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North America will host 2026 World Cup

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2018 11:49 am
by jarnon
(bazodee is apparently busy, so I'll post this)

World Cup 2026: Canada, US & Mexico joint bid wins right to host tournament

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be played in ten cities in the United States, three in Canada and three in Mexico. The championship game will be at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The other U.S. cities haven't been announced, but I expect Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Atlanta will be among them.

We beat out Morocco, which had little chance since Qatar is the 2022 host.

A slot is reserved for the host country's team, but not three slots. We may need one; our team didn't qualify for this year's World Cup.

Re: North America will host 2026 World Cup

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2018 12:01 pm
by silverscreenselect
jarnon wrote: A slot is reserved for the host country's team, but not three slots. We may need one; our team didn't qualify for this year's World Cup.
In 2026, the field expands from 32 teams to 48 teams, and the three hosts will get automatic bids. The teams will play in 16 pools of three, with the top two finishers in each pool advancing to a round of 32, where, from there it will be single elimination. Other details:
The expansion to 48 teams expands the number of places at the finals available to teams of every confederation, including guaranteeing that a team from Oceania will always make the cut. The new allocation of spaces is:

AFC (Asia) – eight places (up from 4.5)
Caf (Africa) – nine places (up from 5)
Concacaf (North and Central America) – six places, of which three go to hosts (up from 3.5)
Conmebol (South America) – six places (up from 4.5)
OFC (Oceania) – one place (up from 0.5)
Uefa (Europe) – 16 places (up from 13)

In addition there will be two final spots available from a new World Cup play-off mini-tournament. The proposal is that a nation from every confederation, except Uefa, will play-off in a knockout tournament that doubles up as a test event for the host nation. The five teams will be joined by an additional country from the host nations’ confederation – Concacaf. Two seeded teams will each meet the winners of a match between two unseeded teams to determine the final places.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... ork-united

Re: North America will host 2026 World Cup

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2018 12:03 pm
by Bob78164
silverscreenselect wrote:
jarnon wrote: A slot is reserved for the host country's team, but not three slots. We may need one; our team didn't qualify for this year's World Cup.
In 2026, the field expands from 32 teams to 48 teams, so I would expect them to find room for all three nations to get slots.
Eight groups of 6 teams each or twelve groups of 4 teams each? Still 16 teams getting out of group play? --Bob

Re: North America will host 2026 World Cup

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2018 11:19 am
by andrewjackson
Bob78164 wrote:
silverscreenselect wrote:
jarnon wrote: A slot is reserved for the host country's team, but not three slots. We may need one; our team didn't qualify for this year's World Cup.
In 2026, the field expands from 32 teams to 48 teams, so I would expect them to find room for all three nations to get slots.
Eight groups of 6 teams each or twelve groups of 4 teams each? Still 16 teams getting out of group play? --Bob
As SSS said, there will be 16 groups of 3 starting in 2026. That means two games in the group stage for every team. The top two from each group will advance into a knock-out round of 32.

This new system means that, despite the increase to 48 teams, a team would still be playing 7 games to win the title.

Re: North America will host 2026 World Cup

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2018 11:28 am
by andrewjackson
jarnon wrote:
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be played in ten cities in the United States, three in Canada and three in Mexico. The championship game will be at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The other U.S. cities haven't been announced, but I expect Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Atlanta will be among them.
The U.S. city candidate pool is these 17 cities. 10 of them will get games.

Seattle
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Dallas
Houston
Denver
Kansas City
Cincinnati
Nashville
Atlanta
Orlando
Miami
Boston
New York
Philadelphia
Baltimore
Washington, DC

Stadiums have to hold at least 40,000 people, be capable of a international field size (110–120 yards long by 70–80 yards wide), and be able to at least put down grass for the games.
The stadium for the opening and closing game have to hold 80,000.
That width requirement is tough for a lot of U.S. stadiums although most new NFL stadium are being built capable of that.

Re: North America will host 2026 World Cup

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2018 11:41 am
by Bob78164
jarnon wrote:The championship game will be at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
In today's Los Angeles Times, I read that three cities are still under consideration for the championship game, with Los Angeles being one of them (the new NFL stadium being built). --Bob

Re: North America will host 2026 World Cup

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2018 12:12 pm
by jarnon
Bob78164 wrote:
jarnon wrote:The championship game will be at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
In today's Los Angeles Times, I read that three cities are still under consideration for the championship game, with Los Angeles being one of them (the new NFL stadium being built). --Bob
This may be wishful thinking by the L.A. press. OTOH, the Philly press may be wishing about games here (L.A. and Atlanta are surer bets).

Re: North America will host 2026 World Cup

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2018 7:21 am
by Pastor Fireball
andrewjackson wrote:The U.S. city candidate pool is these 17 cities. 10 of them will get games.

...
Cincinnati
...
No surprise that my city is on the short list to be one of the World Cup hosts. Just last month, our city's United Soccer League team was announced as a Major League Soccer expansion team for the 2019 season. A new soccer stadium is set to be built just west of downtown by the end of 2021.

Re: North America will host 2026 World Cup

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2018 8:53 am
by SpacemanSpiff
andrewjackson wrote:Stadiums have to hold at least 40,000 people, be capable of a international field size (110–120 yards long by 70–80 yards wide), and be able to at least put down grass for the games....That width requirement is tough for a lot of U.S. stadiums although most new NFL stadium are being built capable of that.
The only newer one that the field size would be a problem is Jerryworld in Dallas. I've seen international games played there, and the field looks like it's barely in the 70 yard minimum (FIFA prefers 75 yards) and it butts right up against the stands at that, making corner kicks difficult.

Conventional wisdom is that DC/Balto/Philly might be two of the stadiums, but not all three (maybe only one).

And don't be surprised if LA gets it, but it gets played into the Rose Bowl.

Re: North America will host 2026 World Cup

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2018 11:17 am
by andrewjackson
Pastor Fireball wrote:
andrewjackson wrote:The U.S. city candidate pool is these 17 cities. 10 of them will get games.

...
Cincinnati
...
No surprise that my city is on the short list to be one of the World Cup hosts. Just last month, our city's United Soccer League team was announced as a Major League Soccer expansion team for the 2019 season. A new soccer stadium is set to be built just west of downtown by the end of 2021.
Yep, welcome to MLS. Nashville and Miami (theoretically) will be joining MLS the year after that. The Miami/Beckham MLS saga has been dragging on for years so there is a lot of skepticism that it is finally going to happen. MLS is supposed to expand with two more teams by 2021 or so which would bring the league to 28 teams.

That new soccer stadium in Cincinnati will be too small for the World Cup. The bid is to have any World Cup games at Paul Brown Stadium. That doesn't seem like a great idea to me but we shall see.

Re: North America will host 2026 World Cup

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2018 11:18 am
by andrewjackson
SpacemanSpiff wrote:
andrewjackson wrote:Stadiums have to hold at least 40,000 people, be capable of a international field size (110–120 yards long by 70–80 yards wide), and be able to at least put down grass for the games....That width requirement is tough for a lot of U.S. stadiums although most new NFL stadium are being built capable of that.
The only newer one that the field size would be a problem is Jerryworld in Dallas. I've seen international games played there, and the field looks like it's barely in the 70 yard minimum (FIFA prefers 75 yards) and it butts right up against the stands at that, making corner kicks difficult.

Conventional wisdom is that DC/Balto/Philly might be two of the stadiums, but not all three (maybe only one).

And don't be surprised if LA gets it, but it gets played into the Rose Bowl.
I agree with the width issues at JerryWorld. I'd also much rather Houston get games.

Re: North America will host 2026 World Cup

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2018 10:24 am
by SpacemanSpiff
Just my opinion on the cities:

Definitely:

Seattle
Los Angeles (fancy NFL stadium or Rose Bowl)
Houston
Atlanta (new stadium, retractable roof)
Boston (Foxboro)
New York

Either/ors:

Miami/Orlando
Washington/Baltimore/Philadelphia (one of the three)
Nashville/Cincinnati
KC/Denver

Nope:

San Francisco - too much of a history of turf problems at the stadium
Dallas - field too narrow, Houston too close and has an excellent history of hosting soccer matches