2026 World Cup Final will be held in New Jersey
Photo courtesy of Anthony Quintano on Flickr
One of the largest sporting events in the world is coming to New Jersey. On Sunday, FIFA, the governing body of football, announced MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford will hold the World Cup Final on July 19, 2026. The joint bid of “New York New Jersey” was one of 16 cities in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada selected in 2022 as a host city for the tournament.
Home to the NFL teams the New York Giants and New York Jets, with a capacity of 82,500, MetLife beat out AT&T Stadium in Dallas and SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles as the host of the showpiece fixture.
In a video featuring NYC Mayor Eric Adams and NJ Gov. Phil Murphy shared on X on Sunday, the two elected officials cited the region’s diversity, transportation, and cultural attractions as main selling points as host city.
“As mayor of the most diverse city in the United States, a city filled with soccer fans, we cannot wait to welcome the world for the 2026 FIFA World Cup,” Adams said.
“And between New Jersey and New York City, we’ve got it all,” Murphy adds. “World-class hotels, restaurants, stadiums, theaters, attractions, transportation.”
“In fact in many ways, we’ve got the whole world right in our backyard, with more than 600 languages and dialects spoken across our region. There is nowhere that better captures the breadth and diversity of the world’s greatest game than New York City and our great Garden State.”
Hosting the tournament could bring over $2 billion in economic impact to the region and support over 14,000 jobs. According to a press release from Adams’ office, MetLife Stadium will adopt a new not-so-unique venue name for the tournament, “New York New Jersey Stadium,” to follow FIFA’s policy against non-sponsor corporate names, as NPR reported.
Consistent with stadiums in other Host Cities, MetLife Stadium will adopt a new venue name for FIFA World Cup 26™, New York New Jersey Stadium.
On Sunday, FIFA unveiled the full match schedule for the tournament, which will be the biggest ever hosted, according to the organization. There will be 104 games with 48 teams playing in 16 cities across three countries.
The World Cup will be staged across 16 stadiums, including the U.S. cities of Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle. Monterrey, Guadalajara, and Mexico City in Mexico and Vancouver and Toronto in Canada will also host matches.
The tournament kicks off on June 11 and ends July 19.
View the full FIFA World Cup 26 match schedule here.
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