July 1 – The World Cup waits for no-one. As Qatar rolls out its 2022 stadia, the North Americans are starting the next stage of venue selection for 2026 with a virtual workshop for candidate host cities in the US.
The 2026 World Cup will be the first hosted by three nations – US, Mexico and Canada – as well as the first to be expanded to 48 teams.
That expansion will see an increase in the number of games from 64 to 80, with the first group phase played in 16 groups of three. The venues for those 16 groups will be three in both Mexico and Canada, and 10 in the US.
Initially 41 cities with 45 venues put themselves forward for hosting. That group has now been narrowed down to 17 remaining cities in the US competing for the 10 host berths. The virtual workshop July 7 for those cities will be followed up with virtual one-on-one sessions with each candidate host city. The venue selection process is being conducted jointly by FIFA and U.S. Soccer.
“We are looking forward to moving into the planning phase of preparations for the FIFA World Cup 2026,” said former U.S. Soccer CEO Dan Flynn, who is overseeing the US city selection process. “We are incredibly honored that the United States has 17 world-class cities competing to be part of the first 48-team FIFA World Cup in history. There’s no doubt that over the next year, we will have an incredibly spirited competition between the cities to get selected as a final venue.”
While the first stages will be conducted virtually, emphasis is being put on cities working “hand in hand with their respective stadiums”, and will be followed up by a city and venue inspection visit. “The process for choosing host cities and stadiums will be conducted in tandem as a single venue selection process,” said a US Soccer press release.
The workshop will give an overview of the venue selection process, focussing on the areas for the assessment of candidate host cities, and the rules and procedures for the venue selection process.
For Canada and Mexico the selection process is further advanced with the three bidding cities in each country – Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto in Canada, and Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey in Mexico – already having held their initial workshops.
US candidate hosts cities are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York/New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Washington, DC.
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