CINCINNATI — Cincinnati will not be a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, soccer's governing body announced Thursday.
Instead, the host cities are: Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Guadalajara, Kansas City, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Monterrey, Mexico City, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami and New York/New Jersey.
"I want to personally thank this community, our county and city government officials along with our corporate and civic leaders for supporting us in our efforts to bring the World Cup to Cincinnati," said Jeff Berding, Co-CEO of FC Cincinnati. "Even though this bid may not have been successful, I feel the process has set us up for future successful bids that will enhance our city and raise our international profile."
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval said they were proud of the effort, hoping Cincinnati will get another opportunity to showcase itself on the world stage.
"It was an honor to be in the running for the FIFA World Cup 2026, and the spotlight on Cincinnati as a potential host city provided a platform to show all that Cincinnati has to offer to an international audience," DeWine said.
Carl Linder III, who was instrumental in Cincinnati having a shot at the World Cup, said he has his eyes on the future.
"One example of that is that Jeff (Berding) and I are going to work hard to try to get an MLS All-Star Game here," Linder said. "We'd love to see a nice convention hotel."
Linder said they're in the midst of conversations to bring an All-Star Game some time between 2025 and 2027.
"Maybe a FIFA Women's World Cup, maybe the Rugby World Cup, big concerts," Berding said. "We'll have a mixed-use development around our stadium. We have a lot more to do."
While Cincinnati was not selected, it's clear the Queen City has grown into a soccer city in a short amount of time. Before the establishment of FC Cincinnati as a USL team in 2015, most Cincinnatians likely wouldn't have dreamed their city would be considered as a World Cup host city, but the past seven years have seen increased fan bases and enthusiasm for the world's most popular sport in the Queen City.
From humble beginnings
FC Cincinnati's debut revealed a deep love of soccer in the fabric of this city's culture. From the start of the team's United Soccer League run, fans packed Nippert Stadium at the University of Cincinnati to watch the orange-and-blue team.
By its second season, FC Cincinnati was already smashing USL attendance records — a trend that continued through the team's entire USL run until they stepped onto the field as a Major League Soccer team in 2019.
Fans showed up again and again — even when their team wasn't a winning one.
In 2018, the team's final season in the USL, it broke its own league attendance record when 31,478 people packed Nippert Stadium to see FC Cincinnati take on Indy Eleven.
In addition to that record, the team also held five other USL attendance records, including total season attendance (437,197), average attendance (25,717), season-opener attendance (25,667), midweek attendance (22,407) and season ticket sales (18,007).
In its final year as a USL team,FC Cincinnati clinched the USL regular-season title during a winning streak that ran 20 games strong — setting another USL record as the winningest club in league history.
FC Cincinnati enters the major leagues
Cincinnati began courting the MLS long before they were selected as an expansion team in 2019. Multiple invitations to visit were extended to MLS commissioner Don Garber in an attempt to garner recognition for a team with eyes on bigger prizes.
FC Cincinnati's average attendance through its USL run was roughly 17,300 fans — better than five already existing MLS franchises.
In 2018, Garber formally invited the Orange and Blue to join the league starting in 2019, a full year earlier than initially planned. Thousands of fans packed watch parties at Fountain Square and Rhinegeist Brewery when Cincinnatians saw their team announced as the latest professional soccer city.
WATCH: Relive the moment Cincinnati learned they would join the MLS
And now, Cincinnati hopes to do the same for the World Cup.
Stepping out onto a global stage
FC Cincinnati's debut in the MLS was, unfortunately, marred with losses and the team again found themselves breaking records — this time for most goals allowed in a single season and the longest losing streak not involving a sudden-death shootout.
But through it all, the fans still showed up.
The team hasn't managed to re-capture the winning streaks they enjoyed during their USL year, but attendance at the newly-built TQL Stadium has remained consistently strong season after season — with the exception of the 2020, which was capped short and played without fans while the COVID-19 pandemic raged.
When fans were allowed to return to FC Cincinnati games, they did so in force for the 2021 season. So much so that, in July, officials announced TQL Stadium would become a global stage, hosting the United States Women's National Team in a friendly match against Paraguay in September 2021.
The Women's World Cup champions, featuring hometown hero Rose Lavelle, dominated Paraguay in that match, winning 8-0 in the first U.S. Soccer event held at TQL Stadium.
Just two months later, the same field would play host to a World Cup qualifying match between rival teams Mexico and the U.S. Men's National Team.
“When you talk about great rivalries in our sport, USA-Mexico is one of the best,” U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Gregg Berhalter said on July 28, 2021. “We are fortunate to have so many great venue options in this country, and for this match, Cincinnati ticks all the boxes. This is a special game that requires a special atmosphere, and we know it’s one that Cincinnati will provide.”
The qualifier game brought more out-of-towners to Cincinnati specifically for soccer than ever before. A sold-out crowd of 26,000 people packed into TQL Stadium to watch the game — and those fans also packed area hotels and restaurants, bringing in the biggest tourism weekend Cincinnati had seen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
TQL Stadium again hosted the USMNT in June for the first preparation match for this year's World Cup. The U.S. team went head-to-head against Morocco in front of a crowd of 24,002 — a slightly diminished attendance from the game against Mexico the previous year and one that was full of international supporters.
U.S. captain Christian Pusilic expressed criticism of the lack of U.S. support he said he saw at the game.
“For whatever reason, I’m not super happy with the amount of Americans here, however, that works out, if I’m being completely honest," the 23-year-old Chelsea forward told a live audience on ESPN2. “But thanks to the ones who did come, and the support is always great from them."
2026 World Cup aspirations
Cincinnati was named one of 16 U.S. cities and23 North American cities considered to host a World Cup game.
Hamilton County commissioners voted to authorize a revised contract with FIFA on June 1, keeping Cincinnati in the running as a host city but what that contract says hasn't been revealed. The original contract laying out improvements that must be made to Paul Brown Stadium to host a game — all 236 pages of it — was delivered to commissioners by FIFA on May 21, with the request that it be signed in just 10 days.
Per the original contract from FIFA, Paul Brown Stadium would have needed a new, natural pitch as well as a drainage and irrigation system. The estimated cost of that was $4 million and the replacement must have been done by the summer of 2025.
The field would also have been expanded, per FIFA's requirements. In order to do that, field corners would have needed to be removed, as well as roughly 1800 seats. The cost for that work is roughly $6 million.
Other requirements FIFA sought included upgrades to lighting, wifi, suite seating, concessions and more, some of which are already part of the Paul Brown capital master plan.
Hours before the commission was scheduled to vote on the contract, local business leaders penned a letter promising to raise the funds needed to cover the cost of alterations to Paul Brown Stadium in order to guarantee Cincinnati's consideration as a host city.
Supporters of the World Cup have said hosting it would bring a big economic boom; a UC economic study estimates a $450 million economic impact from non-local tourists, as well as the creation of 3,000 jobs.
