64 now) it is still the attendance leader. I believe that’s because most all WC qualifying countries have a fair amount of people here of that ancestry, and the USA is a place a lot of foreign fans want to come to anyway. With 80 games by 48 teams in 2026, the total attendance will just be unbelievable.

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