The 2026 World Cup final will be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, beating out Texas and California for soccer鈥檚 showcase game.
FIFA awarded the July 19 championship to the $1.6 billion venue, which opened in 2010, the culminating match of an expanded 48-nation, 104-game tournament that will be for the first time.
Located about 10 miles from Manhattan, MetLife was promoted by both New York and New Jersey, where the stadium was built in the Meadowlands marshes. The land of Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi and Frank Sinatra will be the focal point of the globe on that Sunday, when either or a successor will emerge.
鈥淚t will be a celebration of our diversity and our values,鈥 New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in a telephone interview. 鈥淭he bigger picture is what leads up to it and what we leave behind for the decades to come.鈥
at a Miami television studio, allocating the opener of the 39-day tournament to Mexico City鈥檚 Estadio Azteca on June 11 and the finale to the home of the NFL's New York Jets and Giants.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had lobbied for the final to be at his AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
鈥淭he competition was dealing with the perception of the coastal, of a New York, or a Los Angeles,鈥 he said. 鈥淚f this were totally being played to just America and the United States, that wouldn鈥檛 have been such a formidable thing to overcome. But internationally, that鈥檚 formidable to overcome.鈥
All games from the quarterfinals on are being played in the United States. Semifinals are on July 14 at AT&T and the following day at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Quarterfinals are at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on July 9, at , the following day, and at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, and Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on July 11. The third-place game will be at Hard Rock on July 18.
The U.S. team will ahead of the tournament and open at SoFi on June 12. The Americans play seven days later at Seattle鈥檚 Lumen Field and finish the group stage at SoFi on June 25.
Since reaching the semifinals of the first World Cup in 1930, the U.S. has advanced to the quarterfinals just once, in 2002.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about making our nation proud,鈥 American coach Gregg Berhalter said. 鈥淥ne way to really grow the game and to change soccer in America forever is to perform well and do something that no U.S. team has ever done before.鈥
Seventy-eight of 104 matches will be played in the U.S., with 13 games each in Mexico and Canada, and there as many as six matches a day.
AT&T will host a tournament-high nine matches. There will be eight each at MetLife, SoFi and Mercedes Benz; seven apiece at Hard Rock, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and NRG Stadium in Houston; and six apiece at Lumen, Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, and Levi鈥檚 Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
FIFA officials did not publicly explain their site-decision process.
Philadelphia鈥檚 final match will be a round-of-16 meeting on July 4, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. , likely on July 14.
Santa Clara is the only U.S. site that will not host a game after the new round of 32. AT&T will host two round-of-32 matches.
, increased and .
Murphy learned of the decision while at a watch party in a MetLife Stadium suite. He was not discouraged by a British tabloid report on Jan. 17 that said the final would be at AT&T.
鈥淲e did everything we could to put our head downs, focus on the job at hand, kind of push out the noise, and that turned out to be a winning formula,鈥 Murphy said.
Mexico will play its second match at Guadalajara鈥檚 Estadio Akron on June 18 and return to Azteca on June 24. Mexico City will host five matches, with four each at Monterrey's Estadio BBVA and Guadalajara.
Canada will play its opening first-round match in Toronto on June 12, then at B.C. Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 18 and 24. Each Canada venue will host 13 games.
A nation will need to play eight matches to win the title, up from seven since 1982.
All 11 of the U.S. stadiums are home to NFL teams. Hard Rock will host this year鈥檚 , while MetLife was the site of the .
Both the 1970 and 1986 World Cup finals were at Azteca.
When the U.S. hosted the 24-nation, 52-game tournament in 1994, the final was at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, the opener at Chicago鈥檚 Soldier Field and the semifinals at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford and the Rose Bowl.
With the additional teams, the length of the tournament will grow from 29 days in the shortened 2022 schedule in Qatar and 32 days for the 2018 tournament in Russia.
Only one match will involve a team that has not had at least three off days. FIFA divided the group stage into East, Central and West regions and intended to make travel shorter for group winners.
The stadiums in Arlington, Atlanta and Houston have retractable roofs that are expected to be closed because of summer heat, and Inglewood and Vancouver have fixed roofs.
Artificial turf will be replaced by grass in Arlington, Atlanta, East Rutherford, Foxborough, Houston, Inglewood, Seattle and Vancouver.
Several of the venues are expected to widen their surfaces to accommodate a 75-by-115 yard (68-by-105 meter) playing field, including AT&T, MetLife and SoFi.
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AP Sports Writer Schuyler Dixon in Arlington, Texas, contributed to this report.
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