Forty-one cities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico have submitted applications to become official host cities for the 2026 World Cup, the United Bid Committee spearheading the joint bid says.
In July, the committee reached out to 44 cities and got responses from all but three -- Calgary, Alberta; Green Bay, Wis.; and San Diego. That leaves 32 cities in the U.S., six in Canada and three in Mexico up for consideration.
The committee will review all bid submissions and release an initial shortlist of cities later this fall. After that is released, the bid committee will provide more detailed bid information to cities and hold meetings to discuss questions as candidate cities prepare their final bids.
It will submit its final bid to FIFA by March 16, 2018, and that document is expected to include a list of 20-25 potential host cities.
With the 2026 World Cup set to be the first to have an expanded field of 48 teams, it's expected that at least 12 cities will ultimately be chosen to be official host cities, on which FIFA will have the final say.
"The Host Cities will help define the United Bid. Each will offer the best facilities and infrastructure to stage the world's biggest single-event sporting competition, the FIFA World Cup, and together they will play a key role in the development of the sport in North America," United Bid Committee Executive Director John Kristick said.
"We're thrilled with the submissions that we have received, especially each city's commitment to innovation and sustainability, and we look forward to bringing the best group of candidate host cities together for our official United Bid."
With Qualcomm Stadium not responding, San Diego is out of bid committee's plans to host the World Cup. Developers hoping to bring an MLS team to the city would like to demolish the old NFL venue, but plans for a replacement have not yet been approved.
The U.S. played a friendly at Qualcomm in January, but neither Lambeau Field in Green Bay nor McMahon Stadium in Calgary has ever hosted its respective national teams before.
Toronto's Rogers Centre and Montreal's Stade Saputo are also gone from the original list of 49 stadiums, though BMO Field and the Stade Olympique remain in those cities.
All stadiums are required to have at least 40,000 seats for group stage matches, and a capacity of at least 80,000 to be considered for the opening match and the final.
The submitted bids must provide information about each city's experience hosting major sporting and cultural events, potential venues, transportation infrastructure, available accommodations, environmental protection initiatives and more.
In addition to a stadium capable of hosting international soccer, each city must propose a list of potential training sites and locations for team base camps as well as hotels for teams, staff and VIPs.
The United Bid Committee will also evaluate cities on their commitment to sustainable event management, aspirations to develop soccer, and the positive social impact they anticipate stemming from the event in the local community and beyond.
Cities not selected to host matches may be involved with the World Cup in other ways. Those cities, including those not submitting bids to serve as official host cities, could be selected as the location for the International Broadcast Center, host team base camps, or host other major events such as the preliminary or final draw.
FIFA established a deadline of Aug. 11 for member associations to express their interest to bid to host the 2026 World Cup, and Morocco declared its intention to bid on this date. Both candidates must now submit their proposals for consideration by FIFA, with a decision to be taken at the FIFA Congress next June.
The list of potential host cities is as follows:
United States
City Stadium Capacity
Atlanta Mercedes-Benz Stadium 75,000
Baltimore M&T Bank Stadium 71,008
Birmingham, Ala. Legion Field 71,594
Boston (Foxborough, Mass.) Gillette Stadium 66,829
Charlotte, N.C. Bank of America Stadium 75,525
Chicago Soldier Field 61,500
Cincinnati Paul Brown Stadium 65,515
Cleveland FirstEnergy Stadium 67,895
Dallas Cotton Bowl 92,100
Dallas (Arlington, Texas) AT&T Stadium 105,000
Denver Sports Authority Field 76,125
Detroit Ford Field 65,000
Houston NRG Stadium 72,200
Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium 70,000
Jacksonville, Fla. EverBank Field 82,000
Kansas City, Mo. Arrowhead Stadium 76,416
Las Vegas Raiders Stadium 72,000
Los Angeles Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 93,000
Los Angeles (Inglewood, Calif.) City of Champions Stadium 100,000
Los Angeles (Pasadena, Calif.) Rose Bowl 90,888
Miami Hard Rock Stadium 65,326
Minneapolis U.S. Bank Stadium 66,200
Nashville, Tenn. Nissan Stadium 69,143
New Orleans Mercedes-Benz Superdome 76,468
New York/New Jersey (East Rutherford, N.J.) MetLife Stadium 82,500
Orlando, Fla. Camping World Stadium 65,000
Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field 69,596
Phoenix (Glendale, Ariz.) University of Phoenix Stadium 73,000
Pittsburgh Heinz Field 68,400
Salt Lake City Rice-Eccles Stadium 45,807
San Antonio Alamodome 72,000
San Francisco/San Jose (Santa Clara, Calif.) Levi's Stadium 75,000
Seattle CenturyLink Field 72,000
Tampa, Fla. Raymond James Stadium 75,000
Washington (Landover, Md.) FedEx Field 82,000
Canada
City Stadium Capacity
Edmonton, Alberta Commonwealth Stadium 56,302
Montreal Stade Olympique 61,004
Ottawa, Ontario TD Place Stadium 24,000
Regina, Saskatchewan Mosaic Stadium 30,048
Toronto BMO Field 30,000
Vancouver, British Columbia BC Place 54,500
Mexico
City Stadium Capacity
Guadalajara, Jalisco Estadio Chivas 45,364
Mexico City Estadio Azteca 87,000
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Estadio Rayados 52,237
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