Denver is one of 17 candidates across the country vying for a spot. Ten will be chosen.
DENVER — Denver packs Empower Field at Mile High for Broncos games every season. Now, the city is working to prove it’s ready to host the world’s biggest soccer tournament.
Members of soccer’s international governing body, FIFA, will tour the Mile High City Monday as they decide whether Denver will be on the list of cities hosting the 2026 World Cup in North America.
Denver is one of 17 candidates across the country vying for a spot. Ten will be chosen.
“When you look at our track record, it’s clear to me that it would be a real mistake for FIFA to pass us up,” said marketing professor Darrin Duber-Smith, a senior lecturer at Metropolitan State University of Denver. “It would be a really good step for Denver to garner global recognition.”
Duber-Smith said Denver has a lot going for it–especially a track record of hosting major events, even just this year.
“We’ve proven that we can turn on a dime,” Duber-Smith said. “We got the All-Star game here and within a couple of months we had a successful All-Star weekend.”
The city also hosted the CONCACAF Nations League Final in June, which some saw as a dry run to see how Denver would do hosting a major soccer game. Now, the focus will be on showing off everything else Denver has to offer.
The games would be played at Empower Field at Mile High, which opened in 2001. Other cities on the list, like Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta, have newer billion-dollar stadiums. Still, Duber-Smith said that’s one of Denver’s only challenges when it comes to the bid.
“A world-class city has a world-class transportation structure. It’s got world-class lodging, food. It’s large enough to be able to accommodate hundreds of thousands of visitors. It’s got one of the busiest airports in the world every year. We have that, and definitely they’re looking at that,” Duber-Smith said.
FIFA will host the 2026 World Cup in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. It’s not clear yet exactly when FIFA will decide which American cities will get to host games.
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