News:

Thank you for your patience during the Forum downtime while we upgraded the software. Welcome back and see this thread for some new features and other changes to the forum.

Main Menu

2026 FIFA World Cup

Started by Bruce, April 10, 2017, 04:36:13 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Bruce

Now that the United States, Canada and Mexico have announced their joint bid, it's time to speculate on which cities end up with matches.

The 2026 tournament will be the first to have 48 teams, with 16 groups of 3 teams each. The top 2 teams will advance to a 32-team knockout stage. The United States will host all matches from the Quarterfinals onwards to the Final. Canada and Mexico will both only host 10 matches each.

Group stages tend to be done with geographic groupings (trying to stay within the same time zone as well), so I'll seed the stadiums as followed (4 matches per group), though I can't quite get everyone into proper groups:

Group A (USA): Los Angeles (Rose Bowl and Inglewood NFL) and San Francisco
Group B (Canada): Toronto and Montreal
Group C (Mexico): Mexico City (Azteca) and Guadalajara
Group D: Phoenix and Denver
Group E: Seattle and Vancouver
Group F: Washington DC and Philadelphia
Group H: Chicago and Indianapolis
Group I: Dallas and Houston
Group J: Atlanta and Nashville
Group K: Tampa and Miami
Group L: Minneapolis and Kansas City
Group M: Boston and New York City (Meadowlands)
Group N: Cleveland and Detroit
Group O: Edmonton and Calgary
Group P: Monterrey and Guadalupe

Round of 32 (16): Mexico City, Guadalupe, Vancouver, Montreal, Seattle, Los Angeles (Inglewood), San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, New York City (Meadowlands), Philadelphia, Nashville, Denver, Boston, and Washington DC
Round of 16 (8): Mexico City, Toronto, Los Angeles (Rose Bowl), Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, New York City (Meadowlands), and Chicago
Quarterfinals (4): New York City (Meadowlands), Atlanta, Los Angeles (Inglewood) and Chicago
Semifinals (2): Atlanta and Los Angeles (Rose Bowl)
Final (1): New York City (Meadowlands)


Road Hog

There's no way Jerry Jones's stadium doesn't get at least a semifinal.

SP Cook

By 2026 soccer will be the sport of the next generation.  Four generations and counting.

Hopefully this exercise can be held in Russia or Iran or on a platform in the Caspian Sea.

Bruce

The 2018 World Cup is already going to be held in Russia. Most of the stadiums are complete (and bribes have been paid), so I don't think it will be as bad as Brazil in 2014.

Iran could be a contender to host in 2034 or later, when Asia is eligible again. They'd have to fend off China, most likely.

MisterSG1

FIFA can go jump in a river (to put it politely) based on the disgusting corruption especially for the 2022 event. I'm surprised the US Soccer Federation even wants to entertain FIFA in potentially hosting.

NWI_Irish96

Just from seeing how past World Cups are organized, I would make these changes to the original plan:

Both Mexico groups will be adjacent (e.g. I & J) as will both Canadian groups because consecutive groups play each other in the first knockout round so the teams advancing from those groups could stay where they are.  Definitely won't be a single group that plays in multiple countries. 

I also doubt the US needs 24 venues.  16 is probably plenty.  I don't see places like Cleveland, Indy, Nashville or Minneapolis getting games.   Also, while minimizing travel makes sense for the teams, the organizers are going to want to expose all the teams to different parts of the country so the US would probably not play both their group stage games in California and other states that potentially have multiple venues like Florida and Texas will not have the same group played in both.
Indiana: counties 100%, highways 100%
Illinois: counties 100%, highways 61%
Michigan: counties 100%, highways 56%
Wisconsin: counties 86%, highways 23%

lordsutch

#6
Atlanta may be iffy since the new stadium will have FieldTurf installed. They could bring in grass but I'm not sure how well it would do during a lengthy tournament in a mostly-closed stadium not really designed for it (unlike U of Phoenix, for example). Several other big stadiums like Toronto and Indianapolis may present turf or dimensions issues; FIFA grudgingly accepted the dimension problems (mostly narrow width) in 1994 and turf issues for the women in 2015 in Canada, but I doubt they'll be so flexible in 2026 for the men.

Most of the pods suggested make sense but I'd expect another southeastern pod involving two of Charlotte, Jacksonville (which USMNT has used quite a bit lately), and Orlando, probably in lieu of Cleveland and Detroit which lack any real soccer presence (USMNT often plays in Columbus, but that stadium is way too small for a World Cup match). Indy is also a bit weak... if the NFL was still in St. Louis I'd say it would be a no-brainer instead.

And I expect the US would play its group games somewhere like Chicago and Minneapolis, not in California which is very much El Tri country.

Here's my guesstimate (changes only in the group stage). I added Jax/Orlando, Las Vegas (as a better pairing for Phoenix), Charlotte, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh, and dropped Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Detroit. Vegas, since it's likely to be about the newest venue, is the most likely to get elimination games but I didn't plan out any of those or try to align them to groups. I did try to put the groups in the Mexico half of the bracket in El Tri country.

Incidentally Bruce only had 15 groups (he skipped group G), hence why I was able to add 5 venues but only drop 3.

I do think they want to avoid too much fan and team travel, since that was a big complaint about Brazil and likely will be a complaint in Russia too (even though all the games are in European Russia).

Quote
Group A (USA): Chicago and Minneapolis
Group B: Denver and Kansas City
Group C: Pittsburgh and Philadelphia
Group D: Boston and New York City (Meadowlands)
Group E: Atlanta and Orlando (or Jacksonville)
Group F: Tampa and Miami
Group G: Nashville and Charlotte
Group H: Washington DC (FedEx Field) and Baltimore
Group I (Mexico): Mexico City (Azteca) and Guadalajara
Group J: Monterrey and Guadalupe
Group K: Dallas and Houston
Group L: Phoenix and Las Vegas
Group M: Los Angeles (Inglewood) and SF (San Jose)
Group N: Seattle and Vancouver
Group O (Canada): Toronto and Montreal
Group P: Edmonton and Calgary

Bruce

Quote from: lordsutch on April 11, 2017, 04:42:21 PM
Atlanta may be iffy since the new stadium will have FieldTurf installed. They could bring in grass but I'm not sure how well it would do during a lengthy tournament in a mostly-closed stadium not really designed for it (unlike U of Phoenix, for example). Several other big stadiums like Toronto and Indianapolis may present turf or dimensions issues; FIFA grudgingly accepted the dimension problems (mostly narrow width) in 1994 and turf issues for the women in 2015 in Canada, but I doubt they'll be so flexible in 2026 for the men.

Most of the pods suggested make sense but I'd expect another southeastern pod involving two of Charlotte, Jacksonville (which USMNT has used quite a bit lately), and Orlando, probably in lieu of Cleveland and Detroit which lack any real soccer presence (USMNT often plays in Columbus, but that stadium is way too small for a World Cup match). Indy is also a bit weak... if the NFL was still in St. Louis I'd say it would be a no-brainer instead.

And I expect the US would play its group games somewhere like Chicago and Minneapolis, not in California which is very much El Tri country.

Here's my guesstimate (changes only in the group stage). I added Jax/Orlando, Las Vegas (as a better pairing for Phoenix), Charlotte, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh, and dropped Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Detroit. Vegas, since it's likely to be about the newest venue, is the most likely to get elimination games but I didn't plan out any of those or try to align them to groups. I did try to put the groups in the Mexico half of the bracket in El Tri country.

Incidentally Bruce only had 15 groups (he skipped group G), hence why I was able to add 5 venues but only drop 3.

I do think they want to avoid too much fan and team travel, since that was a big complaint about Brazil and likely will be a complaint in Russia too (even though all the games are in European Russia).

Quote
Group A (USA): Chicago and Minneapolis
Group B: Denver and Kansas City
Group C: Pittsburgh and Philadelphia
Group D: Boston and New York City (Meadowlands)
Group E: Atlanta and Orlando (or Jacksonville)
Group F: Tampa and Miami
Group G: Nashville and Charlotte
Group H: Washington DC (FedEx Field) and Baltimore
Group I (Mexico): Mexico City (Azteca) and Guadalajara
Group J: Monterrey and Guadalupe
Group K: Dallas and Houston
Group L: Phoenix and Las Vegas
Group M: Los Angeles (Inglewood) and SF (San Jose)
Group N: Seattle and Vancouver
Group O (Canada): Toronto and Montreal
Group P: Edmonton and Calgary

Oops, so I did skip over one. Thanks for the suggestions.

lordsutch

#8
The only other thing I thought of is that since each group only will have 3 games, they may want to have each group have either 1 or 3 venues to balance things out (rather than one team having to play at 2 venues while the other two play at one or vice versa). If so they might pair up groups so e.g. groups A and B share 3 venues and each place gets one game for each group. That'd also potentially reduce the venue count, although Gold Cup tends to use different playoff venues than group venues so you could spread the wealth.

If you go with three venues per pair, it'd look like:

Groups A (USA) & B: Chicago, Minneapolis, and Kansas City
Groups C & D: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Washington DC
Groups E & F: New York (Meadowlands), Boston, and Baltimore
Groups G & H: Tampa, Miami, and Atlanta
Groups I (Mexico) & J: Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Guadalupe
Groups K & L: Monterrey, Dallas, and Houston
Groups M & N: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Vancouver
Groups O (Canada) & P: Montreal (Olympic), Toronto, and Hamilton

Had to put something in eastern Canada to make groups O&P manageable; Hamilton can be expanded to 40k while Ottawa apparently can't.

Here's the rest of the tournament, under the assumption that CONCACAF will rig things to be as favorable to the host teams as possible (e.g. putting likely Mexico games in El Tri country when they're in the US after the round of 16) and avoid a potential US-Mexico matchup except in the final or third place game. This keeps in all the venues I'd suggested at some point, except Nashville and Orlando/Jacksonville.

Round of 32: e.g. A1 vs B2 & B1 vs A2
A/B playoffs: New York and Baltimore
C/D playoffs: Washington DC and Atlanta
E/F playoffs: Chicago and Philadelphia
G/H playoffs: Charlotte and Boston
I/J playoffs: Monterrey and Guadalajara
K/L playoffs: Dallas and Phoenix
M/N playoffs: San Jose and Las Vegas
O/P playoffs: Edmonton and Calgary

Round of 16:
A (USA) vs B: Boston
C vs D: Phildaelphia
E vs F: Washington DC
G vs H: Miami
I (Mexico) vs J: Mexico City
K vs L: Houston
M vs N: Seattle
O (Canada) vs P: Vancouver

Quarterfinals:
AB (US) vs CD: New York
EF vs GH: Atlanta
IJ (Mexico) vs KL: Dallas
MN vs OP (Canada): Boston

Semifinals:
ABCD (US) vs EFGH: Dallas
IJMN (Mexico) vs MNOP (Canada): Los Angeles

3rd Place: Atlanta

Final: New York

NWI_Irish96

If you look back at past World Cups, venues aren't tied to specific groups.  In the group stage, most if not all venues host games from more than one group.  That's why I don't think they need 32 venues.  Probably 3-4 each for Mexico and Canada and you can probably do the US' 12 groups with 16-18 venues.  Definitely don't need 24.

I'd also be willing to bet that the US' two group stage games will be in two of these four spots: LA, NY (NJ), Chicago and Dallas (Arlington).  The biggest markets are going to get those games.  LA being pro-Mexico won't matter in the group stage since Mexico won't be an opponent, though you can be certain that whatever potential knockout round game that could pit the US vs Mexico will not be held in California or Texas.
Indiana: counties 100%, highways 100%
Illinois: counties 100%, highways 61%
Michigan: counties 100%, highways 56%
Wisconsin: counties 86%, highways 23%

Desert Man

There are 16 groups, each group has 4 teams-total 64 (an expanded format) and the top 2 winning group teams meet a following group (i.e. group A meets B, C meets D, E meets F, etc.). 

Group A (USA): Los Angeles (Rose Bowl and Inglewood NFL-third place match held there).
Group B (Canada): Toronto and Montreal.
Group C (Mexico): Mexico City (Azteca) and Guadalajara.
Group D: Phoenix and Denver.
Group E: Seattle and Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Group F: Washington DC and Philadelphia.
Group G: Chicago and Indianapolis.
Group H: Dallas and Houston.
Group I: San Francisco: Stanford and Santa Clara.
Group J: Atlanta and Nashville.
Group K: Tampa and Miami.
Group L: Minneapolis and Kansas City.
Group M: Boston and New York City (Meadowlands-the final is held there).
Group N: Cleveland and Detroit.
Group O: Edmonton and Calgary.
Group P: Monterrey and Puebla (my edition).

Round of 32 (16): A/B: Mexico City, C/D: Puebla, E/F: Vancouver, G/H: Montreal, I/J: Seattle, K/L: Los Angeles (Inglewood), M/N: San Francisco (Stanford), O/P: San Francisco (Santa Clara), A/B: Chicago, C/D: Miami, E/F: Atlanta, G/H: New York City (Meadowlands), I/J: Philadelphia, K/L: Denver, M/N: Boston, and O/P: Washington DC.
Round of 16 (8): Mexico City, Toronto, Los Angeles (Rose Bowl), Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, New York City (Meadowlands), and Washington DC.
Quarterfinals (4): New York City (Meadowlands), Houston, Los Angeles (Inglewood) and Chicago.
Semifinals (2): Chicago and Los Angeles (Rose Bowl).
Final (1): New York City (Meadowlands). Third Place: Los Angeles (Inglewood).

And who are the group teams (my fantasy world cup), here it is the 64:
A: USA, England, India and Russia. B: Canada, Germany, Ghana and Saudi Arabia. C: Mexico, Italy, Japan and Nigeria. D: Brazil, France, South Africa and Turkey. E: China, Colombia, Ivory Coast and Netherlands. F: Argentina, Senegal, South Korea and Spain. G: Australia, Belgium, Iraq and Uruguay. H: Chile, Greece, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. I: Croatia, North Korea, Paraguay and Sweden. J: Costa Rica, Pakistan, Romania and Scotland. K: Guatemala, Ireland, Morocco and Ukraine. L: El Salvador, Iran, New Zealand and Poland. M: Angola, Czech Republic, Peru and Portugal. N: Algeria, Bangladesh, Norway and Serbia. O: Denmark, Honduras, Northern Ireland and Qatar. P: Ecuador, Switzerland, Thailand and Wales.   

Top group teams- A: USA and England, B: Canada and Germany, C: Mexico and Italy, D: Brazil and France, E: Colombia and Netherlands, F: Argentina and Spain, G: Belgium and Uruguay. H: Chile and Greece. I: Croatia and Paraguay. J: Pakistan and Scotland. K: Guatemala and Morocco. L: Iran and Poland. M: Czech Republic and Portugal. N: Algeria and Serbia. O: Denmark and Qatar. P: Ecuador and Wales.

Round of 16: Germany over England, Brazil over Italy, Netherlands over Argentina, Uruguay over Chile, Croatia over Scotland, Morocco over Iran, Portugal over Serbia, and Wales over Denmark.

Round of 8: Germany over Brazil, Netherlands over Uruguay, Morocco over Croatia, and Portugal over Wales.

Round of 4: Germany over Netherlands, and Portugal over Morocco. Note Germany and Portugal in finals, Netherlands in third place match, I envision Germany wins the final, with Morocco the third place match.
Get your kicks...on Route 99! Like to turn 66 upside down. The other historic Main street of America.

Bruce


Desert Man

2026-what a year: The US' 250th anniversary, Canada may get the winter olympics (is it Calgary or Edmonton? they're competing vs Chile, Norway, Austria and Switzerland to get 2026...or 2030) and Mexico will have its share of the 2026 FIFA world cup (if approved).

The potential cities have Major League Soccer teams (not all), but a certain number would have them for sure. Phoenix is so far the largest US city without a MLS team. There's a minor league soccer team known as the Phoenix Rising. 
Get your kicks...on Route 99! Like to turn 66 upside down. The other historic Main street of America.

Bruce

Phoenix Rising are in the running for the next round of MLS expansion. They have the backing of Didier Drogba, who came out of retirement to play for the team while also promoting them to MLS boosters.

The current contenders are Sacramento, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Nashville, San Antonio, Raleigh, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Phoenix, San Diego, and Detroit.

Of them, Sacramento and Cincinnati have strong bids thanks to their lower league teams.

Miami is also guaranteed for when David Beckham finally gets the stadium built.

Bruce

And then there were 32. Final list may be 16 to 20.

https://twitter.com/PCarrESPN/status/915646722499600391

Canada (4): Edmonton, Alberta; Montréal, Québec; Toronto, Ontario; Vancouver, British Columbia

Mexico (3): Guadalajara, Jalisco; Mexico City, Mexico; Monterrey, Nuevo León

United States (25): Atlanta, Georgia; Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Charlotte, North Carolina; Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Detroit, Michigan; Houston, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; Las Vegas, Nevada; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Nashville, Tennessee; New York/New Jersey; Orlando, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Francisco Bay Area; Seattle, Washington; Tampa, Florida; Washington, DC

The following cities were not selected as Host City candidates to be included as part of the United Bid: Birmingham, Alabama; Cleveland, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Jacksonville, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; Ottawa, Ontario; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Regina, Saskatchewan; and San Antonio, Texas.

ET21

Wouldn't mind watching a world cup match at Soldier Field
The local weatherman, trust me I can be 99.9% right!
"Show where you're going, without forgetting where you're from"

Clinched:
IL: I-88, I-180, I-190, I-290, I-294, I-355, IL-390
IN: I-80, I-94
SD: I-190
WI: I-90, I-94
MI: I-94, I-196
MN: I-90

english si

That Mexico shortlist looks done, and the Canada one probably is too (might lose one).

Given the summer nature of the competition, I'd imagine a bias in the US venues towards cooler parts of the country.

Bruce

Quote from: ET21 on October 05, 2017, 08:28:47 AM
Wouldn't mind watching a world cup match at Soldier Field

During the 2014 World Cup, the stadium was rented out for a viewing party. A few people watched.



Soldier Field also hosted some matches in the 1994 World Cup and 1999 Women's World Cup. Including this Germany-Belgium Round of 16 match:



And this USA-Nigeria rout in 1999:



It's also hosted two Gold Cup finals, in 2007 and 2013:




Big John

USA/Canada/Mexico has officially been awarded the 2026 World Cup today.

Alps

Quote from: Big John on June 13, 2018, 08:36:44 PM
USA/Canada/Mexico has officially been awarded the 2026 World Cup today.
Who gets the host bid?

english si

All three are hosts (and thus qualify automatically* as both Japan and South Korea did in 2002).

Morocco would have been good for a 32-team tournament (instead of Qatar in 2022, say), but 48 teams is beyond them. It's probably beyond any sustainable single-country bid: 16 stadia and FIFA don't like two in a single city much (I'd doubt if England would be able to submit a bid with 2 London, 2 Birmingham, 2 Liverpool and 2 Manchester in it - only one or two of those cities with two stadia), and don't allow at all more than that. Brazil, with its large number of cities and all that had to build a boondoggle in Manaus for a 32-team tournament. Maybe Germany or Italy, but England (even with Cardiff not needing a joint bid with Wales) is probably two or three short given it can only really have London (and maybe another) metropolitan area with two stadia - ie Newcastle and Sunderland would be mutually exclusive options and so Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast and Edinburgh might as well be offered the ability to come on board.

*feel sorry for the other CONCACAF countries - good job its 48 teams, else they'd all be fighting for one place (and one of the other Confederations loses a play-off route). Now it will be 3 places as CONCAF get 6. 16 UEFA teams isn't too bad - you lose a lot of the play-off round that causes upsets like Italy - though the Dutch and Welsh and Czechs didn't make it that far (9 group winners + 5 best second places + 2 play-offs between lower ranking second places, rather than 9 group winners + 4 play-offs between 8-best second places), but 6-out-of-10 CONMEBOL seems a little easy for the better nations.

formulanone

#21
Quote from: english si on June 14, 2018, 04:05:43 AM
All three are hosts (and thus qualify automatically* as both Japan and South Korea did in 2002).

*feel sorry for the other CONCACAF countries - good job its 48 teams, else they'd all be fighting for one place (and one of the other Confederations loses a play-off route).

Ah, no chance of a Caribbean-hosted World Cup, because that would be a logistical mess and would over-represent the Cup. Might need a 56 or 64-team draw, and I'm not sure how well that would go down. :D

Not to mention holding all the events during the start of the Atlantic hurricane season...

abefroman329

Quote from: english si on June 14, 2018, 04:05:43 AM
All three are hosts (and thus qualify automatically* as both Japan and South Korea did in 2002).

I can't say I have an opinion on FIFA (and don't need one, I have enough opinions already), but the notion that the host country (or countries) automatically qualifies seems especially corrupt.

And why would the US need to share hosting duties with Canada and Mexico when we were able to host on our own in 1994?

tdindy88

If I recall, in the Olympics the host country gets to qualify for all available events automatically. This is why the host country usually does so well during the Olympics, they get as many opportunities to get a medal as possible. So there's some precedent there for host countries qualifying to participate in an event.


hotdogPi

Quote from: tdindy88 on June 14, 2018, 09:31:41 AM
This is why the host country usually does so well during the Olympics

Are you sure that's not just home field advantage? Other countries have to deal with different weather/climate, elevation, and more, but the host country is used to it.
Clinched, minus I-93 (I'm missing a few miles and my file is incorrect)

Traveled, plus US 13, 44, and 50, and several state routes

I will be in Burlington VT for the eclipse.



Opinions expressed here on belong solely to the poster and do not represent or reflect the opinions or beliefs of AARoads, its creators and/or associates.