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Atlanta made the cut as a World Cup host city Thursday, an anticipated win that nonetheless generated excitement among boosters and soccer fans already gearing up to welcome the world.
FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, announced 16 cities — 11 in the U.S., three in Mexico and two in Canada — as hosts for at least a portion of the matches in 2026 as part of North America’s winning bid for the world’s largest sporting event by attendance and viewership. The 2026 event will expand to 48 teams from 32 and will be the first time the tournament is held across multiple nations. Twenty-two cities were in the running for matches.
Atlanta and Georgia leaders saw the announcement as validation of what they expected — that the city’s combination of rich sports history, hotel infrastructure, Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the city’s meteoric rise as a soccer town after the success of Atlanta United would put it over the top.
“Atlanta is a soccer town, and we’re excited to bring the game’s best athletes to the world’s best city,” said Mayor Andre Dickens in a news release. “Atlanta has already been home to the Super Bowl and the Olympics, and through our strong collaboration with the State and our business community, we will welcome folks from all over the world to fill every seat in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2026.”
FIFA has yet to announce which matches will be hosted in each city, and Atlanta is still vying for both the World Cup final match and the tournament’s media center, which like the 1996 Olympics would provide far-reaching brand recognition for the city around the world. The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that each match Atlanta hosts would generate $4.6 million worth of “global media exposure.”
The tournament could also boost efforts to position Atlanta globally once again as a leader in the business of sports. The city pitches itself as an ideal proving ground for products and services aiding the convergence of digital technology and in-person fan experiences. It’s also aiming to showcase its bona fides as an e-sports pioneer and positioning itself as a place where sports can be used to drive equity and international engagement.
Speaking to a British delegation in March, Atlanta Sports Council President Dan Corso felt good about the city’s chances, not only to get one match but to win the semi-finals which could include five or six matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Atlanta’s history of hosting major sporting events, from the Olympics to three Super Bowls to NCAA Final Four matches and the college football national championship game, speaks for itself, he said. But the city’s pitch to FIFA also included intangibles about how landing the tournament would help grow the “beautiful game’s” already strong momentum in Georgia.
“Our narrative is second to none,” he told a group of 12 companies during a breakfast at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, rattling off advantages including the Eastern Time Zone, the connectivity of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and more. “But there is a passion here for the sport, there is a connectivity to what the sport does on a community basis, and I think we’ve been able to show what our vision plans would be for hosts, not just in 2026, the year of the event, but in the years leading up to it.”
The 2022 World Cup is set to kick off in Qatar in November.
The 16 cities set to host matches are:
1. Vancouver
2. Seattle
3. San Francisco
4. Los Angeles
5. Guadalajara
6. Kansas City
7. Dallas
8. Atlanta
9. Houston
10. Monterrey
11. Mexico City
12. Toronto
13. Boston
14. Philadelphia
15. Miami
16. New York/New Jersey
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