Where to watch the World Cup 2026 cities announcement

You can watch the World Cup 2026 cities announcement on TV to learn which cities have the honor of hosting soccer’s premier competition across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

On Thursday, June 16, FIFA names the host cities and stadiums for the 2026 World Cup. The shortlist is already down to 23 cities. In that list, there are three from Mexico, three from Canada and a remaining 17 from the United States. There is no set term on how many cities will host.

The cities vying to be announced as host are: Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Edmonton, Guadalajara, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, Monterrey, Nashville, New York/New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington DC/Baltimore.

Something to keep in mind is the fact that the 2026 World Cup features 48 teams, a 12-team jump from the current set of nations. As a consequence, there are scheduled to be 16 groups of three teams. In total, there are to be 80 matches in total. In comparison, the current format of 32 teams has 64 games played.

Watch the World Cup 2026 cities announcement

You can live stream the World Cup 2026 announcement in both English and Spanish.

For English-language fans, watch the World Cup 2026 cities announcement on FS1 beginning at 5PM ET.

In terms of Spanish-language broadcasts, Telemundo Deportes will air the announcement live on Universo beginning at 5PM ET on Thursday (FS1 and Universo are available via fuboTV). The Universo channel has titled their broadcast Rumbo al Mundial 2026: Ciudades sede, which simply translates to “Road to the World Cup 2026: Host Cities.”

FOX Sports and Telemundo Deportes air a one-hour joint production that originates from the FOX Studios in New York City. FOX Sports’ Rob Stone and Jenny Taft and Telemundo Deportes’ Andres Cantor and Ana Jurka will serve as the hosts for the event. Stone and Jurka will pair up to cover the main stage, while Cantor and Taft anchor the action from the Plaza.

This is the first tournament to be joint hosted by three countries. In the past, there are instances of two countries hosting the World Cup, such as Japan and South Korea in 2002. However, each of the three nations hosting the 2026 World Cup has experience with major FIFA competitions. For example, the United States hosted the World Cup in 1994. Before then, Mexico hosted the competition twice. The first one was in 1970. Sixteen years later, Mexico hosted the 1986 World Cup. Finally, Canada hosted the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. While it is a smaller tournament on the grand scale, it still welcomed 24 teams.

It is a stark jump from 2022 to 2026. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar is the most dense World Cup in the history of the competition. There are eight stadiums in five host ‘cities’, even though most of those cities are just outskirts of Doha. In 2026, it will be the most spread out tournament in history.

Potential World Cup cities

As stated, there are 23 potential cities across the three countries. However, there is no designation as to how many cities will be in a certain country. The general feel, at least before the announcement, is that FIFA will select three Mexican cities, two Canadian cities and 11 cities in the U.S. However, this could change.

The three Mexican venues, Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City are all but assured. Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium is in the running to host the Final, as it did in both 1970 and 1986. Pelé and Maradona won World Cups in that vaunted stadium.

Canada could see its three candidates host games as well. BC Place in Vancouver hosted the 2015 Women’s World Cup Final. However, it only just reentered its name for consideration in March of this year, replacing Montreal. Vancouver originally withdrew from consideration in 2018 after concerns of financial transparency and how much it would have to pay to bring World Cup games to the city.

In the U.S., it is anyone’s guess which cities and stadiums host World Cup games. Certain venues are guarantees. For example, the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and AT&T Stadium in Dallas are all sure-fire bids. However, with the likelihood of 11 cities, there are plenty of other options both big and small up for consideration.