USA, Mexico, Canada Joint 2026 World Cup Bid Reveals Final City List
The final cities that will be part of the 2026 World Cup hosting bid that the USA, Mexico and Canada submit to FIFA have been revealed.
The three federations have whittled down the list of potential cities down to 23, from which FIFA will pick up to 16, should the joint bid defeat Morocco's in the June 13 vote in Russia. The deadline to submit the bid to FIFA is this Friday.
Chicago, which is the home of U.S. Soccer's headquarters, will not be part of the bid, nor will Vancouver, which hosted the 2015 Women's World Cup final.
"FIFA could not provide a basic level of certainty on some major unknowns that put our city and taxpayers at risk," Matthew McGrath, a spokesman for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, told the AP in a statement. "The uncertainty for taxpayers, coupled with FIFA's inflexibility and unwillingness to negotiate, were clear indications that further pursuit of the bid wasn't in Chicago's best interests."
Chicago also elected to not be part of the 2022 World Cup bid that wound up falling short to Qatar in a 2010 vote.
The 2026 World Cup Bid Voting Factors and How Morocco Could Beat USA's Joint Effort
Here's who will be part of the bid and in contention to host World Cup matches, should the North American effort prevail:
United States
Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Cincinnati
Dallas
Denver
Houston
Kansas City
Los Angeles
Miami
Nashville
New York/New Jersey
Orlando
Philadelphia
San Francisco Bay Area
Seattle
Washington D.C.
Canada
Edmonton
Montreal
Toronto
Mexico
Mexico City
Guadalajara
Monterrey
The process began with 44 cities in contention to be part of the bid. The 2026 World Cup will be the first to feature 48 teams, and the 80 matches are set to be split with 60 in the United States, 10 in Mexico and 10 in Canada, should the bid be successful. Every match from the quarterfinals on would take place in the United States.
