That brings up an interesting point, my company is a big sponsor of the USMNT. Wonder if they’ll be able to make some tickets available.
US, Canada, Mexico win joint bid for 2026 World Cup
- Thread starter Infield Infidel
- Start date
My nephew works for the US Soccer Federation. I shall have to remind him that I am his favorite uncle
FIFA really controls these things very tightly. I think this may potentially put you in line for some of the allotment made to the federation for USMNT games, but probably not for other games.
One of the things FIFA has traditionally done (and UEFA too) is sell a very large number of tickets before the draw. I imagine with the expansion of the tournament in 2026 they are going to continue to do this and maybe even increase it, since they will want to ensure a full crowd for the cameras for Ivory Coast El Salvador.
Yeah personally I don’t give a damn which teams I see. Just want to get to a match. Fully realize there is zero chance of the US playing in Foxboro anyway.
There will be huge Ivorian and Salvadoran groups from across North America at these games and the atmosphere will be off the hook- this will be a top 5 or top 3 night in the life of everyone there.
Match locations are out.
USMNT will be based in LA. Two of their group games there and one in Seattle.
Final will be in New Jersey and they are doing four team groups.
USMNT will be based in LA. Two of their group games there and one in Seattle.
Final will be in New Jersey and they are doing four team groups.
https://wbznewsradio.iheart.com/content/gillette-stadium-to-host-quarterfinal-7-games-in-total-for-world-cup-2026/
The home of the New England Patriots will host five group stage matches on June 13, June 16, June 19, June 23, and June 26.
Gillette will also host a Round of 32 match on June 29 and a Quarterfinal match on July 9, FIFA said.
United States' three group-stage matches: June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. June 19 at Lumen Field in Seattle. June 25 back at SoFi
Official link:
https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026
Miami is hosting the 3rd place game.
The home of the New England Patriots will host five group stage matches on June 13, June 16, June 19, June 23, and June 26.
Gillette will also host a Round of 32 match on June 29 and a Quarterfinal match on July 9, FIFA said.
United States' three group-stage matches: June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. June 19 at Lumen Field in Seattle. June 25 back at SoFi
Official link:
https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026
Miami is hosting the 3rd place game.
Last edited:
Surprised Met Life gets the final. On the plus side, 8 games there, 7 in Boston and 6 in Philly means I’ve got 21 chances to get to a WC game.
Really hope we won’t be looking at 10 or 10:30 pm starts for 2 or 3 of the US matches. Not the best way to grow the game and support if half the country is sleeping by kick off.
My favorite part of the announcement of the USMNT games being in the Best Coast, are the cries of a reverse east coast bias.
Hilarious.
Hilarious.
I don't hate what they did apart from NJ, but KC would be a better home field advantage than LA.
Having the game out west makes sense to me. With the vast majority of the pool playing in Europe, there will likely be more of an east Coast bias going forward in shorter windows to prevent extremely long flights for the guys.
Also makes some sense for global TV reasons. Europe doesn't care about the USMNT.
I guess I'm sort of surprised they aren't at least getting one game in Santa Clara rather than doubling up in LA.
I guess I'm sort of surprised they aren't at least getting one game in Santa Clara rather than doubling up in LA.
Maybe for the final I can rent out my house 30 min from the stadium for a small fortune to recoup whatever I have to shell out to get to a group match.
Is it surprising that SoFi did not at least get a semifinal? I guess that got ruled out due to travel reasons once MetLife got the Final.
Quarterfinal game in Miami's outdoor stadium in July will be sultry to say the least. And best of luck to the team drawing Mexico in Azteca.
Quarterfinal game in Miami's outdoor stadium in July will be sultry to say the least. And best of luck to the team drawing Mexico in Azteca.
Listen is MetLife a notoriously shit stadium... sure, but the guys who gave FIFA execs tons of money and gifts is gonna want to go to 1 Oak to try and pick up models, can't do that in Atlanta.
SoFi had issues with the width of the field. NFL fields are narrower than the minimum FIFA requires for World Cup. Most American NFL stadiums are too narrow. MetLife has to take out a few seats if I'm not mistaken. But SoFi would need to take out so many they would fall below the 80,000 minimum.
Don't ask me where I saw this, I don't remember.
MetLife is a soulless piece of crap and it doesn't matter whether you drive or take public transportation, getting out is a nightmare. But it is real grass and it is big enough.
Ticket prices are going to be insane. I'm thinking I will probably try to hit a non-US game in Seattle for a better chance.
Also, a SoSH meetup in Seattle would be incredible...
Also, a SoSH meetup in Seattle would be incredible...
Am I exaggerating when I think the cheapest ticket will be $500 per ticket minimum at Gillette?
I’m not even going to try and see the US play. Chances are they won’t ever get to the east coast anyhow. I just want to be able to go to some games.
I should not be surprised by anything this organization does yet here I am shocked that the final will be at MetLife.
One thing that was pointed out that cracks me up.... FIFA refused to use the sponsored names of the stadiums. Gillete is "Boston Stadium", MetLife is "New York New Jersey Stadium"... they ain't giving you advertising for free.
I was talking to a lady who is on the board of the Seattle Sports Commission and she said tickets will be absolutely insane to try and get, that even they don't get comped tickets.
I'm guessing the cheapest face value seats will be like $500-$750 and the cheapest secondary market will be $1,000.
I'm guessing the cheapest face value seats will be like $500-$750 and the cheapest secondary market will be $1,000.
Why?
Unlike many of the other big, new, stadia, who frankly shot themselves in the foot by not doing more to accomodate FIFA requirements, MetLife has enough seats, natural grass, and a wide enough pitch with minimal modification. It's not only for this World Cup, any big NFL stadium should have been preparing itself to host Gold Cup, WC qualifying, international friendlies, summer tours of big European clubs etc.
MetLife is a charm-less latrine, and it's hell to get into and out of, but that's not that unusual for big footy venues. Wembley is huge and it's the London venue for big games but as a building it's meh. Azteca, the famous home ground of Mexico and the site of the opening game, is kind of a cross between Michigan's Big House, Boston's Government Center, and Mos Isley the wretched hive of scum and villany from Star Wars. Etc.
It does not have a grass field. If they can put one in, why can’t others?
Everything in your second paragraph is what I meant. Place sucks to get to and isn’t nice. There are many better pro venues.
Everything in your second paragraph is what I meant. Place sucks to get to and isn’t nice. There are many better pro venues.
They will have grass, they’ve got that capability. Evidently Jerry World does too but it ddoesn’t sent work, or something.
I don’t know if they will change it due to the demand in the USA, but I went to the last three world cups, and aside from the VIP tickets, none of them had a face value anything like that. They also had cheaper tickets available for locals, but the demand for those was off the charts.
My best hope is that coming from Germany gets me a better chance than trying to buy from the USA, because it’s going to be so, so tough.
I’ll also point out that FIFA has done a pretty solid job of eliminating scalping practices, matching IDs to tickets and only allowing electronic transfers through their portal. I’m sure American entrepreneurs will be working hard to defeat those measures, but people were so petrified of buying tickets from unknown sources that I basically had to give away tickets to a QF in Brasilia back in 2014, as everyone believed I was trying to rip them off, and that was BEFORE they cranked things up for Russia and Qatar.
This all sounds positive and obviously comes from actual experience and not guessing. I appreciate the insight.
If FIFA blocks the tickets from being resold, does that mean if you miss out on the lottery you are just screwed?
Really? I went to USA-Germany friendly in Hartford last October. We had a group of 35 and paid about $75/ticket for lower bowl in the corner. (Bonus: I got to meet @SocrManiac )
It's been over 30 years, but I got an offer in the mail to buy tickets for 1994 matches (before the draw) due to playing youth soccer. I don't remember the prices; but I remember feeling they were shockingly high. And that was before the popularity of the sport multiplied by a thousand here.
I agree that $500 is too low; but I'd love to be wrong.
I am getting amusing flashbacks to the process for purchasing tickets through FIFA in those pre-Internet days …
The process for purchasing public tickets was by phone, and they didn’t have any “stacking” software. (Where you wait on hold in a queue.) So at the moment the tickets were released, you had to call in and if you got a busy signal, you quickly hung up and hit redial. And you did that over and over until you got through or the tickets were gone.
I had a home office and was able to use two lines - landline and my fax - to call continuously. After about 10 minutes, I got through. I ended up with 4 tickets to Ireland/Italy at MetLife and 8 to the Quarterfinal at Foxboro. (Which ended up being Spain/Italy.)
Forget the cost, but I do remember thinking it was high. However, demand for Ireland/Italy in the NY area was insane, so I sold my four tickets to that game* and the profit covered the cost of 8 tickets for the quarterfinal and a day of gambling at Foxwoods on the way back.
Good times.
* I didn’t scalp the tickets directly. I sold to a travel group putting together packages for the NY games. I’m sure I could have gotten double the price if I had scalped them myself, but I was happy to leave that to the pros.
That’s a great deal. Much lower than I’ve seen for games in NY. I almost went to that one, I grew up not far from there & have family there so it’s a frequent trip.
World Cup can make even a “soulless latrine” like MetLife amazing. I will never forget the incredible atmosphere at the Italy/Ireland first round match at Giants Stadium… magnificent.
Yeah, you’re pretty much screwed. Except you can watch the fifa site and hopefully snag something that someone wants to resell on it, or buy a hospitality package.
There were a fair number of tickets available on the resale site for Qatar, but I think the dynamics of that WC and this WC are going to be completely different. And even still, a game like England-USA is pretty much never going to show up on their resale site. As long as you just want to get in a stadium for any game, you might have some success with that site, depending on your timing. But it’s going to be a game like Australia-Nigeria in Kansas City or something, unless you’re extraordinarily lucky.
Good for them, which I'd almost never say about FIFA otherwise.
I always find it insane when people who aren't sponsored use sponsored names. Especially when they're changes away from names already in common use.
I just looked at my credit card statement. It looks like my tickets were around €150 each for the group stage, and that was category 2. Maybe my WC buddy @soxfaninyankeeland remembers too.
One other piece of piece of advice. Their categories are *broad*. We did cat 1 in Brazil and ended up one game with fantastic seats and the next in literally the last row of the Maracaña.
One other piece of piece of advice. Their categories are *broad*. We did cat 1 in Brazil and ended up one game with fantastic seats and the next in literally the last row of the Maracaña.
World Cup and euro tickets have been sold the same way for several cycles. There is a sales phase prior to the draw, where you buy tickets for a particular match without knowing who will play there other than the games involving the hosts. You select a zone and say whether you will accept tickets in one zone up or down. The application can either be unsuccessful, successful, or successful in part. You are notified a few weeks after the application closes. You have to buy all the games you are allocated — you can’t pick among them.
After the draw, they do something similar — a second application phase. They also allocate tickets to each federation for their team’s group games, and the federations distribute them according to their points priority set ups.
The third phase is a first come first served sales phase, followed by the opening of an official resale platform closer to the event.
You can apply for individual games, venue series, or follow my team tickets, which get you a ticket for each group game for your followed team plus knockout tickets if they advance.
Demand will be very high, but capacity is also way more than prior world cups. If you want to see the U.S. or France, it will be tough. Croatia v. Peru in Jerry World will not be a problem.
After the draw, they do something similar — a second application phase. They also allocate tickets to each federation for their team’s group games, and the federations distribute them according to their points priority set ups.
The third phase is a first come first served sales phase, followed by the opening of an official resale platform closer to the event.
You can apply for individual games, venue series, or follow my team tickets, which get you a ticket for each group game for your followed team plus knockout tickets if they advance.
Demand will be very high, but capacity is also way more than prior world cups. If you want to see the U.S. or France, it will be tough. Croatia v. Peru in Jerry World will not be a problem.
Thanks, this is EXTREMELY informative. Approximately when will each phase go live, based on past experience?
For Euro 2024 (which follows a pretty similar format as Qatar did, and the world cups before that -- Euro 2020 was fucked due to the pandemic) the first application phase opened a couple of months before the draw in December. It was open for about three weeks, and results of the lottery came out a couple of weeks before the draw. You then had a couple of days to pay for tickets. In prior years, there were two application periods before the draw and one FCFS opportunity, but they stripped that down this time and I suspect will for WC2026.
The second application period opened right after the draw and stayed open for a couple of weeks. (There is no advantage to applying early -- you just have to apply before applications close.) During this same period, people with team-specific priority (you have to declare yourself a supporter of a team before the draw) had their opportunity either to apply for a ballot or to buy, depending on demand. So, for example, if you declared yourself a Croatia fan, you might have the opportunity to buy their group games with a modest membership fee, whereas England supporters had to navigate their complicated priority system. It took about a month for results of the applications to be released -- in late January. And now unsold ticket first come/first serve opportunities are coming.