NEW YORK (AP) — The United States plans to co-host the 2031 World Cup with regional neighbors, the same structure being used for the men’s championship next year.
Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica were added Monday to the U.S. Soccer Federation proposal as co-hosts, the only bid to be considered when FIFA members meet April 30 to formally decide where the expanded 48-nation tournament will be played.
“This Women’s World Cup will be equal in every sense of the word to a men’s World Cup,” U.S. Soccer Federation president Cindy Parlow Cone said during a news conference, “not just in the number of teams and matches, but equal in the quality of the facilities, with the same type of travel, accommodations and support.”
She said more than 30 U.S. cities have expressed interest in hosting in 2031, when 104 games will be played. Decisions on stadiums likely won’t be made until 2027 at the earliest.
Next year’s men’s tournament will be played at 11 NFL stadiums, three in Mexico and two in Canada, with all games in the U.S. from the quarterfinals on.
FIFA, running the World Cup rather than a local organizing committee, is asking up to $6,730 list price for regular tickets and as much as $73,200 for an eight-game hospitality plan at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, site of the 2026 men’s final on July 19.
“The demand for the Women’s World Cup here is going to be incredible,” USSF CEO JT Batson said. “We see from our own pricing data of selling tickets for our men’s and women’s national team games that ticket prices are very similar.”
Batson said the USSF, FIFA, host federations and host cities will reflect on next summer’s tournament as part of planning for 2031.
The U.S. hosted the 1999 Women’s World Cup, which was expanded from 12 teams to 16, and 1.2 million fans attended the 32 matches.
“Women in general as they walk through the world is a political act. Women on a soccer field is more of a political act, saying to the world: I deserve to be here,” said Abby Wambach, the 2012 world player of the year. “In 1999, FIFA didn’t believe that the team could play in big football stadiums. And the organizing committee and the players said: No, we can do this. We will figure out how to sell this thing out.”
The U.S. is a four-time women’s champion. Canada was not included in the bid because it hosted the 2015 tournament.
The USSF and the Mexican Football Federation withdrew their joint bid to host the 2027 tournament in April 2024 and said they intended to focus on staging the 2031 event. Two weeks later, FIFA selected Brazil for 2027.
FIFA said this past April the USSF was the only bidder or the 2031 tournament. A United Kingdom plan by England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was the sole submission for 2035.
The U.S. also staged the 2003 tournament on four months’ notice after FIFA decided not to stick with the original host, China, where there was an outbreak of the SARS virus. Six venues were used for a schedule that included 15 doubleheaders, and the tournament drew about 680,000.
Wambach isn’t concerned the 2027 and 2031 tournaments will be streamed by Netflix in the U.S. rather than televised on a broadcast or cable network.
“Netflix is in a position to try fun, unique, different things that legacy media might not,” Wambach said. “Our women’s national team, we win World Cups, right? And so if we win World Cups, I don’t care who you are, you’re getting Netflix for that month.”
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
By RONALD BLUM
AP Sports Writer
