Out of the current 17 candidate host cities in the United States of America, ten cities will upgrade from ‘candidate’ to ‘final’ home town for the FIFA World Cup Soccer in North America. Together with three host cities in Canada (Edmonton, Montréal, Toronto) and three cities in Mexico (Monterrey, Mexico City and Guadalajara), the total of final locations will come on an amount of sixteen. The process of choosing which U.S. stadiums will host the games of this huge event in 2026, will begin in February 2020 and will conclude in early 2021. This is indicated by a letter from U.S. Soccer, sent to officials of all current candidates in the USA.
The letter from U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro says that in the beginning of 2020, the process will move up to the planning phase of preparations for the tournament. “We are delighted that the United States has 17 world-class cities and stadiums competing to be part of the first 48-team FIFA World Cup in history”, Cordeiro says. The cities and venues which are still in the running, can prepare for ‘inspection’. Cordeiro: “These visits will be split into two phases, meaning each venue will be visited twice.” In order to first learn about the site selection process, all 17 cities which are part of the 2026 United Bid, will attend workshops. In these workshops, more specific details regarding the selection procedure will be presented, such as details concerning aspects like timeline and methodology. The site visits to each city will most likely take place between March and November. As mentioned, the final allocations are expected to take place in the beginning of 2021.
Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, Nashville, New York/New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Washington, D.C. are the U.S. cities which are still in the race. Normally, the three Canadian as well as the three Mexican candidate cities which are part of the bid, have great chances to get a final status. Although, that’s not written in stone yet, as FIFA has options for final considerations. Anyhow, the remaining U.S. candidates can prepare for showing, first of all, United States Soccer Federation their capacity, capabilities and added values, in order to become a member of the happy few, ten U.S. locations for the 2026 World Cup North America finals.
