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This World Cup, Bigger Might Not Really Be Better
It’s often said that bigger means better. This year’s FIFA World Cup may put that to the test.
By almost any metric, the 2026 tournament is the largest ever: the most host countries; the longest distances between stadiums; the most players, teams, and matches; and then there’s the eye-watering ticket prices.
The scale is a logistical nightmare for fans, teams, and host cities. Held across three countries— Canada, Mexico, and the US—48 teams (up from the usual 32) will navigate 16 host cities separated by thousands of miles and four distinct time zones.
With FIFA expanding the tournament to defend soccer’s dominance over a host of growing contender sports, fans and teams alike should get used to the upscaling, experts tell WIRED Middle East. Going forward, only the richest or largest nations will ever be able to host a tournament alone.
The sky-high prices to attend games in this year’s tournament have drawn global attention. FIFA has been accused of pricing normal people out of soccer by implementing exorbitant rates for all but the least desirable seats.
Industry data suggests that hotel rooms in host cities across Canada, the US, and Mexico are also surging in price.
“Average attendance cost in the US host cities is running north of $5,000 a head, before you’ve factored in flights between venues,” says Christos Anagnostopoulos, an assistant professor in sports management at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.
An average visitor is expected to spend around $5,400 in the US—far above the $720-$2,500 visitors to Qatar spent in 2022.
Here’s WIRED’s complete guide to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Transport at this year’s tournament is fundamentally different from that of the one-city tournament in Qatar, or in Russia in 2018, which provided free public transportation and an additional 500 trains to help people get around.