Seattle one of 44 cities contacted to host 2026 FIFA World Cup

All the bids for the 2026 FIFA World Cup are in and now the United Bid Committee of the United States, Mexico and Canada have started to reach out to cities to declare their interest in serving as official host cities.

Requests of Information (RFIs) have been sent to 44 cities across the three countries and Seattle is on that list. If a city is interested, they must declare by Sept. 5.

CenturyLink Field is the only stadium in the Seattle area being considered to host. It is notable because in previous considerations, Husky Stadium had been mentioned.

After all of the RFIs have been received, the United Bid Committee will then review the submissions and will create a shortlist and issue them by late Sept.

The committee intends to include 20-25 venues in their final bid to FIFA that will be submitted by March 16, 2018. They are anticipating that at least 12 locations could be selected by FIFA to serve as official host cities.

All stadiums are required to have at least 40,000 seats for the group stage matches and a capacity of at least 80,000 to be considered for the opening match and the final.

Leaders in each city have been asked to provide information about their city’s transportation infrastructure, past experience’s hosting major sporting events and cultural events, available accommodations, environmental protection initiatives and potential venues. Each city must also provide top international level training sites and locations for team base camps as well as hotels for teams, staff and VIPs.

Cities will also be evaluated on their commitment to sustainable event management, aspirations to develop soccer and the positive social impact that each city will anticipate in the local community stemming from the event.