FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The 2026 FIFA World Cup™ is officially coming to the United States, Mexico and Canada after the FIFA Congress in Moscow selected the North America United Bid in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
There are 23 potential host venues for the 2026 FIFA World Cup™, and Boston is one of the candidate host cities with Gillette Stadium as the venue.
“I think we have a great chance to do so,” said Brian Bilello, the Boston 2026 Bid Chair and New England Revolution President, regarding bringing the FIFA World Cup™ to Boston. “We have a tremendous history of not only sports, but in particular soccer in the city and here on this site – hosting the FIFA Men’s World Cup™ in the past, hosting two FIFA Women’s World Cups™ here on the site and numerous other soccer tournaments, events, and of course the New England Revolution on a weekly basis.
“So again, we’re tremendously excited for North America, tremendously excited for the United States and very excited to really dig in and work to bring the games to Boston.”
Several factors help Boston stand out among the contenders, not the least of which is the privately-owned and soccer-seasoned Gillette Stadium venue. Not only does the city have a long and deep history with many major sports teams, but there also isn’t a large financial burden because Boston already has the transportation and infrastructure – including hotels – to support big-scale, high profile events.
“I’m certainly as biased as anyone in this room, but I don’t see why Boston wouldn’t be one of the key cities to host games,” said Bilello. “We won’t take anything for granted. We’ll put a lot of effort in on it, but I really like our chances to be able to get games here in Boston.”
The FIFA World Cup™ was last hosted in the U.S. in 1994, and that tournament played a massive role in kicking off the first season of Major League Soccer in 1996. The country still feels the ongoing influence of that FIFA World Cup™ as the American soccer fan base and league itself continue to grow rapidly.
“If you look at the participation and if you look at the interest in the sport, it was really stagnant for a very long time in this country,” said Bilello. ”If you start in 1994 and you start looking at viewership numbers, engagement, the league that we now have, it’s an unbelievable influence that you now have on soccer in this country.”
Over the course of an approximately two-year process, FIFA and the United Bid Committee will visit the U.S. and assess all of the possible host cities. Of the 80 total matches, 10 will take place in Mexico, 10 will be hosted in Canada, and the remaining 60 will be held in the United States.
