The 2026 FIFA World Cup is already casting its shadow. The final round will take place in the USA, Mexico and Canada. The venues for the matches have already been decided – most of them will take place in the US.
Venues
Five months before the start of the World Cup in Qatar, the venues for the next World Cup for betting live in
- USA;
- Canada;
- Mexico.
The 2026 tournament will be the first with 48 participants. Fifa, the world governing body, has included the SoFi stadium south of Los Angeles, which opened just two years ago, in the allocation process. On 14 February 2022, SoFi Stadium also hosted the final of the Professional League of American Football, Super Bowl LVI.
It was broadcast live on US television on Thursday local time. This was despite the fact that the stadium’s field, which is worth around five billion US dollars, is too narrow and has to be specially reconstructed to meet the rules.
Host cities
Which cities will host the final and opening match has yet to be decided. “We will not rush into a decision. We will choose the best cities for it,” said Fifa president Gianni Infantino.
A total of 16 cities will get World Cup matches
- Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey in Mexico;
- Vancouver and Toronto in Canada;
- ten more cities in the US, in addition to Los Angeles.
Capacity for at least 60,000 spectators
60 of the 80 matches will take place in the USA, including all matches from the quarter-finals onwards, making sports betting Vulkan fans happy. Canada and Mexico have ten matches each scheduled. Almost all the stadiums will hold at least 60,000 spectators.
Only BMO Field, the home stadium of MLS club Toronto FC, is far behind with a current capacity of 30,000. However, the arena in the Canadian metropolis will be expanded to 45,000 seats in time for the World Cup.
Infantino said “By 2026, football will be the number one sport in this part of the world.” According to the AP news agency, the average audience for the 2018 World Cup on US television was 5.04 million viewers, including Spanish-language channels. The NFL averaged 17.1 million last season.
The 1994 finals stadium is not the site of the competition
In the western United States, SoFi Stadium is joined by the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium and Lumen Field in Seattle. Arrowhead Stadium of the Kansas City Chiefs, AT&T Stadium of the Dallas Cowboys and NRG Stadium of the Houston Texans are stadiums located in the middle of a vast country. Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami and New York are in the east.
The Rose Bowl in Pasadena near Los Angeles, which hosted the final between Brazil and Italy at the last World Cup in the United States in 1994, was left without contenders, as were Edmonton in Canada, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Nashville and Orlando, which also hosted the championship in 1994.