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FIFA World Cup announced Atlanta will host five group stage matches along with a Round of 32, Round of 16 and semifinal knockout matches, all to be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2026.
ATLANTA – Atlanta sports leaders say they are thrilled after FIFA announced on Sunday that the city was chosen to host 8 matches in the 2026 World Cup, including a semi-final match.
Atlanta will host five group stage matches along with a Round of 32, Round of 16 and semifinal knockout matches, all to be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Dan Corso, president of the Atlanta Sports Council, says they were anticipating the city would get a healthy number of games, but were blown away by receiving 8. These games are expected to bring hundreds of thousands of international and domestic fans into the metro area.
"With the strength of Mercedes-Benz stadium, with our connectivity to the world with our airport, and our history of hosting big sporting events, combined with support from the city, support from the state, all of that is just a great formula to host the biggest sporting event in the world, to have 8 matches and a semifinal, we're so thrilled," Corso said.
The 8 matches in 2026 include one of the two semifinal games. FOX 5 Sports’ Kelly Price has more.
The potential economic impact is huge. City leaders were originally basing their economic impact projection on Atlanta hosting 6 games. With the addition of the semi-final match, the dollars could be in the hundreds of millions.
An analysis by the Boston Consulting Group estimates around $400 million dollars in net economic benefit for the metro area.
While the city still has two years to prepare, Corso says Atlanta is already perfectly suited to handle the influx of people and the challenges they may pose.
The U.S. team will play its opener at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on June 12, then play a week later at Lumen Field in Seattle. They'll return to California to finish the group stage at SoFi on June 25.
The World Cup group stage format for 2026 was changed to 12 groups of four teams from 16 groups of three teams, increasing the total to 104 matches from 64 in the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
To win a World Cup, a nation will have to play eight games, up from the seven in place since 1974.
The top two teams in each group and the top eight third-place teams will advance to a new round of 32 that starts the knockout phase. Advancement for third-place teams was eliminated for 1998, when the tournament expanded from 24 teams to 32.
More matches mean more content for television broadcasters and more tickets to sell, increasing revenue for FIFA. The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be broadcast on FOX.
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