The largest attended World Cup ever is coming to Seattle. When can you get tickets?
The biggest competition in the world is coming to Seattle’s Lumen Field.
On Thursday afternoon, soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, announced the 16 North American cities that will host games in the 2026 World Cup: two in Canada, three in Mexico and 11 in America.
Seattle made the cut as one of three U.S. West Coast cities, but fans wanting to get ahead of the game and purchase tickets right now will have to hit the brakes. With four years remaining until the beautiful game comes to North America, FIFA has said that more information on when fans can purchase tickets will come in due to course.
The 2026 World Cup will be the second time that the men’s iteration of the competition comes to the U.S., which hosted the tournament in 1994, and the fourth time it will come to North America. The U.S. is hosting the tournament alongside Mexico, which hosted it in 1970 and 1984, and Canada, which has never hosted the World Cup before.
The 2026 edition of the tournament also promises to be the most-attended tournament in World Cup history.
Not including the potential for renovations before 2026 and alterations to stadiums to have them hold more fans, the average capacity of the 16 stadiums is approximately 66,500. The average attendance for the most-attended World Cup was 68,991 during the U.S.’s 1994 World Cup.
As a result, the 1994 World Cup also holds the record for the overall attendance at 3.6 million, when just 52 games were played in the tournament. The 2026 World Cup will see an expanded field of 48 teams for the first time, increasing the number of games from 64 in 2022 to 80 in 2026.
The following list is all 16 cities that will host a World Cup game and the host stadium’s capacity before any potential renovations and seating adjustments for the tournament:
United States
New York/New Jersey - MetLife Stadium (82,500)
Los Angeles - SoFi Stadium (70,000)
Dallas - AT&T Stadium (80,000)
San Francisco Bay Area - Levi’s Stadium (68,500)
Miami - Hard Rock Stadium (65,326)
Atlanta - Mercedes-Benz Stadium (74,295)
Seattle - Lumen Field (72,000)
Houston - NRG Stadium (72,220)
Philadelphia - Lincoln Financial Field (67,694)
Kansas City - Arrowhead Stadium (76,416)
Boston - Gillette Stadium (65,878)
Mexico
Guadalajara - Estadio Akron (46,355)
Monterrey - Estadio BBVA (51,000)
Mexico City - Estadio Azteca (87,523)
Canada
Toronto - BMO Field (30,000)
Vancouver - BC Place (54,500)
This story was originally published June 18, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "The largest attended World Cup ever is coming to Seattle. When can you get tickets?."
