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

I think everything sells out personally. I don't think FIFA cares about casual fans as much as sponsors and luxury fans... in which case stadiums like Dallas and LA (I am not familiar with NY) with there insane amount of suites will have the edge of the marquee matchups.

 

Also there are going to be A LOT of bad matchups. The increase in teams means that there will be a lot of group stage games that are very eh...
Pot examples using FIFA rankings top 16 in UEFA plus standings in other Confederations

Pot 1:
Mexico, Canada, USA, Argentina, France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, Portugal, Netherlands, Italy

Pot 2:
Colombia, Germany, Croatia, Morocco, Uruguay, Japan, Switzerland, Iran, Denmark, South Korea, Austria

Pot 3:
Australia, Ukraine, Turkey, Ecuador, Sweden, Wales, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, Panama, Ivory Coast, Tunisia

Pot 4:
Qatar, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Jamaica, Bolivia, Uzbekistan, Iraq, New Zealand, Senegal, South Africa, Saudi Arabia

There will be Pot 2 teams that are already meh draws.

Canada, Iran, Ukraine, New Zealand as a group lol; but on the flip side... Argentina, Germany, Sweden, Senegal would be awesome.

 

Would have been more awesome if only 24 teams advanced to the KO stage. But $€$€$€ is more important.

 

Agreed. I loved the idea of top 8 group winners get byes and only 24 making it. Would have made the group stage soooooo much fun and meaningful.

 

Football Meets Data, one of the better football data visualisation twitter accounts, do a World Cup pot projection after every round of qualifiers.

Their recent one from last month:

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It goes with the assumption that the six playoff teams will be in Pot Four since all the playoffs are after the draw (like what we've seen with the last few Euro Tournaments).

It won't be like that later 100% of course, Germany can probably jump into Pot 1 by then, some others will miss out, the four European teams can be quite different depending how the draw goes (go Sweden). The possible groups and matchups aren't that bad but I wouldn't travel out of my way to Panama vs. Jordan

 

@themanlarry That's good stuff. In the past the Pots 1 and 2 contained Pots 1,2,3 and there are very few teams in Pot 2 I wouldn't be excited to see. You get the occasional meh matchup but it was an exception not the rule. Now with Pots 3 vs 4 you are going to have a lot of matchups that won't be exciting. Sure you could get Europe playoff teams vs Africa which will be exciting, and any Central American team will have a great atmosphere, but there will be matchups that will not be exciting. I will still go to them lol.

 

The above graphic also assumes that all the favorites will advance. Pot 2 will likely end up being weaker than it looks at the moment.

 

I agree - everything will sell out in the sales windows. I don't think they will flex venues.

They cant do that for the matches involving groups A, B and C as the host matches are fixed.
To do it for the other groups could only be done AFTER the draw, which would mean fans could only plan logistics AFTER the draw as your wouldn't know what you were buying in terms of city.
I can see them moving the TIMES of the matches but not the stadia or the dates.

Now - with respect to big stadia having 'non-big' matches (whatever they are) after the draw, that will be reflected in the resale market. But that wont be FIFA's problem

Please see below:

FIFA World Cup 26™ | Match schedule, final and opening match

 

I personally feel FIFA will list which which teams are heading to which stadium fairly quickly post draw.... like within a week or so. Normally, you know exactly what your team's route is post draw, I think they will wait a week. Still gives 7 months for logistics, what does another week matter?

Look, I would love it if FIFA decides that M40 is G1 vs G3 instead of G2 vs G4 pre draw.... I just don't think they will. In the past they had made sure that seeded teams always were X1. So they would make sure that seeded teams had preferred locations. I have no idea why they didn't do that this time. They could have saved us all the headaches as put G1 vs G3 in LA and G2 vs G4 in Vancouver but they deviated from their normal methods, have to be some reason why.

Personally, my plans are pretty static regardless. I have acquired all the RTBs I need for M32. Every one of my applications will have M14 (ATL), M27 (VAN), M32 (SEA USA), M40 (VAN). I will then head somewhere closer to home after M40 or maybe down to Mexico for M47 or M54, but if FIFA released that something one of those days was a seeded team, I would prefer that. After those games, I am pure knockout, M88 (DAL) and M90 (HOU).

Those 7 matches would be the absolute dream scenario for me.

 

they will sell a lot, but no way everything sells out, that's impossible

 

correct. That was my proposal!
It would have meant, that teams compete for top spot in a group.
now second hand line up in the last group match when a team has already qualified.

As a funny coincidence it was much similar to UCL nowadays with the top 8 get a bye and 9th to 24th having an extra play off round.

Mr. Ceferin, if you read this, please send me royalties.

 

It would have been bad for traveling though not knowing if you have to book hotels last second or wait a few more days due to byes.

 

I see no significant difference, many teams will not know their next destination until last games are played anyway and it wasn‘t much different in the past either, no matter if we are talking 36 teams or 24 teams tournament. it is no coincidence that round of 16 and quarterfinals were rarely sold out

 

True, but it does make a difference if you are traveling across from one part of the continent to the other. Every little thing counts in World Cups that are going to be bigger and more expansive.

 

I could possibly see that logic - although how attractive that is, am not sure. The groups for each stadium in the group stage have been fixed. Now - MAYBE - they could switch matches to venues that have a LOT of hospitality seats (Jerryworld [Dallas] and NY come to mind. My base thinking is they will have such strong sales in the ballots there will be no point.
I HOPE the people who think they wont sell strongly are correct - but I have been at high profile events in the US and am very bullish.

(Look at the RTB interest).

 

But why not just do what they did in the past and make Seeded teams X1 and put them where they want? Surely Dallas will get the Pot 1 teams in almost every battle.

I do also think that every games sells out with high demand. If you follow the pattern of USA getting the bigger matchup over Mexico/Canada and LA/Dallas/NY getting the bigger matchup. You are left with exactly 7 battles. 3 pick'ems: 1 KC vs SF, 1 Hou vs Phl, 1 Bos vs Phl.... And then the reason this whole conversation is actually happening.... the 4 Atlanta vs Miami matchups.

Atlanta vs Miami is probably the entire reason FIFA wants the flex. You have one of their bigger sponsors vs the unofficial Latin capital of the USA. Something like Ecuador vs Panama in Atlanta would be meh, but in Miami would be a hot ticket with an amazing atmosphere. If the other matchup is Netherlands vs Denmark, Atlanta would be happy to have game instead. Both sides would be happy.

 

And being flexible with the locations also helps them be flexible with the timeslots. They can put Netherlands vs. Denmark in an early Europe-friendly timeslot in Atlanta, while if it's locked into Miami, the early slots are a bad idea there.

 

Ahhh good point.

It looks like all the bad weather during the midday stadiums are in the Eastern Region. KC is rarely awful in June. All the flex positions between the Northeast cities are all the same as they will either all be in a heat wave or none of them will be and none of them are domed.

So we are back that all of this is the to flex Atlanta vs Miami.

 

Apart from the hosts and the holders -in the days when the holder automatically qualified - I cant recall when, if ever, the top seed was put into a particular group That has been done by draw of the ball.
So, for example - Brazil are drawn in group C - they could flex them between New York and Boston for their first match. If you do anything further than that - you might as well draw the routes through the tournament BEFORE the tournament. This is football - not tennis.

 

2006, Brazil were pre drawn as the seed in group F to make sure they played in 60k+ stadiums.

 

many times, the best known is 1990 sending england to sardinia and germany to milano

 

Time zones can also be a factor. If there's a choice between Kansas City or Santa Clara, and one of the games has Japan or Australia, that's ideal for the latest timeslot that can only work in Pacific Time.

 

The less said about that draw the better. The draw was 'arranged'. England's group was known one day before..
It was to stop the threat of hooliganism.

 

This almost definitely not going to matter. Groups A and B have time zone switches in their groups but those are host groups so they can't change anything. Group E has a 1 hour time difference between 2 match days. Only Group J has 2 hour time zone differences like you describe.

 

It might be related to how they try to have teams play at a time that is convenient (to the extent feasible) for people watching on TV back in the countries that are involved.

But Brazil were the holders so that's not an exception.