This Thursday a strange friction emerged between the high command of the FIFA and the family Kronke, owner of SoFi Stadium, one of the two newest and most modern stadiums in the United States and is currently one of the headquarters for the 2026 North American World Cup and in fact one of the possible venues for the Final.
Currently two NFL teams regularly play in this stadium, both representing the city of Los Angeles: Rams y Chargers and it was also the headquarters of the Super Bowl LVI.
According to The Athletic, the reason would be that there is still no agreement on how revenue will be shared between FIFA, cities and stadiums during the World Cup.
In this approach, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE)the company that owns the property even “threatened to abandon talks with the World Cup Organizing Committee unless FIFA renegotiated the agreement.”
“We are not clear if this is a negotiation technique or a real threat that could end in the withdrawal of the stadium for the World Cup,” adds the report.
SoFi Stadium, one of the most spectacular stadiums in the world
He SoFi It is the most expensive stadium in the history of the United States, with an estimated cost of more than $5 billion, with a capacity for 80,000 spectators.
It opened its doors for the first time in 2020 and will be the main property for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028, in addition to already hosting a Super Bowl, in 2022.
For its part, The Sunday Times explains that there is another important problem with this property: the field is excessively narrow so thousands of seats would have to be removed in the first rows of the stands, so the capacity would be less than the 80 thousand fans requested by FIFA for an event of this importance.
Which stadium will host the 2026 World Cup?
In addition to SoFi, the other favorite stadiums to host the 2026 World Cup Final would be the AT&T Stadium in Dallas and MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Both are also a little more than a decade old, are used in the NFL and exceed the capacity of 80 thousand seats, in addition to the stadium of the Cowboys houses the largest television screen in the world.
In the event of a possible decrease in SoFi, Mexico and Canada, co-organizers of the event, could receive more than a dozen matches in the championship, an amount they already have scheduled at this time. In fact, Mexico is requesting the opening match for the Azteca Stadium.
But all these decisions depend exclusively on FIFA, including the restructuring of the calendar and venues. The groups will be divided into zones, he explained Víctor Montagliani, president of Concacaf.
“You cannot have teams that travel from Los Angeles to New York and therefore they will be divided by zones. There will be a group that plays in Boston, Philadelphia and New York, another that goes to Vancouver and Seattle, as well as one that is in Los Angeles and San Francisco”, commented the organization’s boss.
2023-09-22 01:18:00
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