New York City Mayor Eric Adams, in collaboration with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, is making a strong bid to host the final match of the 2026 World Cup.
The United States, Canada, and Mexico are set to co-host the prestigious global soccer event, and the selection of the final venue is still underway.
Cities such as Dallas, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, and the state-of-the-art $5.5 billion SoFi Stadium are expected to compete for the opportunity.
However, Adams and Murphy emphasized, during a call with Reuters, that they firmly believe there is only one choice for the world’s biggest game to be played on the world’s biggest stage – New York/New Jersey.
“The biggest game should be played on the biggest stage and there is no stage bigger on the globe than this region,” Adams told Reuters.
A YouGov online survey of professional football fans from across the US released on Wednesday agreed with Adams and Murphy that New York/New Jersey was the preferred place for the final.
The survey found 21% of those polled wanted the final in New York/New Jersey followed by Los Angeles with 17% and Miami 10%.
But 25% polled expect to see Los Angeles awarded the marquee match with New York/New Jersey on 23%.
FIFA is expected to announce the locations for marquee games, including the World Cup Final, later this year.
Co-hosting is nothing new to New York/New Jersey, the cities having combined resources to stage the 2014 Super Bowl with New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium the venue for the game and New York providing the glitz and glamour.
The plan would be the same for the final with the 82,000 seat MetLife getting the match and the Big Apple being party central, hosting the many other events.
“If I had to guess we will get eight or nine games no matter what, that’s eight or nine Super Bowls in six weeks with an enormity of scale,” said Murphy. “Obviously we think we are absolutely well suited to host the final.
“It’s going to be a huge event unlike any other… this is sort of the grand daddy of them all.”
The New York/New Jersey pitch to FIFA will centre around the region’s diversity and experience staging big events.
New York is also one of the world’s largest media markets and has infrastructure in place to handle hundreds of thousands of visitors.
“No team or player will come to our region and feel homesick,” assured Adams. “You point to a country on the globe and you are going to find a community here.
“That is our biggest selling point, our diversity and how everyone is going to feel at home playing here.”
While the New York/New Jersey bid has its obvious strengths there are questions about violent crime which has made headlines recently.
“We are going to tell the real story,” said Adams. “We must now go in and get away from the fiction and show people the facts, this is the safest big city in America and we have one of the finest police departments on the globe and we know how to host big events.”