For the first time in nearly 25 years, the global soccer phenomenon of the FIFA World Cup will return to the United States. The last men’s tournament held on U.S. soil was in 1994, and the women’s tournament made its last appearance in 2003.
The tournament is being co-hosted among the United States, Canada and Mexico. This is the first installation of the competition to have three host countries, and only the second men’s competition to share the privilege of being hosted between nations, with the first being between South Korea and Japan in 2002.
The competition is also featuring an expanded field this time, increasing the number of teams competing from 32 to 48. Consequently, a new “Round of 32” will be added to the knockout stages of the tournament, where 32 teams will play in the first round instead of the traditional 16 (this will not replace the “Round of 16” which has traditionally started knockout play, another round is merely being added).
Since the bid for the tri-hosted tournament won at the 68th FIFA Congress in the summer of 2018, preparations have been underway to successfully pull off one of the largest sporting events on the planet.
In the early days of planning, one of the major questions was which cities would be selected to host matches throughout the tournament, with one city in contention being Cincinnati.
However, the stadium which would potentially be hosting a match would not be TQL Stadium, the dedicated soccer arena, but rather Paycor stadium, the home field of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Following the 1994 World Cup, Cincinnati didn’t seem to be anywhere on the radar for soccer fans. However, this was quickly reversed when Football Club (FC) Cincinnati was founded in 2015.
“FC Cincinnati’s debut revealed a deep love of soccer in the fabric of this city’s culture,” Felicia Jordan wrote in an article for WCPO. “From the start of the team’s United Soccer League run, fans packed Nippert Stadium at the University of Cincinnati to watch the orange-and-blue team.”
Despite this growing fervor for the world’s most popular sport, Cincinnati was not selected as a host city for the 2026 World Cup, leaving many Queen City soccer fans disappointed.
“I was pretty bummed because I really wanted to be able to go and experience it, but I also wasn’t that surprised just because of our stadium size compared to others,” Sophia Polger, ‘26, said.
While Cincinnati may not be able to take part in the excitement of hosting a match, it is still in contention to be a team base camp for the tournament, with teams potentially utilizing FC Cincinnati’s training facility in Milford throughout the duration of the competition.
However, there are still many opportunities for fans to see games outside of their home city, with cities such as Kansas City and Atlanta being viable options- that is, if fans are willing to fork out generous payments for tickets.
FIFA, the governing body for global soccer, has been criticized for allowing ticket prices to skyrocket. Group stage match tickets are nearly three times what they were in Qatar four years ago and a singular ticket to see the final in New Jersey costs roughly $3,000.
In response, FIFA announced that it would release a batch of “affordable tickets” for each match, with prices capped at $45. The profits from these tickets will go toward supporting soccer globally.
While prices may seem outrageously expensive, they are demonstrative of the global excitement for the upcoming installation of the tournament.There have been 150 million ticket requests globally for this summer’s competition, with only seven million total tickets available.
“At the end of the day, the World Cup is supposed to bring a lot of economic benefit to the home city and also to the organization as a whole,” Polger said. “So, I think it’s not crazy to expect having higher ticket prices because every single game will be played like the Super Bowl is.”
If the sheer number of ticket requests are any indicator of the popularity of this summer’s tournament; fans will be in for a spectacular experience that could eclipse that of even the 1994 tournament, which was the most attended FIFA event in history, with an average of 68,991 fans per match.
Many are also hoping that the effects on U.S. soccer after hosting the tournament will reflect past results. $50 million in surplus was donated to U.S. Soccer following the 1994 installation of the competition, nearly double projections and a staggering amount for a country which is typically thought of as having soccer as a minor player in the professional sporting scene.
“It [soccer] is still growing professionally and I think it [the World Cup] will bring in some new fans, but more so I think it’ll just expose the rest of the world to the fact that we actually aren’t that far behind anymore,” Polger said.
Regardless of how American soccer is perceived globally, many Americans are hoping to cheer on the home team to a knockout stage run this summer, with young stars such as Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic leading the charge.
“I doubt that they would make it past the first or second run round of the knockouts, but I definitely think they’ll make it to the knockouts,” Polger said. “They have a lot of pressure on them to perform [with the home crowd].”
No matter how the US National team performs this summer, one thing is for certain: US soccer fans are in for a treat as the world’s most popular sporting event makes its way back to American soil.