Southern California learned 20 months ago that it would host a 2026 World Cup game. This weekend we'll find out exactly which games will be streamed and when they'll be played.
The schedule for the largest and most complex World Cup in history will be announced Sunday at noon Pacific time by FIFA on U.S. rights holders Fox and Telemundo. And things may not go as the Los Angeles World Cup organizing committee had hoped.
The July finals will be held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the 100,000-seat, retractable-roof home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, according to multiple media reports in the United States and the United Kingdom. These reports remain unconfirmed, with Larry Friedman, co-chair of the Los Angeles hosting committee, saying that he will be in the center of the palatial complex built by Rams owner Stan Kroenke for $5.5 billion. He has repeatedly insisted that Inglewood's SoFi Stadium should host the game.
MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is also the venue for the championship game.
The last three World Cup finals held in the United States (men's 1994, women's 1999 and 2003) have been held at the Rose Bowl and Dignity Health Sports Park. But despite its grandeur, his SoFi Stadium, the only local venue chosen for the 2026 tournament, has some unique problems.
World Cup games must be played on natural turf, and SoFi, like seven other tournament venues including AT&T and MetLife, uses artificial turf. This can be solved by covering the playing surface with a grass carpet.
Further complicating matters is the fact that SoFi's field, which was built with the NFL in mind, is too small for soccer and FIFA is requiring expensive renovations to bring the pitch up to spec. Kroenke reportedly agreed to spend millions of dollars on renovations scheduled to begin on Monday, but in return asked for guarantees that the stadium would be given high-profile games.
Inglewood's SoFi Stadium could host up to eight World Cup games in 2026. The artificial turf will have to be replaced with natural grass, and the field will be modified to meet FIFA specifications.
(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
However, the stadium may be too small and too far from Europe to host the final.
SoFi squeezed in just 70,048 spectators for the 2022 Super Bowl, but expanding the playing surface would require removing seats in the lower bowl, bringing the capacity up to the 8 that FIFA requires for the World Cup finals. Far fewer than 10,000 seats. AT&T Stadium, on the other hand, could easily seat more than 90,000 people with improvements to the field. This gives Arlington a big advantage over SoFi and MetLife, said Alan Rosenberg, a former U.S. Soccer president who was the architect of the 1994 World Cup and remains the most successful president in history. Ta.
“This is a decision for economic reasons. It is clear that the capacity of the stadium is much larger,” Rothenberg said. His sports marketing agency, Playfly Premier Partnerships, is advising the six 2026 host cities. “Suite probably balances everything. But most of all it's stadium capacity. That means a lot of revenue for them.”
FIFA can waive rules on stadium capacity but cannot change the time, and Central Europe is nine hours ahead of Inglewood, meaning that for continental TV viewers the SoFi final will be played at noon. This means they must kick off before midnight and finish before midnight.
Rothenberg doesn't see that as a problem.
“Speaking of summer heat, what's the difference between noon and 3 p.m.?” said Rothenberg, whose 1994 Rose Bowl final kicked off at 12:30 in 100-degree weather. “This is a very big event. Even if we held it at 9 o'clock in the morning, this would be a huge, sold-out event.”
SoFi could still pick up some important games. The World Cup is expanding to 48 teams, 104 games and 16 cities across the United States, Mexico and Canada, with some venues potentially hosting up to eight games, a Los Angeles host committee spokesperson said. Ta.
FIFA officials are known to be obsessed with both the Southern California market and SoFi Stadium, with its numerous luxury boxes and tunnel entrances, and is exactly the kind of luxury and faux pas that the federation's royalty likes. It has privacy. According to FIFA's often flexible rules, a stadium needs just 60,000 seats to host a semi-final, but in recent months the final has looked increasingly out of reach, so Los Angeles organizing committee The members quietly allowed the U.S. team to participate in the final four games. A group play opener would be acceptable.
There are also potential problems with that plan. The Athletic reported Thursday that U.S. Soccer leader Gregg Berhalter will have a say in where the U.S. national team trains, plays and travels during the World Cup, with the federation moving its national training center to Atlanta. Berhalter may prefer to keep the team in the East, given the current situation. We made it through the group stage smoothly.
“From a Los Angeles standpoint, even if we don't make it to the finals, our hope is eight games, hopefully the opening game, and certainly the semifinals, maybe four games,'' said the West Side resident. said Rothenberg, who is not a member. Local organizing committee. “I would be disappointed if I didn’t get that.”
The match schedule was scheduled to be announced last fall, but was delayed several months as FIFA officials made additional visits to 11 host cities in the United States, two in Canada, and three in Mexico. In addition to the size of the playing field and the capacity of stadiums, World Cup organizers are also concerned about the weather. North America was hit by severe weather last summer, raising concerns that similar conditions could affect the tournament. This probably worked to their advantage, since AT&T Stadium's retractable roof makes it one of the largest air-conditioned rooms in the world.
AT&T Stadium also has an advantage geographically. Arlington is a three-hour flight from Los Angeles and another hour from New York, so FIFA will play semifinals on both coasts, with the winners in the finals in the center.
But Rothenberg said regardless of who wins which games, the real work for the 16 host cities will begin after Sunday's announcement, with just over two years of preparation.
“They’ve been waiting a long time,” he said. “So they will be happy and relieved. And they also understand that in a few years they will have to carry the burden of making this happen.”
