FIFA announces Toronto and Vancouver as host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup™! 🇨🇦🏟
— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) June 16, 2022
Toronto and Vancouver will join 11 host cities in the USA, and three host cities in Mexico as competition venues for the largest FIFA World Cup™ in history.
MORE 🔗: https://t.co/lDhELwSCee pic.twitter.com/imj5XIkT3k
FIFA announced the 16 North American cities for the 2026 men's World Cup of football (soccer). Canada was originally supposed to get 3 cities but one of those slots went to the United States. Mexico got 3 locations while the United States received 11 cities.
Toronto and Vancouver were the Canadian cities invited to host games; Edmonton didn't make the cut.
The Canadian cities will host 10 games though we don't know how many will end up in each city. The United States will get 60 games while Mexico also gets 10 games. The consensus is that the U.S. cities will host the significant games in the tournament.
Toronto will be in the East section along with Boston (Foxborough), Philadelphia, Miami, and New York/New Jersey (East Rutherford, NJ).
Vancouver will be in the West section along with Seattle, San Francisco (Santa Clara), Los Angeles (Inglewood), and Guadalajara, Mexico.
The Central section consists of Kansas City, Dallas (Arlington), Atlanta, and Houston in the U.S. as well as Monterrey and Mexico City in Mexico.
Reminder: The Government of Alberta took the unusual step of demanding Edmonton host at least five of Canada's 10 allotted 2026 FIFA World Cup games. It also demanded Edmonton host two round of 32 or round of 16 knockout games.
— Kevin Nimmock (@KevinCTV) June 16, 2022
Edmonton is now shut out of the World Cup.
While Edmonton was the only Canadian city that missed the cut, the U.S. finalists that didn't make the cut were Cincinnati, Denver, Nashville, Orlando, Pasadena (CA), and Washington, D.C./Baltimore.
Montréal showed interest early. The Alberta government put conditions on funding that likely didn't help the Edmonton bid.
Canada defeated Costa Rica 1-0 in a World Cup qualifying game last November in front of 48,806 at Commonwealth Stadium. Don't mistake the selection process for the best places in Canada to host the tournament.
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Canada has never hosted a World Cup game on the men's side but did host the 2015 FIFA women's World Cup. That tournament was held in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montréal, and Moncton, NB.
Montréal and Edmonton hosted the semifinals; Edmonton also hosted the 3rd place game while Vancouver hosted the final game.
You may recall that the 2015 tournament was the first time games were played on artificial surfaces, much to the dismay of the players. This is why BC Place will put in a grass surface.
BMO Field in Toronto will get more seating for FIFA requirements. The 30,000 seat stadium will get bumped up to 45,500, still by far the lowest capacity of any of the 2026 World Cup cities.
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The Canadian men will play later this year in Qatar in the 2022 World Cup. This will be the first trip for the men's team since its one and only appearance in 1986.
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The World Cup is normally in June/July (the 2022 World Cup moved to the fall due to heat concerns in Qatar). The CFL will have to adjust the schedule as needed.
Adjustments depend on when the stadiums will be used in the World Cup and any adjustments in removing the grass surface in Vancouver. MLS will steer clear as well, but their primary issues are in a number of U.S. cities also taken up by the 2026 World Cup.
The Toronto Argonauts could play home games at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton or an early Touchdown Atlantic game.
BMO Field will also get a name adjustment just like the Winnipeg and Ottawa stadiums had in 2015. FIFA doesn't allow corporate sponsored names.
TSN/CTV and Fox have the 2026 World Cup rights in their respective countries.
Twitter captures: @CanadaSoccerEN; @KevinCTV
photos credit: @CanadaSoccerEN/FIFA
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