What We’re Hearing About the 2026 FIFA World Cup Schedule
Announcement to come in early February after lengthy delay
Posted On: February 3, 2024 By :(Editor’s Note: The 2026 FIFA World Cup has been billed as the biggest yet with 48 teams, three countries and more host cities than ever before. And throughout the process from FIFA’s visiting host city candidates, to the day of the announcement in July 2022 of which cities will host games and an inside view of what it was like for the cities, SportsTravel has been detailing the saga including an account from those who were there about the FIFA Observer Program during the 2022 World Cup last winter in Qatar. The following is the latest in our series of coverage after two months of a series of conversations with nearly a dozen people connected to the event.)
When will the schedule (finally) be released?
FIFA, which said in October that a schedule would be released by the end of 2023 before blowing past that deadline, announced Thursday that “host city match allocations for the 104 matches of the tournament in 2026, as well as the locations of key matches, including the biggest showpiece match, the FIFA World Cup 26 final,” will be at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on February 4 in a live television broadcast.
The broadcast will reveal the location of the tournament’s opening matches in Canada, Mexico and the United States, the group stage locations for each host country’s national team and the venue for the World Cup final, which is scheduled for July 19, 2026. When FIFA put the 2026 TV rights out to the market in Australia, it said the tournament would last 5 ½ weeks, which would mean the opening match would be the week of June 7.
Which cities are hosting again?
Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Guadalajara in the West; Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Monterrey and Mexico City in the Central and Toronto, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Miami in the East. The groupings of those cities were made by FIFA when it released the list and when the schedule is announced, you can expect a lot of the group stage setups to be done by region with knockout rounds also having some type of regional philosophy.
Why has a schedule taken so long?
(Shoulder shrug).
To be fair, the scope of the tournament changed last year. The 48-team tournament will be the biggest FIFA World Cup, with 104 matches. When the 2026 World Cup was awarded to North America, the plan was for 16 groups of three teams apiece and a total of 80 matches in the tournament. The plan was for Canada and Mexico to host 10 games apiece with the U.S. hosting 60 games.
Then the 2022 World Cup happened and featured one of the best group stages in tournament history, convincing FIFA to change the format with 12 groups of four teams, making the tournament 104 games instead of 80. That could not have helped the schedule makers. They also have other things to consider — the summer of 2026 will be the United States’ semiquincentennial with major events planned around the country but especially in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, which are host cities.
“I can appreciate and understand the complexity that they working within and how much they’re taking on in this new world of three countries, 16 cities and just a new sort of approach to how they organize the planning and execution of the tournament,” KC2026 Executive Director Katherine Holland said of FIFA.
With the expanded number of games, one of the more intriguing aspects about the schedule is whether Canada and Mexico will now host more than their originally allotted 10 matches apiece.
Why is it important to have a schedule two years in advance?
The first reason is from a logistics and budgetary standpoint of the local organizing committees.
“Not only is it knowing the schedule important, but it helps from a budget standpoint to be able to really hone in on the needs that you’re going to need over that time period,” Dallas Sports Commission Executive Director Monica Paul said. “Knowing truly when a match is happening or a match isn’t happening that day informs us when we have to deal with (FanFest) activations or general public needs rather than a game taking place.”
“It’s next to impossible to start refining a budget without knowing how many matches we will be hosting because it impacts everything from transportation to safety and security to how we program FanFest, how we plan around FanFest,” Holland added.
Another reason is plain curiosity and scheduling of other things within each city.
“The main thing is trying to know how many matches are we going to have, what’s the first match in Houston and when’s the last match in Houston,” said Houston 2026 World Cup Host Committee President Chris Canetti. “Whether we have two weeks of matches or four weeks of matches will dictate so many things such as other events in the stadium.”
What will cities do with a schedule?
Cities need the schedule to see whether having a certain number of games — and knockout matches — would make its local host sponsorship packages more valuable and therefore add potential revenue to offset the costs of hosting the World Cup.
“The amount of local partners that you’re able to bring on in the hosting of the event, we’re awaiting the tournament schedule to come so we can identify the number of matches,” Atlanta Sports Council President Dan Corso said. “We’ve had conversations with companies about engaging so once that schedule comes out we’ll be able to go back to them with a little bit more detail.”
“The match schedule will be the puzzle piece that is going to allow us to know what the puzzle is supposed to look like,” Philadelphia Host City Executive Meg Kane said. “There’s a lot of pieces right now. And we think we know what it’s supposed to look like, but the schedule will bring that clarity to what it’s supposed to look like. And then from there, we can really begin to look at how those matches and whether there are knockout rounds or quarterfinals or whatever we are assigned, how those can be leveraged for that revenue generation that will help us to offset the cost of hosting.”
Most of the cities have been in the market but without a schedule, they haven’t been able to gauge the precise value of those sponsorship packages. Houston has been one of the cities most out in the market with its packages. “We took a little bit of risk on that because then the price is the price,” Canetti said. “We’re in the energy sector here and we wanted to get in front of the major companies here in Houston while the energy sector is in a good place. We didn’t want any type of downturn. Our whole strategy was to get out in front of it and get it done early and that has not impacted our ability to be able to sell.”
Cities can also use the schedule to further their outreach that has started in various regions.
“Just because the games are in Atlanta doesn’t mean communities big and small throughout the state can’t get an impact from the World Cup,” Corso said. “You can expand your radius to the entire state of Georgia, there’s opportunities throughout the state. It can also expand our volunteer program to other parts of the state and metro Atlanta. There are ways for people and communities throughout the region to be involved in this.”
“We know that there’s a hotbed of soccer, specifically in Eastern Pennsylvania,” said Kane, who has gone around the region to stir up anticipation within other communities outside Philadelphia. “It reminds you about the power of the World Cup and soccer in terms of growing the game … when you’re talking to not just a 7- or 8-year-old in Lancaster County, but you’re talking to a 17- or 18-year-old in Lancaster County, they see themselves. And for the World Cup to be 90 minutes from their home really makes it much more about our entire state than it does just the city of Philadelphia.”
So then, what are you hearing about marquee games?
Dallas and New York City/New Jersey remain the two contenders to host the final. While there have been reports that Dallas been decided as the final host, multiple sources tempered those expectations.
Could New York still get the final? Sure. Inside World Football reported earlier this month that FIFA President Gianni Infantino favors New York to be the host (and while that publication certainly does need confirmation, sources have told SportsTravel the same). It is, after all, one of the most famous cities in the world and being in the Eastern time zone does help with European television, which remains a key revenue source for FIFA.
However, Dallas remains the favorite — maybe not as strong a favorite as earlier in the year, but still a favorite given the activations both inside and outside AT&T Stadium that could be done. One thing is for sure: Never underestimate Jerry Jones’ desire to host the final and willingness to accommodate FIFA.
There is also growing momentum for the opening match to be held in Mexico City and the opening U.S. match to be in Los Angeles.
Wait, I heard Los Angeles may withdraw?
The fate of Los Angeles was a much-whispered topic throughout the fall, with opinion split on if FIFA really would leave L.A. While it would be assumed the city was a shoo-in to host games from the start, the host city contract between the local bid committee and FIFA was not signed until the night before the official 2026 host cities announcement, sources told SportsTravel on the condition of anonymity.
SoFi Stadium is a technological marvel but what it needs in adjustments to its field level and the costs involved has been a topic of discussion. While not having a FIFA-regulation field size, SoFi Stadium has hosted soccer highlighted by this past summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup Final in July won by Mexico in front of nearly 73,000 fans. FIFA mandates a stadium must have a minimum capacity of 80,000 to host a final; how SoFi would be able to expand capacity to meet FIFA requirements to host the final while also having to modify its field level has been a source of discussion.
For what its worth, sources told SportsTravel that there was no outreach from FIFA to cities who previously bid to host games but did not make the final cut, nor were there discussions with the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. There was some smoke about a possible role for Las Vegas but the city’s public declarations were consistent that it would not be involved. Steve Hill, chief executive officer and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, told The Associated Press in November that Allegiant Stadium’s field dimensions couldn’t meet FIFA requirements without making major changes.
“That plan would’ve caused Allegiant Stadium to be out of commission for about nine months out of a 15-month stretch in order to have three to six World Cup matches in it and that for the city doesn’t make sense,” he said before the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
What about other stadium modifications and their effect on other events?
The Athletic has reported that the expanded Club World Cup will be based on the East Coast of the U.S. with the Concacaf Gold Cup being held throughout the western U.S. The Club World Cup will feature 32 club teams from around the world, while the Gold Cup is reportedly going to be expanded to a 24-team international team event (although not yet confirmed by Concacaf).
What it means: The summer of 2025 will be absolutely loaded with international soccer throughout the country — at least the equal of 2026, maybe even more. The biggest winner could be Fox, which has the broadcast rights to both events and plenty of networks to spread out the coverage. Having the Club World Cup on the East Coast would also be better for European prime-time audiences should the games be in the early afternoon.
What else to know: The initial thought of the Club World Cup being a straight test event for 2026 host cities is not feasible. Most of the stadiums that need to undergo modifications and changes will find the summer of 2025 the best window to do so, because those venues host NFL games in the fall and it would make for an extremely tight construction timetable to have venues host NFL games in the fall, then have modifications done by spring 2026 as FIFA starts to prep the stadiums for games.
In New Jersey, MetLife Stadium officials plan to remove 1,740 seats to widen the field for World Cup matches but will retain a narrower surface for this year’s Copa América; MetLife’s current dimension for soccer matches is 70-by-115 yards; FIFA requires a 75-by-115-yard field for World Cup games.
“The FIFA setback provisions really impact MetLife only at the corners,” New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said in the fall. “Other stadiums have a much tougher nut where they have to set the entire perimeter back. FIFA wants a deal that works for them. New Jersey and New York City — remember our partners New York City — we’re prepared clearly to put serious skin in the game.”
In Kansas City, “most everything that we’re doing would not be done if not for the World Cup,” Holland said. Widening the field will be the most noticeable thing for fans but there will also be some interior work that most won’t see: “At Arrowhead, the visitors locker room is very inferior compared to the Chiefs locker room,” Holland said. “That works for NFL games because you kind of like that mental trick that you’re playing where the visiting team is coming into a lesser locker room, right? Obviously we can’t have that for World Cup, so there are some locker room improvements that need to happen.”
Kansas City is also finalizing what the final setup will be with removing seats to widen the field at Arrowhead Stadium. “We’re an older stadium, so it’s literally breaking through concrete, which is a substantial undertaking” to widen the field, Holland said. “And we can’t disrupt the NFL season, so we have to make sure for season-ticket holders and fans that their experience is not disrupted while we’re working on the stadium. So we’re looking at different options for temporary seating” for the 2025 season.
The stadiums that need work throughout North America are also not on the same timeline. In Mexico City, Estadio Azteca will undergo renovations this year and be ready to re-open in 2025 (which is why the stadium will not be part of the NFL International schedule this fall).
“The few stadiums that require capital projects are handling each project differently — with some venues scheduling the work across multiple NFL offseasons, while others plan to complete everything at once sometime between now and spring 2026,” FIFA told The Associated Press in the fall.
One final stadium note — none of the stadiums in the summer of 2026 will be called officially by FIFA what fans know them as currently. Whether it’s World Cup Stadium Kansas City, or Atlanta World Cup Stadium, each will in FIFA parlance be stripped of its existing naming rights deals.
Anything else I should know?
Dallas is still expected to land the International Broadcast Center, which it hosted in 1994 when the World Cup was last in North America. In 1994, Dallas hosted 10,000 worldwide television representatives; the 2026 IBC is expected to have more than that number and bring about 172,000 hotel room nights to the destination with people coming to the city months before any games.
“Economic impact is a big factor for the International Broadcast Center,” Paul said. “Knowing those broadcasts are coming out of Dallas, there’s a value there that doesn’t necessarily transition into our total economic impact. And the media value that goes along with it — the branding and awareness increases Dallas’ profile as a true international city. And sometimes you can’t put a value on that.”
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