Going to North America '26: tickets, accommodations, etc. (non-politics)

Not for Liverpool fans it doesn't. At present anyway.

 

Do you know how many Germans and German descendants live in the greater Philadelphia area? All of Pennsylvania is German! Philly it is!

Top States by Total Population (Absolute Numbers):
These states have the largest numbers of German-Americans, even if they are a smaller percentage of the total state population.

• Pennsylvania: Over 2.8 million (highest total).
• California & Texas: Both have large populations, with millions identifying German ancestry.
• Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota: Also have very substantial German-American populations.

 

Salah to Egypt is what Haaland is to Norway. They might go all the way to the semis or crash and burn in the first round. These are the dark horses of the tournament...

 

However , this Draw has got similar matchups from World Cup Russia.

Saudi v Uruguay
England v Panama
Mexico v Korea
England v Croatia again but KO's

 

Seems like my games I have tickets for in Atlanta are:

South Africa v Denmark/Macedonia/Czech/Ireland

Spain v Saudi Arabia

I was right about Scotland facing Brazil though! Decided that if it is in Atlanta (2 or 3 days after i was due to leave) I'm just going to extend my stay!

 

Maybe they’ll tier the selections somehow?

 

I don't think we can always go by this though because they can still give Philly their Germany fix later and perhaps help a place that might be "struggling" with tickets.

 

There's Iranians and then there's the Persian Shahs of Sunset . Peace to everyone and my Persian soccer buddy growing up... "Beware of black ice" lol

 

When we did show n tell as kids in California... 90% of the class was German... I just remember a wall of German flags.
....
According to R.H. Tesene’s definitive book titled Santa Maria Style Barbecue, “In the 1950s, a local butcher named Bob Schutz perfected the tri-tip, which is a two to three pound triangular shaped cut off the top sirloin.”

German contribution to California bbq... Santa Maria steak

 

Both have German populations. FA of Germany would probably ask for Philly. Highest Ecuadorian population is NY, NJ, FL, CT. Actually Houston is indoor so reverse that... Preference would be Houston for the German team lol. Then an easy drive for Ecuadorians in NY NJ. Beef ribs or chopped beef sandwiches and whiz hmmmm... I love all this guessing...

 

Plus, I think Germany will ask for Philadelphia to avoid the excess travel in that group.

If they do it like the known groups, then I bet Germany plays in Philly-Toronto-Philly.

 

RTB question (@marianelah ) have they put those tickets in your account yet for you to be able to transfer to someone else?

 

A huge amount of the US population has German ancestry, but much of it comes from 19th century and earlier migration as opposed to recent immigrants with strong ties to die Mannschaft.

Though to the extent it matters, Houston is not terribly far from the Texas "German Belt" where Germans were the main settlers of many towns around Austin and San Antonio and linguists recognize a Texasdeutsch dialect, though it has mostly died out.

 

Oh man… i pray that M46 in Toronto is croatia…. if not, I’m sure there’s some big soccer members here I can sell England to FV or trade

 

Has anyone bought tickets off of StubHub? How does it work? When will I get my exact seats? Are you able to resell them if it’s not the match I want?

I want to get tickets in Seattle for the Qatar vs. UEFA Playoff winner which I hope will be Italy because I am an Italian. If Italy doesn’t make it I’m sure I can off load the tickets since Ireland or wales may play instead. Are you allowed to do that if you’re buying from StubHub?

 

That R32 game in Miami (match 86) could end up being Argentina v Uruguay. What a game to have that early in the tournament as a knockout

 

Here's my word-case scenario for San Francisco Bay Area games:
M8 (opening): Bosnia vs Qatar - what a flop that would be! Best case: Italy instead of Bosnia
M20: Algeria - Jordan
M31: Paraguay - Turkey
M44: Austria - Jordan
M60: Australia - Paraguay
M81: Senegal - Turkey
...though the latter could also be USA - Canada
Please FIFA give us Argentina for M20

 

Marquee matchup, highly doubt it's in the smaller 45k seat guadalajara.

 

I'd go here for StubHub's explanation.

https://support.stubhub.com/articles/61000310232-fifa-world-cup-2026-faqs

The short answer is that StubHub handles the money transaction and then the seller uses the FIFA transfer function to send you the ticket. They can wait a long time to do the transfer.

For what to do if you want to resell or something goes wrong, I'd say look in that FAQ for what the company says.

 

M8 is confirmed Qatar v Switzerland

 

For Guadalajara looks like it'll be:

M2: Korea vs UEFA (Denmark/Ireland/Macedonia/Czechia)
M28: Mexico vs Korea
M48: FIFA Playoffs vs Colombia
M66: Cape Verde vs Saudi

Excited if Colombia plays here as there'll probably be 30k Colombians in the crowd

 

My bet on the stadium selections:

1. Travel preference for Pot 1 (and then Pot 2) teams. This is what we have seen with Group A, Group B, and Group D.
2. Stadium balance - likely leaning towards big matches in larger stadiums, though making sure that every major host city gets a visit from a prominent national team or marquee matchup.
3. TV audience

Some interesting scenarios:

Group E has an easy travel preference example. One team gets to play a route of Philadelphia, Toronto, and NYC or Philadelphia again and avoids two matches in the US Midwest. My bet is that Germany gets this.

Group L has a tricky one involving #1 and #2. Dallas likely desperately wants that England-Croatia match, but this is otherwise a group based in the Northeast. So both teams might prefer Toronto, with one or the other playing in Toronto for their first two matches. I'm curious to see how the selections are here.

Kickoff times - an easy example is June 19. 2 matches on the East Coast, 2 matches on the West Coast. Scotland-Morocco has to be the early match of the day. I would say Brazil-Haiti next, then UEFA C v Paraguay in San Francisco, and then finally USA-Australia in Seattle.

 

No, not until May

 

The are not allowing the small stadiums to get the better matchups for the sake of the team.

 

Why would you buy off Stubhub now? I would try to win it in the lottery first. Qatar is going to be one of the least supported teams and I can't imagine all of the rest of the seats are going to be picked up by teams that are not qualified yet.