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

looking forward to the 32s... even if South Korea finishes second and hits LA... K-Town will go nuts! As far as Iran... 95% of Beverly Hills is Iranians.. doubt any Iran match is cheap. There's close to 1 Million Iranians in Socal... and they're wealthy

 

I think it's more that Mexico getting a clear second-tier set of matches would cause a problem for FIFA.

Mexico has more heft in the sport than Canada.

 

For Canada, part of it is that their stadiums are smaller than all US stadiums. For Vancouver, the only two group stage matches that weren't locked in due to host team scheduling are in Group G, which lost some drawing power by getting Belgium as the Pot 1 team. For MD2 they put Belgium-Iran in LA no doubt to sell tickets to a big base of Iran fans there, and for MD3, they probably considered Iran the biggest potential draw again and put Iran in the bigger stadium in Seattle.

In Toronto, the matchdays that weren't locked were:

Ghana-Panama in Toronto vs. England-Croatia in Dallas. FIFA is obviously going to put the big Euro matchup in the huge Dallas stadium.

Germany-Ivory Coast in Toronto vs. Ecuador-Curacao in Kansas City. Toronto got the better in this pair.

Croatia-Panama in Toronto vs. England-Ghana in Boston. Again putting England in the bigger stadium is going to outweigh other factors. Toronto does have a big Croatian community.

Senegal-Iraq playoff group in Toronto vs. France-Norway in Boston. Once more stadium size; probably the most interesting all-Euro group match wasn't going to go to the tournament's smallest stadium.

 

Houston has 4 pot1 team matches. It’s basically Ronaldo’s home. They did move one match; M66 away from Houston to Guadalajara. Where did Mexico benefit exactly?

Monterrey has 3 DUDs.. Guadalajara got Colombia... because Ronaldo is playing in Houston the same day.

Realistically sending Cape Verde v KSA to Guadalajara would guarantee an empty stadium

 

Does anyone know if there will be TST7s this time around? (I guess now it's TST8 )

 

I see You’ve been away for a while. lol that product died in Qatar. Profit is the game in 2026… there’s no profit in that product

 

Huge bummer but makes sense, it was fun while it lasted! What strategy is everyone using to try and follow a team until the end? FA tickets? Or just best guess of where they end up in the group and buying tickets accordingly?

 

There's really only 2 other games that fit into the Socceroos schedule that I'll be chasing up. Belgium v Egypt and Jordan v Algeria. Both a few days before Australia's games. I don't mind it as tickets will be relatively easy to get and not super expensive. This trip will be costing a bomb and paying exhortatant prices for potential premium matches which turn into bore fests isn't too appealing. Would rather get a cheap ticket and hope for a 3-3 crazy draw etc between a couple of no names. I enjoy the passion and joy from the lesser countries and what it means to them. Haven't really decided if I'll be staying on if Australia makes r32. Have r32 NY tickets but might do a swap etc if we play Iran in Dallas (2D v 2G). Very happy with the draw overall. 3 competitive games that could go either way. There’s nothing special about the Socceroos. Our coach Tony Popovic specialises in 1-0 smash and grab type wins so the USA better watch out.....

 

Excited for Spain v Saudi. Saudi did the impossible last time!

 

And that was the intent of FIFA and everyone except maybe Peter. Canada was always a tack-on for the bid to be ignored afterwards. And Big Vic thinks Canada should be grateful for these matches.

In March, with the fairly decent canopy @ Hard Rock, 5 PM will be the same as 8 PM. No marine layer to cool things off quickly...unless you count the torrential downpours. From the scheduling it seems clear that the meteorologist told them any time after 4 is all about the same at pitch level, unless you want one of those 10pm starts.

Thank goodness it's the Rangers off-day during a 6 day homestand. (They make the Twins play the next afternoon before flying out.) Probably best to keep the English from insulting baseball fans...and the Rangers fans replying in full force. Worth going to Dallas just for Texas Live!

 

Some of you guys have a very 1980's view of England fans.

 

I can imagine English fans tussling with other fan groups this Summer. This still happens more than it should wherever England goes.

 

As I've been where England go for the last few years I think your imagination is running a little wild.

People's views are skewed by the history and, sadly, by the England v Italy Euro final, which was primarily non football supporters or, at least, not the regulars who follow the England team. We had over 3000 fans in Qatar, in close contract with supporters from every other competing nation, and no trouble at all.

Unfortunately your view is common amongst European police forces who still police us as if it was the 1980's. Sorry to write an essay but it's a bit of a bugbear of mine. I lived through the bad times for English football and we're a world away from that.

 

England fans literally fought with Serbia fans in 2024 in Gelsenkirchen.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cd117ry8gj7o

And in 2016 with Russian fans in Marseille.

https://time.com/4371606/euro-2016-fan-violence-hooligan-england/

 

Serbia was a relatively small incident. We had 30,000 fans in Germany and that was the only flashpoint. I can't believe you've brought up Marseille where England fans were the victims.

Marseille was the classic case of Russians fighting history not the reality of today.

I'm not saying that nothing ever happens, but whenever hooliganism is mentioned it's predominantly talking about England and it's just not anything like that anymore.

 

The word I used was tussle. And I said wherever England goes, not that they were hooligans or any of the rest of what you’re projecting from your defensiveness.

The Scottish and Irish (if they make it) will be the life of the party and a joy to be around.

 

I'm not defensive, I'm just fed up of the stereotype and whatever the language, your comment did play into that for me. If that wasn't your intention then I apologise.

I'm sure the Scots and Irish will be the life of the party. I've had a great time in both places recently when we've played them without any aggro.

 

Both times it was the England fans that were attacked. The Russian hooligans were authorised by the Russian Government as a message not to cause trouble in Russia two years later.

I saw lots of trouble in Brazil during the 2014 World Cup. Mexicans and Croatians had a large fight behind the goal during the match in Recife. Bizarrely not reported. There was also a large scale fight between Brazilians and Argentinians, obviously not at a match. That was reported in Brazil but no-one in England knew there had been any trouble. Chileans breaking into the Maracana and ending up in a media room was amusing.

It is very unlikely England fans will cause any trouble in the USA, or in Mexico if they reach the R16 match there.

 

Some of the Scottish will be too drunk to stand up. If that is the life of the party I wouldn't like to see the death of it. Some of them will be fine. You haven't half swallowed some stereotypes.

 

I would have quite liked Uruguay v Cape Verde tbh, but I suppose we’ll either see a shock or a drubbing. But I guess the Latino factor for Miami was too strong to ignore?

 

I'm pretty sure there will be other drunken fans there too but maybe that doesn't fit your narrative.

 

Maybe in Europe possibly but it's a different class of fan travelling all that way and spending money the majority of yobs don't have.
England will be no trouble.

 

You really don't have a clue do you?

 

Pretty sure I saw an English guy beat the $#!+ out of some Latino guy in front of a bar in Barcelona. Also the brawl that happened in front of me on the train coming back from the semifinal vs Croatia lol. Not to mention the drunk English guys on the subway in New York saying "let's find some Italians (to beat up)" All in the last few years. Alcohol + England is crazy. Probably cause no one has guns in England.

It's fun to watch tbh... Part of the flavor of the games. That English vs Russia brawl during France 2016 looked amazing.

I want to see Argentina share a stadium with England. Those are the two group of fans that just seem can do anything.

86, 98, 02 looked like amazing games.

 

Look, no-one is saying that there aren't some English fans who will fight. Pretty much every country has some - there were fights between US and Mexican fans last year, Dutch, German, Italian and Polish fans aren't all choirboys.

My complaint is that there is this stereotype that whenever England travel there is an overlarge minority who are looking for trouble and, these days, that just isn't true.

I'm a reasonably Johnny Come Lately to following England away. I did the group stage in Qatar and I've done nearly every away game since and in all those games there has been almost no trouble. That small fight in Gelsenkirchen is the exception. In places like Sofia, Naples and Belgrade we were the ones being warned about our safety