St. Louis selected as potential 'home away from home' for World Cup teams in 2026 – St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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Renderings for Kauffman Stadium’s 2026 World Cup plan in Kansas City, Kan., account for the modifications required by FIFA, which include expanding the width of the playing surface. Courtesy of Katherine Holland, director of KC2026 World Cup bid (Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation)
St. Louis is on the list of cities that could be used as a team base camp for the World Cup in 2026, FIFA announced Wednesday.
The United States, Canada and Mexico will share the host role for the FIFA event, which is held every four years.
The 48 teams involved will be able to choose a base camp to hold training sessions.
No World Cup matches will be played in St. Louis. Kansas City is the closest location where contests will take place. Teams that will play there have the option of staying in Kansas City or choosing a nearby city to call its home base for the five-week event.
The draw for the tournament, which will likely be held late in 2025, will determine which teams will play at the different locations.
Those teams that will play group matches in Kansas City have the choice of staying and training in that city or they could move and call St. Louis its temporary home.
St. Louis University will be the potential site of the team’s training sessions.
“Even if a city is not staging matches, a participating team coming to stay creates a strong personal bond for the people locally,” said FIFA Chief Operation Officer Heimo Schirgi in a statement. “You see them adopt their guest in the tournament there by connecting even more people to the FIFA World Cup.”
There are nine cities, along with St. Louis, that have been chosen as a potential “home away from home” sites.
More cities will be included before tournament play begins June 11, 2026.
The other cities include:
Kansas City, specifically Arrowhead Stadium, will host six games in 2026, including four during the group stage, and two knockout-stage games. The group stage games will be June 16, June 20, June 25 and June 27. A round of 32 game will be July 3 and a quarterfinal will be July 11. The FIFA match schedule calls for Kansas City to host two Group J matches, a Group E match and a Group F match. Those groups do not include any of the host nations’ teams: the US will be in Group D, Mexico in Group A and Canada in Group B.
Group D will play its games in Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco area and Los Angeles. Group A will play in Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico, as well as a non-Mexico team game in Atlanta. Group B will play in Toronto, Vancouver, the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles.
Two years to go before FIFA World Cup 2026 kicks off in Canada, Mexico and USA
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Renderings for Kauffman Stadium’s 2026 World Cup plan in Kansas City, Kan., account for the modifications required by FIFA, which include expanding the width of the playing surface. Courtesy of Katherine Holland, director of KC2026 World Cup bid (Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation)
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