FIFA makes SoFi one of its sweet 16

The L.A. stadium is among venues chosen to host matches for the 2026 World Cup.

The World Cup is coming back to Southern California.

When it will get here, who will be playing and how many games will be held are still to be determined. Butwhere those games will be played was revealed Thursday when FIFA chose Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium as one of 16 venues for the 2026 tournament.

“This is huge for the city of L.A.,” said Galaxy President Chris Klein, a co-chair of the Los Angeles World Cup host committee. “We’re proud of our city and the multicultural nature of our city. But we’re also proud that it’s a soccer city.

“We’re excited to be chosen.”

The 2026 World Cup, the first ever to be hosted by three countries, will be the of the largest and most complex sporting events ever held, with a record 48 teams playing 80 games in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Sixty of those games will spread over 11 U.S. cities, meaning SoFi will likely play host to multiple matches. Exactly how many won’t be announced for some time.

And while the nine-hour time difference between Los Angeles and Europe makes venues in the Eastern time zone more logical choices to host the final, the 1994 cham

pionship game was played in Pasadena without complaint. Klein said Southern California should again be considered for some of the tournament’s marquee games.

“Our hope is to get some of the biggest matches,” he said. “We feel we have a compelling story. In our opinion, the world’s best venue in the world’s greatest city. So we’re excited to dig in.”

Ten games will be played in Mexico, split among Estadio BBVA in Monterrey, Guadalajara’s Estadio Akron and Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, which will become the first venue to play host to matches in three different World Cups. Ten games will also be played in Canada, at Vancouver’s BC Place, site of the 2015 Women’s World Cup final, and in Toronto’s BMO Field, the smallest stadium chosen with a current capacity of 45,500.

The other 10 U.S. stadiums are Seattle’s Lumen Field, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., AT&T Stadium in suburban Dallas, NRG Stadium in Houston, Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Gillette Stadium in suburban Boston, MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. and Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.

Philadelphia was a particularly inspired choice. With the tournament returning to its regular June-July schedule in 2026, FIFA has an opportunity to bring the World Cup to the city on the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which took place less than six miles from the stadium.

“This is an incredible win for Philadelphia,” Mayor Jim Kenney said. “FIFA saw what we all know is true: Philadelphia is a welcoming, worldclass city and we have the experience to deliver a fantastic experience for teams, fans and sponsors alike.”

SoFi, meanwhile, has long been a FIFA favorite for more modern reasons. The most expensive stadium in the world with a construction cost of more than $5 billion, it has many of the baubles the group’s top officials like, including lavish luxury suites and close proximity to the airport. What it doesn’t have is a regulation-size soccer field.

Larry Freedman, co-chair of the host committee and copresident and chief business officer at LAFC, said that can be resolved by removing some of the demountable field-level seats in the four corners of the pitch. The artificial-turf surface will also have to be covered with a carpet of natural grass, a process that must be repeated in at least seven of the other 16 World Cup stadiums.

During the last men’s World Cup played in the U.S., in 1994, the 52 matches were played in nine stadiums. Eight matches, including the final, were played at the Rose Bowl, which didn’t make the cut this time. Also missing the cut was M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, about 40 miles from Washington.

The 1994 tournament set records for both overall attendance at 3.6 million and average attendance at 68,991 a game while the economic impact for Southern California alone was estimated at $623 million.

The World Cup’s effect on the local economy in 2026 will depend on how many games are played at SoFi and what kind of ancillary draws, such as fan festivals and cultural events, are staged here. But with multiple world-class training facilities and mild summer weather when compared to other host cities such as Houston; Arlington, Texas; and Miami, Southern California could comfortably house multiple teams at a time, which gives the area a tremendous advantage.

“All cities are not created equal when it comes to the weather. It’s a little bit more reliable from that perspective,” Freedman said.

Southern California also has Hollywood, the beaches and Disneyland.

“What are you going to do for the rest of the day when you’re not training?” Freedman asked. “How are you going to amuse yourself?”

As big as the World Cup is, however, Freedman noted that it’s just part of an unprecedented series of major sporting events that will be held in Southern California in a sixyear window that opened last winter when SoFi played host to the Super Bowl.

Next up is Major League Baseball’s All-Star game at Dodger Stadium in July, the college football national championship game at SoFi in January and then after the World Cup, the 2028 Olympic Games.

“It’s a fair argument,” he said, “for L.A. being the epicenter of global sports.”