Soccer's governing body announced Thursday that 11 US cities will host 2026 World Cup matches, as will three cities in Mexico and two in Canada. It's the first time that three nations have combined to host the tournament, ESPN reports. The tournament has included 32 teams, as it does this year, but will expand to 48 in 2026, per NPR. The World Cup was last held in the US in 1994, when the final was played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Rose Bowl was not picked as a venue this time; nor was Camping World Stadium in Orlando. That means none of the 1994 US stadiums will be used in 2026.
The winning areas and venues are:
New York/New Jersey: MetLife Stadium
Los Angeles: SoFi Stadium
Dallas: AT&T Stadium
San Francisco Bay Area: Levi's Stadium
Miami: Hard Rock Stadium
Atlanta: Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Seattle: Lumen Field
Houston: NRG Stadium
Philadelphia: Lincoln Financial Field
Kansas City, Missouri: Arrowhead Stadium
Boston: Gillette Stadium
Guadalajara, Mexico: Estadio Akron
Monterrey, Mexico: Estadio BBVA Bancomer
Mexico City: Estadio Azteca
Toronto: BMO Field
Vancouver: BC Place
The eyes of the world will be on the above stadiums. The championship game in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, in which France beat Croatia 4-2, attracted 517 million viewers globally. By comparison, per the Kansas City Star, the Chiefs had no more than 140 million people watching its Super Bowl appearances in the 2019 and 2020 NFL seasons.
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