MetLife Stadium, much maligned for its synthetic turf playing surface during recent National Football League seasons, has been selected by FIFA to host the 2026 Word Cup final July 19, as well as seven other World Cup matches earlier in the tournament.
FIFA made the announcement Sunday.
As reported by The Sporting News, FIFA will require MetLife, located in East Rutherford, N.J., to install natural grass in some form or other for the right to be a World Cup host. Same goes for Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as well as any World Cup venue without natural grass as its primary playing surface.
SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., features grass, just not enough of it. In order to expand its playing surface for soccer, the stadium will install retractable corner seats.
According to The Associated Press, work begins today to preparation SoFi for hosting eight matches during the 2026 World Cup. Los Angeles Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff told the AP the construction involves replacing concrete in the corners of the lower bowl with bleacher risers that can be rolled back during soccer matches.
The changes should end years of reported concerns from various soccer entities about the width of the soccer fields that will fit inside the stadium, which was primarily designed to host two NFL teams on American football’s narrower field.
“It’s really just changing pre-cast concrete in the corners of the stadium to a more retractable system,” Demoff said Sunday. “We’ll have the exact same seating capacity, exact same format and layout. The only difference will be a few of the rows in the corners will be on retractable seating versus permanent seating.”
The construction at the multibillion-dollar stadium project is scheduled to be completed by May, in time for Copa America matches in June and a possible Arsenal exhibition match later in the summer. The renovations, which will stay in place after the World Cup for future years of soccer competition, will be paid for by stadium owner Stan Kroenke, who also owns the Rams, Arsenal and the NBA champion Denver Nuggets, the AP's Greg Beacham reported.
For the World Cup, the stadium will play a prominent role, hosting the U.S. men’s national team’s opener and two of its three group play matches.
SoFi will host five preliminary-round games in all, followed by two round-of-32 knockout matches before a quarterfinal on July 10, 2026.
