World Cup 2026

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:
Bay Area venues?

• Levi's
• *Avaya
• O.Co (or *replacement A's stadium?)
• Stanford
• *AT&T?

*early rounds

With all of the Football/Soccer specific stadiums being built, I can see several matches being played at some of those venues as well.
Banc of California Stadium in the Exposition Park neighbourhood of LA, is considered by many, the Cathedral of Football, in California.
It's very European in design … and the place is gorgeous.

Originally posted by Janitor:

Originally posted by evil:

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:
Bay Area venues?

• Levi's
• *Avaya
• O.Co (or *replacement A's stadium?)
• Stanford
• *AT&T?

*early rounds

If the Bay Area gets selected. Only 10 US cities will be selected from the following :

Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Cincinnati
Dallas
Denver
Houston
Kansas City
Los Angeles
Miami
Nashville
New York/New Jersey
Orlando
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington, D.C.

My selfish picks

LOL. I assume LA, NY/NJ and Dallas are locks as will one of the two Florida cities.

Originally posted by evil:

Originally posted by Janitor:

Originally posted by evil:

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:

Bay Area venues?

• Levi's
• *Avaya
• O.Co (or *replacement A's stadium?)
• Stanford
• *AT&T?

*early rounds

If the Bay Area gets selected. Only 10 US cities will be selected from the following :

Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Cincinnati
Dallas
Denver
Houston
Kansas City
Los Angeles
Miami
Nashville
New York/New Jersey
Orlando
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington, D.C.

My selfish picks

LOL. I assume LA, NY/NJ and Dallas are locks as will one of the two Florida cities.

Only 10 cities to host the 60 US matches?

I'm still assuming those 10 "cities" will be regional, i.e. "SF" = Bay Area and its multiple stadia, "LA" = SoCal and its stadia, etc.

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:
Only 10 cities to host the 60 US matches?

I'm still assuming those 10 "cities" will be regional, i.e. "SF" = Bay Area and its multiple stadia, "LA" = SoCal and its stadia, etc.

I'm curious, which city will host the final match …
FIFA, unlike MLS, has very specific rules with regards to the playing pitch.

Last I checked, the surface has to be natural grass. Does anyone know if this has changed,
When the WC was in the USA in '94 several cities had to install natural grass surfaces

Originally posted by FlayvaMeister:

I'm curious, which city will host the final match …
FIFA, unlike MLS, has very specific rules with regards to the playing pitch.

Last I checked, the surface has to be natural grass. Does anyone know if this has changed,
When the WC was in the USA in '94 several cities had to install natural grass surfaces

The Canadian venues will definitely have to install natural grass, assuming its Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver?/Edmonton?

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:

Originally posted by FlayvaMeister:
I'm curious, which city will host the final match …
FIFA, unlike MLS, has very specific rules with regards to the playing pitch.

Last I checked, the surface has to be natural grass. Does anyone know if this has changed,
When the WC was in the USA in '94 several cities had to install natural grass surfaces

The Canadian venues will definitely have to install natural grass, assuming its Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver?/Edmonton?

Canada will be Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton.

Originally posted by evil:

Canada will be Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton.

Yup. Just looked it up...Edmonton is currently field turf so they'll likely have to switch.

Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, New York/NJ, New England(Boston) and Seattle are all currently field turf among the US candidate cities.

I wonder if Austin gets the Crew to move there, would Austin get put on the list.

Originally posted by NeKro:

I wonder if Austin gets the Crew to move there, would Austin get put on the list.

Doubt it.

Criteria for US sites seem to be:


1) Big metropolitan area
2) 50K+ seating capacity stadium
3) Venue can be converted to natural grass
4) World class tourist destination

Having an MLS team doesn't seem to be a prerequisite

In the US bid they suggested Metlife as the final venue. As noted, FIFA doesn't have to listen, but that's what they suggested.

Awesome news!

Levi should get an eliminating round/game..

Sucks we have to share it w/ Canada and Mexico. Should be all in murica

Originally posted by evil:

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:

Bay Area venues?

• Levi's
• *Avaya
• O.Co (or *replacement A's stadium?)
• Stanford
• *AT&T?

*early rounds

If the Bay Area gets selected. Only 10 US cities will be selected from the following :

Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Cincinnati
Dallas
Denver
Houston
Kansas City
Los Angeles
Miami
Nashville
New York/New Jersey
Orlando
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington, D.C.

Cleveland Tourist Board May be appealing this list.

Originally posted by FlayvaMeister:

I'm curious, which city will host the final match …
FIFA, unlike MLS, has very specific rules with regards to the playing pitch.

Last I checked, the surface has to be natural grass. Does anyone know if this has changed,
When the WC was in the USA in '94 several cities had to install natural grass surfaces

1994 Venues (US sole host):

Boston Area - Foxboro Stadium (since demolished)

Chicago - Soldier Field (since renovated)

Dallas - Cotton Bowl

Detroit - Pontiac Stadium (artificial turf dome, since demolished)

Los Angeles - Rose Bowl (also hosted the most matches)

NY/NJ - Giants Stadium (artificial turf, since demolished)

Orlando - Citrus Bowl (now Camping World Stadium)

SF Bay Area - Stanford Stadium (since renovated and seating capacity decreased)

Washington DC - RFK Stadium

2026 US candidate cities venues (natural turf unless otherwise noted):

Atlanta - Mecedes-Benz Stadium (retractable roof indoors, field turf)

Baltimore - M&T Bank Stadium

Boston Area - Gillette Stadium (field turf)

Cincinnati - Paul Brown Stadium (field turf)

Dallas - AT&T Stadium (retractable roof indoors, field turf)

Denver - Sports Authority Field

Houston - NRG Stadium (retractable roof indoors, field turf)

Kansas City - Arrowhead Stadium

Los Angeles - Rose Bowl (dunno why new Rams/Chargers stadium isn't the venue being considered...Edit: the new stadium will be reconsidered as LA's venue once it's completed construction)

Miami - Hard Rock Stadium (renovated)

Nashville - Nissan Stadium

NY/NJ - MetLife Stadium (field turf)

Orlando - Camping World Stadium (field turf)

Philadelphia - Lincoln Financial Field

San Francisco Bay Area - Levi's Stadium

Seattle - Century Link Field (field turf)

Washington DC - FedExField

So, in '94 there were 9 venues compared to the 10 there will be in 2026 (whittled down from the 17 listed candidate cities).

My opinion on likeliest US cities to be cut:

Baltimore - locale (proximity to DC)
Cincinnati - locale
Denver - altitude and locale (travel distance)
Houston - climate and locale (proximity to larger venue in Dallas), but this would isolate Dallas as the sole Midwest venue*
Kansas City - climate and locale (travel distance)
Miami - climate and Orlando is more "touristy"
Nashville - climate and locale (travel distance)

*if Dallas and Houston are retained to preserve a Midwest region, Atlanta replaces Houston as a cut. Surprised Chicago wasn't included (instead of Cincinnati).

...climate/humidity considerations are assuming the tournament will be held in June thru July as in 1994 (likely they won't consider pushing it into Jul-Aug so as not to conflict with NFL preseason). I'm sure they'll study the lessons learned from '94 travel and logistics-wise.