Football Ground Map
Football Ground Map
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar is just around the corner, but all eyes in North America are already focused on the 2026 edition of FIFA's flagship tournament, which will be jointly hosted by 3 countries - Mexico, USA and Canada.
The USA will host the majority of the games in 11 different stadiums around the country. Mexico will host matches in three of its biggest arenas with 2 stadiums in Canada also to be used.
Whilst Canada doesn't have the most illustrious footballing history, it is a good bet to host an amazing tournament and sites such as PowerPlay are already looking forward to it. In the feature we'll look at the two Canadian stadiums which will host World Cup matches in 2026.
The Commonwealth Stadium is the largest sports stadium in Canada - its 56,000 capacity making it just bigger than Montreal's Olympic Stadium and BC Place in Vancouver. That's quite a feat when you consider that Edmonton's population of 930,000 makes it only the 5th largest city in the country, way behind the 2.7m inhabitants of Toronto or 1.7m who live in Montreal.
The stadium was first opened in 1978 for the Commonwealth Games. It is now home to the Edmonton Elks Canadian football team (a slight twist on American football, which is played north of the border).
The Commonwealth Stadium has hosted numerous Canadian men's national team matches as well as the U20 World Cup and Women's World Cup games at various age ranges. It also hosted the 2001 World Athletics Championships as well as numerous rugby international matches.
The other Canadian stadium set to be used in the 2026 World Cup is BMO Field, home to MLS Eastern Conference side Toronto FC.
The stadium was first opened in 2007 at a cost of $63m, but its current 30,000 capacity is below FIFA's standards for hosting the World Cup. However, the stadium is due to be expanded shortly to a capacity of around 45,500 - just over FIFA's 40,000 capacity threshold.
This will be BMO Field's second expansion. The first in 2016 saw another tier added to the grandstand, a new roof and the lengthening of the field to make it suitable for Canadian football - the stadium has been home to the Toronto Argonauts ever since. The cost of that expansion was an estimated $120m.
Whilst still less than 15 years old, the stadium has hosted a number of prestigious matches including the MLS Cup final on 3 occasions.
It was also the venue for the 2014 International Champions Cup as Olympiacos beat AC Milan 3-0.
2 FIFA tournaments have already been played there with BMO Field hosting 12 matches at the 2007 U20 World Cup, including a quarter final, semi final, 3rd place play off and the final. Argentina beat Czech Republic 2-1 to claim the cup. It was also the venue for 7 matches at the 2014 U20 Women's World Cup including North Korea's penalty shoot-out victory over the United States in the quarter final.
In addition, BMO Field has also hosted friendlies for several European heavyweights including Benfica, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Paris St Germain and Roma.
The two Canadian stadiums will share hosting futures with 3 from Mexico and 11 from the USA. Mexico's 3 stadiums have been confined as:
17 potential venues in the United States will be cut down to a final list of 11 closer to the tournament start date. Only 2 of the 17 currently host Major League Soccer - Seattle Sounders' Lumen Field and Atlanta United's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
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All good things have to come to an end, and the same unfortunately has to be said for football stadiums too. This article looks at the grounds which are soon to host their last match, the stadiums whose days are numbered and where fans will be watching their football from next.