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United Bid Committee narrows list of potential 2026 World cup hosts to 32 cities

There are still several years left before the ball officially starts rolling for the 2026 World Cup, but the North American tournament bid is already starting to develop its shape.

On Wednesday, the United Bid Committee unveiled a list of the 32 cities across North America that can potentially serve as official host cities for the  much-anticipated tournament. As expected, Canada has four of its cities in contention and Mexico has three while the United States has proposed 25 of its own.

“We received applications from 41 cities across Canada, Mexico and the United States and narrowed the list after a comprehensive review of each of the communities and facilities,” Executive Director of the United Bid Committee John Kristick said. “The 32 cities that we have identified as potential host cities, on their own and together, are prepared to welcome soccer fans from around the world. They are more than capable of helping fulfill the shared vision and ambition of FIFA and the United Bid in shaping the future of soccer in North America.”

“While not every city will move forward as a potential host city, we were so impressed by all the applicants that we will continue to engage with all the cities as part of our hosting strategy and we will welcome the opportunity to work with FIFA to further expand our hosting concept to ensure the broadest possible impact for this spectacular event.”

The United Bid Committee, as well, continues to work hand in hand with the nine cities that were eliminated from contention early on in efforts to have them serve as possible locations for Team Base Camps and other competition-related events.

“As we move to the next stage of the bid process, we’re even more confident we have everything needed to deliver the largest, most compelling FIFA World Cup in history and help accelerate the growth of soccer across North America and around the world,” United Bid Chairman Sunil Galati said. “We have more than double the number of cities required to stage matches in 2026.

“We have a vision for growing the game and engaging fans as never before. Our biggest challenge will be finding ways to honor the enthusiasm of all the people across Canada, Mexico and the United States through the development of our united hosting concept.”

Here is the list of the 32 cities still in contention to become hosts:

Canada (4)

Edmonton, Alberta
Montréal, Québec
Toronto, Ontario
Vancouver, British Columbia

Mexico (3)

Guadalajara, Jalisco
Mexico City, Mexico
Monterrey, Nuevo León

United States (25)

Atlanta, Georgia
Baltimore, Maryland
Boston, Massachusetts
Charlotte, North Carolina
Cincinnati, Ohio
Chicago, Illinois
Dallas, Texas
Denver, Colorado
Detroit, Michigan
Houston, Texas
Kansas City, Missouri
Las Vegas, Nevada
Los Angeles, California
Miami, Florida
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Nashville, Tennessee
New York/New Jersey
Orlando, Florida
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Phoenix, Arizona
Salt Lake City, Utah
San Francisco Bay Area
Seattle, Washington
Tampa, Florida
Washington, DC

Eliminated Cities

Birmingham, Alabama
Cleveland, Ohio
Indianapolis, Indiana
Jacksonville, Florida
New Orleans, Louisiana
Ottawa, Ontario
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Regina, Saskatchewan
San Antonio, Texas

Comments

  1. This crap always happens. They put cities on the big list knowing they had no real chance to make it just as a favor to build excitement for soccer in those cities… no way was Birmingham going to host a World Cup game.

    Reply
  2. Does anything say US should have this World Cup better than, they REDUCED the cities to 32?
    Ok the fact that 1994 was so well run and so well attended ( both percentage and total ), but other than that……

    ps. I just hope they aren’t having rounds of elimination to increase the number of chances to get bribes.

    Reply

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