The United States and its regional partners will almost certainly host the 2031 tournament, as they are the only (joint) bidder. Still, they are required to submit an official “bid book” and go through a formal evaluation process, concluding with a vote that will confirm them as co-hosts next year.
Ahead of a Friday deadline, U.S. Soccer submitted the bid book — and, within it, dozens of potential host cities, including 28 in the U.S., six in Mexico, and one each in Costa Rica (San José) and Jamaica (Kingston).
In some of the cities, multiple stadiums are listed — a range of NFL stadiums and soccer-specific venues, from the 92,000-seat AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, to the Kansas City Current’s CPKC Stadium, the first venue purpose-built for women’s professional soccer. Twenty stadiums have been submitted as a “representative sample” of the bid, which the bid book states represents the “diversity in geography, scale, and infrastructure readiness” of the tournament. A further selection of 30 stadiums have been submitted as part of the bid’s broader framework.
All 11 U.S. cities set to host the 2026 men’s World Cup are on the list, though not all stadiums are — Hard Rock Stadium near Miami is not mentioned. Some of the 11 venues are not on the list of 20 stadiums highlighted in the bid book. Those 20, bid officials wrote, will be “subject to FIFA’s formal bid evaluation and are generally representative of the bid composition in which matches could be staged across the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica.”
In Mexico, the 2026 men’s World Cup stadiums in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara are highlighted along with the smaller Territorio Santos Modelo in Torreón. The proposed venues in Costa Rica and Jamaica are the Estadio Nacional and National Stadium, respectively.
Among the 20 cities and stadiums, 14 are in the U.S.:
Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz Stadium)
Charlotte (Bank of America Stadium)
Dallas-Fort Worth (AT&T Stadium)
Denver (Empower Field at Mile High)
Houston (NRG Stadium)
Kansas City (Arrowhead Stadium)
Los Angeles (SoFi Stadium)
Minneapolis (U.S. Bank Stadium)
Nashville (Geodis Park)
New York/New Jersey (MetLife Stadium)
Orlando (Camping World Stadium)
San Diego (Snapdragon Stadium)
Seattle (Lumen Field)
Washington, D.C. (the new Commanders stadium)
The four cities and stadiums in Mexico are:
Mexico City (Estadio Azteca)
Guadalajara (Estadio Akron)
Monterrey (Estadio BBVA)
Torreón (Territorio Santos Modelo)
And the cities and venues in Costa Rica and Jamaica are:
San José (Estadio Nacional)
Kingston (National Stadium)
The broader list reflects the bid team’s approach of retaining optionality as they and FIFA devise a strategy for the 2031 World Cup. They are unsure how many games they’ll hold at large capacity, multi-deck NFL stadiums and how many they’ll hold at more intimate grounds that will be easier to fill.
In some of the 14 U.S. cities above, secondary options are also listed:
Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas
Shell Energy Stadium in Houston
CPKC Stadium in Kansas City
The LA Memorial Coliseum, Rose Bowl and Dignity Health Sports Park in greater Los Angeles
Nissan Stadium in Nashville
Sports Illustrated Stadium (formerly Red Bull Arena) and NYCFC’s soon-to-open Etihad Park in New Jersey and New York
Inter & Co Stadium in Orlando
Audi Field in Washington, D.C.
The rest of the cities and stadiums included in the bid book are:
Baltimore (M&T Bank Stadium)
Birmingham, Alabama (Protective Stadium)
Boston (Gillette Stadium)
Cincinnati (TQL Stadium)
Cleveland/Columbus (Huntington Bank Field/Lower.com Field) — listed jointly in the bid book, despite the cities being more than two hours apart
Indianapolis (a to-be-built soccer stadium)
Miami (Chase Stadium, Inter Miami’s new home that will open next year)
Philadelphia (Lincoln Financial Field)
Phoenix (State Farm Stadium)
Salt Lake City (America First Field)
San Francisco/Bay Area (Levi’s Stadium, Oracle Park — the latter is a baseball stadium, home of the San Francisco Giants)
St. Louis (Energizer Park)
Tampa (Raymond James Stadium)
Pachuca (Estadio Miguel Hidalgo)
Querétaro (Estadio Corregidora)
The most notable omission, like for the 2026 men’s World Cup, is Chicago.
Hard Rock Stadium is the lone 2026 venue not part of the 2031 bid.
The final sites will likely be determined sometime after the 2027 women’s World Cup, which will take place in Brazil.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
US Women's national team, Mexico Men's national team, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Soccer, Women's Soccer, FIFA Women's World Cup
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