North America Wins the 2026 World Cup Bid

quote:

---

U.S., Canada and Mexico win right to host 2026 World Cup

For the first time in 32 years, the men’s World Cup is coming back to North America.

FIFA’s 200-plus member associations gathered in Moscow on Wednesday and voted to award 2026 World Cup hosting rights to the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Barring changes to the North American proposal, 60 of 80 games will be in the United States, with 10 apiece in Canada and Mexico. Those 60 include every game from the quarterfinals onward.

Canada and Mexico have proposed three host cities each: Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton will stage games north of the U.S. border, while Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey will be match sites down south.

The U.S. must cut a list of 17 cities down to 10 over the coming years. It has proposed the Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.) for the opener; Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta) and AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Tex.) for semifinals; and MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, N.J.) for the final.

The other U.S. cities in the running are Baltimore, Boston (Foxborough, Mass.), Cincinnati, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco (Santa Clara, Calif.) and Seattle and Washington, D.C. The favorites among them would likely be Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Miami, Seattle and Houston.

---