Glendale’s University of Phoenix Stadium has a shot at hosting the upcoming World Cup soccer games. The stadium has hosted many prominent sporting events in the past, and will likely do so again for 2026’s World Cup. Altogether, there were 49  venues that showed interest in hosting the match, the University of Phoenix stadium among them.

UOP Stadium Attempting To Meet September Deadline

The 2026 World Cup competition will be hosted by 3 nations: the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The University of Phoenix Stadium has until September 5th to notify the World Cup that they are interested in hosting the event. The University will be capable of hosting any events that do not include either the opening match, or the final match, due to the fact that both of these events require capacities to seat 80,000 people or more. Events aside from those two, only require a seating capacity of 40,000 people, which the University of Phoenix Stadium exceeds by over 20,000. Aside from Stadium capacities, the city of Glendale will have to inform the World Cup of details concerning the cities infrastructure, and how previous hosting experiences ultimately worked out.

Glendale will also have to prove that it contains high-functioning training facilities for the athletes.

Stadium Has Hosted Large Soccer Events In The Past

Next month, an updated list of the original 49 potential venues, will be released. The stadium itself is primarily known for providing the Arizona Cardinals with their home field. Aside from the primary function, a number of soccer games have been hosted at the stadium in the past, including Gold Cup games. It also held several Copa America (South American Football championships) matches. Some of these larger matches have drawn crowds that exceed 60,000. The University of Phoenix Stadium also hosted this years NCAA Final Four games, as well as numerous Super Bowl events.

As much as the University of Phoenix Stadium would like to host the event, there is fierce competition from competing stadiums located within Los Angeles, Denver, and Las Vegas.