So for 2026 Americas FIFA World Cup.. What's the breakdown of where the knockout rounds and final will be played? Have they designated actual venue locations yet or is it still just somewhere in Mexico, Canada, and USA TBD??
The venues are all selected but the games are not yet assigned.
2026 World Cup host cities
USA (11)
Atlanta – Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Boston – Gillette Stadium
Dallas – AT&T Stadium
Houston – NRG Stadium
Kansas City – Arrowhead Stadium
Los Angeles – SoFi Stadium
Miami – Hard Rock Stadium
New York/New Jersey – MetLife Stadium
Philadelphia – Lincoln Financial Field
San Francisco – Levi’s Stadium
Seattle – Lumen Field
Canada (2)
Toronto – BMO Field
Vancouver – BC Place
Mexico (3)
Guadalajara – Estadio Akron
Mexico City – Estadio Azteca
Monterrey – Estadio BBVA
It will also have a format change to 48 teams instead of 32. The group stage may still change but right now the two leading options seem to be:
-- 16 groups of 3 with only 2 round robin games played per team and the top two in each group advancing to a new 32 team knockout stage
-- 12 groups of 4, played similarly to the current format, but with only the top 4 second place finishers advancing to a 16 team knockout stage (how you determine those 4 fairly, I have no idea); Or with the top 2 and some of the third place finishers advancing, with the same issue, to a 32 team knockout
The problem with the 16 group format is the way the schedule would lay out to potentially give advantage to teams that play later, or to create more meaningless games in the 3rd group games, or other shenanigans that the current format manages to mostly avoid.
