Seattle named as a host site for the 2026 FIFA World Cup

Seattle has been selected as a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The World Cup will be held in 16 total venues across the United States, Mexico and Canada as part of a collective bid to host soccer’s biggest event. The World Cup was last held on U.S. soil in 1994.

The 2026 World Cup will be the first edition to include 48 teams from across the globe. This year’s edition, set to be held this winter in Qatar, will be the final tournament with just 32 teams.

Seattle joins 11 other U.S. cities, three Mexican cities and two Canadian cities as host sites for the tournament. The cities have been broken up into three separate regions with Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Guadalajara serving as the West region, Kansas City, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Monterrey and Mexico City as the Central region, and New York/New Jersey, Toronto, Philadelphia, Boston and Miami making up the East region.

Cities that missed out among the 22 finalists were Edmonton, Cincinnati, Washington D.C./Baltimore, Denver, Nashville and Orlando.

The Seattle bid was bolstered by the run by the Seattle Sounders to the CONCACAF Champions' League title earlier this year. The trophy showcased the city's soccer passion with members of FIFA in attendance for the championship match against Pumas UNAM on May 4.

The World Cup will be one of the biggest sporting events to take place in the Puget Sound region. Seattle has played host to the NBA Finals on three separate occasions (1978, 1979, 1996), the Final Four on three occasions (1984, 1989, 1995), the 1979 NBA All-Star Game, the 2001 (and 2023) MLB All-Star Game, and three NFC Championships (2006, 2014, 2015). The region also hosted the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place and the 1998 PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish.

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