Yet on Sunday afternoon, the eyes of the world turn to New York\/New Jersey Stadium, to give it its FIFA moniker,<\/a> when the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina begins at 3 pm local time (8 pm BST).<\/p>\n Despite MetLife\u2019s obvious drawbacks, it was the venue of choice for FIFA for the most popular sporting event on the planet, with a global audience expected to exceed one billion people. The most obvious appeal is the time slot, which works well for European, North American, and South American broadcasters, though less well for Asian markets.<\/p>\n Mexico\u2019s Azteca Stadium, the largest-capacity stadium of this World Cup (ahead of MetLife by a couple of hundred seats), was not considered, as the final was always going to be in the United States. The joint bid in 2018 set out that 75 percent of games would be played in the U.S., with the remaining 25 percent shared between Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n SoFi Stadium had a half-chance but the fiercest competition came from Dallas. The venue is the home of the Dallas Cowboys, often known as \u2018Jerry World\u2019, named after the Cowboys\u2019 owner, Jerry Jones. Before an announcement on a Sunday evening in February 2024,<\/a> neither the joint New York\/New Jersey host committee nor their Dallas counterparts knew for certain who would win out.<\/p>\n In the weeks beforehand, a British tabloid newspaper reported that Dallas had won the race. Craig Davis, president and CEO of VisitDallas, the city\u2019s visitors bureau, told D Magazine<\/a> before the announcement that the Dallas team \u201cheard gossip\u201d that FIFA leaked this \u201cin an effort to get New York City to up their bid.\u201d Davis added: \u201cNot saying that\u2019s true. Just saying there were rumors.\u201d<\/p>\n Monica Paul, executive director of the Dallas Sports Commission and head of the Dallas World Cup host committee, told The Athletic in May 2026 that those pre-emptive reports about Dallas securing the final led to questions asking how her team had \u201clost\u201d the final, but the reality is they never had it to lose in the first place. \u201cWe laid it all out on the table,\u201d she insisted. \u201cI don\u2019t think there is anything else here that we could have done to secure it.\u201d<\/p>\n Get free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic app.<\/a><\/p>\n The New York\/New Jersey charm offensive began as far back as 2018, when Phil Murphy, in his first year as New Jersey governor, hosted a FIFA delegation at the New York Red Bulls\u2019 stadium in Harrison, New Jersey. The 25,000-seat venue was deemed a more intimate and charming setting than the cavernous MetLife Stadium for warm introductions.<\/p>\n The Murphys had a soccer background, as founding owners of NWSL side Gotham, while Phil Murphy was also part of the doomed U.S. bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cups. He saw the merits of partnering with New York City \u2014 a partnership\u00a0intended to be 50-50 on costs, according to those intimately involved in the discussions \u2014\u00a0even if it hasn\u2019t always been straightforward<\/a> between the parties,\u00a0or indeed in their relationship with FIFA.<\/p>\n The thesis was that New Jersey had the infrastructure, high-quality training complexes, and pre-existing soccer relationships. New York City would bring the razzmatazz and the postcard landmarks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew from the start we could not win this without New York City,\u201d said one person involved in the planning, speaking on condition of anonymity like others in this piece to protect relationships.<\/p>\n As previously reported on The Athletic,<\/a> the Murphys, in partnership first with New York mayor Bill De Blasio and then with Eric Adams, courted FIFA president Gianni Infantino, holding a series of coffees, dinners and Zoom calls. New York Governor Kathy Hochul joined Infantino for a particularly significant lunch at the Plaza Hotel near Central Park, alongside NFL team owners and regional business executives.<\/p>\n \n MetLife hosted seven games before the final. (Hugo Rivera\/Jam Media\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Before being awarded the final, another lunch was held, this time in the Equinox Hotel at Hudson Yards. Jared Kushner, the New Jerseyan son-in-law of President Donald Trump and a close friend of Infantino, helped convene a who\u2019s who of regional CEOs and deal-makers to woo the FIFA president. Trump was not in office at that stage but Kushner\u2019s relationship with Infantino had endured. Kathryn Wylde, one of New York\u2019s most famous conduits to the super-rich and former leader of the Partnership for New York City, also played a key role. The lunch was in Manhattan, but deliberately overlooked the Hudson River, providing views of Jersey in the distance.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was never any doubt whatsoever that we were going to pitch as aggressively as humanly possible to get the World Cup final,\u201d said one source close to the New York\/New Jersey partnership.<\/p>\n The Murphys called in support. Tammy Murphy asked Robert De Niro, a New Yorker, to narrate a three-minute 20-second video to present to a FIFA delegation. It began with Lady Liberty, her torch reaching to the heavens, described as a beacon shining a light on dreams. \u201cWe dare to dream big, really big, because that is what we do in New York and New Jersey,\u201d said De Niro, one of the country\u2019s most celebrated actors, in a video viewed by The Athletic. \u201cWe dream of welcoming the world\u2019s greatest game to the world\u2019s most spectacular stage.\u201d<\/p>\n He called the sport football, rather than soccer, and said it had already captured the backyards and schoolyards. The video cut to the Empire State Building. \u201cAre we ready to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup?\u201d De Niro asked. \u201cCome on, baby, we were born ready. Our time is now.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in 2023, President Joe Biden resided in the Oval Office and New York\/New Jersey sought to emphasize the diversity and multiculturalism of its bid. The video featured pride flags and had children in different languages saying \u201cWelcome, world\u201d. The Murphys would regularly press home the strength of the diasporas in the region, telling FIFA they would drive ticket demand and bring color and enthusiasm to the tournament.<\/p>\n De Niro told FIFA: \u201cBring us your superstars, your diehards, your big dreamers, your future heroes\u2026 This is the game. This is the place.\u201d<\/p>\n In the fall of 2023, rival billionaires took turns at wooing Infantino. In Arlington, Texas, Jones hosted Infantino in the owner\u2019s suite when the Dallas Cowboys faced the New York Jets. Infantino\u2019s face was splashed across the venue\u2019s giant screen.<\/p>\n On the same trip, the FIFA president also met with Texas governor Greg Abbott and Jets owners Chris and Woody Johnson. He then popped up in New York City, where he met with Gov. Murphy and Mayor Eric Adams, before being hosted for a game at MetLife Stadium between the Jets and New England Patriots. Infantino, keen to take on learnings from U.S. sports, also visited the commissioners of the NFL, NHL and MLB, all of whom have their headquarters in New York City.<\/p>\n The New York\/New Jersey bid lobbied FIFA hard. It commissioned a poll from YouGov in the summer of 2023, which found that soccer fans in the U.S. preferred attending a match in the New Jersey\/New York region over any other. The bid also studied weather patterns in both New Jersey and Texas, underlining that outdoor fan festivals and shoulder programming may be more feasible away from the Dallas heat \u2014 although nobody foresaw the build-up to the final would be dominated by concerns about air quality.<\/a><\/p>\n It also provided FIFA with estimates of the likelihood of thunderstorms in mid-July and, importantly for FIFA, whether seats could be covered for VVIPs \u2014 FIFA\u2019s accreditation system brackets people as Very Very Important People rather than simply Very Important People.<\/p>\n FIFA was also shown studies on how New York and New Jersey co-operated on security and transportation during Taylor Swift\u2019s concert at MetLife Stadium and during Popes\u2019 visits to the region. It also outlined learnings from the failure of the Super Bowl at MetLife in 2014, when transportation chaos left fans exasperated.<\/p>\n Multiple sources familiar with the discussions believe the final call came down to Infantino, but senior executives \u2014 including Heimo Schirgi, COO of the 2026 World Cup, and Mattias Grafstr\u00f6m, FIFA\u2019s secretary general \u2014 were also involved.<\/p>\n Why footballers don’t like the MetLife stadium<\/p>\n Chris Hamill, Alexander Barker<\/p>\n MetLife being an open-air stadium also worked in its favor. Both Dallas and SoFi are temperature-controlled and have roofs, which brought concerns about how to protect a playing field across a 39-day tournament.<\/p>\n FIFA\u2019s senior pitch manager Alan Ferguson<\/a> told The Athletic this week: \u201cMy biggest risk was that despite all our best efforts, because they (the AT&T and SoFi) are in a completely indoor environment, and it had never been done to that length of time, to shut the sun out for that long was a huge gamble. I wasn\u2019t prepared to take that gamble.<\/p>\n \u201cIf somebody had offered me an open stadium like Boston, New York, or San Francisco, then I was always going to go down that route because I get the natural elements.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stadiums\u2026 are fantastically stunning\u2026 But if you have a yellow pitch, then you get a slightly weaker plant as well, even with the hybrid support being present, so it\u2019s a huge risk to take.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody involved in the discussions was prepared to put the World Cup final at that level of risk.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to think about the 22 guys that are going to contest the biggest game on the planet. The right decision was made. You\u2019ll see that come Sunday. You\u2019ll see a fantastic surface.\u201d<\/p>\n Fans also have the opportunity to buy a section of the pitch, as FIFA\u2019s website began selling parts of the MetLife turf last week for between $450 and $3,000 apiece, to be shipped to buyers after the final.<\/p>\n \u201cFIFA needs to get off our turf, literally,\u201d said assemblyman Michael Inganamort Friday in comments reported by WRNJ Radio. \u201cThis is state-owned property. FIFA can\u2019t just sell off the soccer pitch without permission. What is happening is not just a bad deal for the taxpayers of New Jersey, it\u2019s illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill, who took office this year and could not understand why her taxpayers were being asked to foot the bill for a tournament that Infantino has claimed will raise $11 billion in revenue for soccer\u2019s governing body, was also critical.<\/p>\n \u201cFIFA heard \u2018touch grass\u2019 and said, \u2018How much can we charge for it?\u2019,\u201d wrote Gov. Sherrill on Twitter. The Athletic has since learned that the joint New York\/New Jersey host committee will receive a cut of the revenue, with the turf previously receiving $13 million in investment from New Jersey taxpayers.<\/p>\n FIFA is, however, still taking a certain amount of risk with the field, given criticisms of MetLife\u2019s pitch during the tournament and the prospect that the halftime show<\/a>, featuring Madonna, Shakira, BTS and Justin Bieber, will take place at least partly on the pitch.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2281465717-scaled.jpg\")
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