U.S., UK Move Closer to Hosting 2031, 2035 FIFA Women’s World Cups

The United States moved one step closer to hosting the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup as the international soccer federation announced that a joint bid with Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica was the only one submitted for consideration. Meanwhile, a joint bid by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales was the sole bidder for the 2035 event.

From here, the bids undergo further evaluation with evaluation reports released in April 2026 and a formal decision expected on April 30, 2026, at the FIFA Congress in Vancouver, Canada. But with the bids being the only ones accepted, the final decision in April may prove to be a mere formality.

For the North American bid, the vast majority of the 35 initial proposed host cities and 49 potential stadiums would be in the United States, with four potential sites offered in Mexico and one each in Costa Rica and Jamaica. There will be a smaller number of cities and venues selected for final consideration as the big continues. The bid proposes $4 billion in projected revenue, in part from a projected 4.5 million fans attending.

There would also be 100 potential training sites. Other details in the bid reveal that Dallas would be considered for the international broadcast center, and two sites in Atlanta — the Fox Theater and the Woodruff Arts Center — proposed for the draw. Fan Festivals are proposed for Atlanta, Charlotte, Mexico City, Dallas, Denver, Guadalajara, Houston, Kansas City, Kingston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Monterrey, Nashville, Orlando, Nashville, New York, Orlando, San Diego, San Jose (Costa Rica), Seattle, Torreon and Washington, D.C.

While a final decision on host cities and venues has not been made, for purposes of the technical bid evaluation, the 2031 bid put forth 20 venues that “represent the tournament’s diversity in geography, scale and infrastructure readiness.” But the bid also included a larger subset of potential host cities and venues “with the understanding that they will continue to be equally considered for the purposes of stadium selection in the future.” The full listed included the following sites, with an asterisk reflecting one of the 20 that were officially entered:

• Atlanta — Mercedes-Benz Stadium (70k)*
• Baltimore — M&T Bank Stadium (73k)
• Birmingham—  Protective Stadium (42k)
• Boston — Gillette Stadium (65k)
• Charlotte — Bank of America Stadium (75k)*
• Cincinnati — TQL Stadium (26k)
• Cleveland / Columbus — Huntington Bank Field (65k); Lower.com Field (21k)
• Dallas-Fort Worth — AT&T Stadium (92k)*; Toyota Stadium (21k)
• Denver — Empower Field at Mile High (76k)*
• Houston — NRG Stadium (72k)*; Shell Energy Stadium (21k)
• Indianapolis — Indianapolis Prof. Soccer Stadium (25K)
• Kansas City — GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium (76k)*; CPKC Stadium (20k)
• Los Angeles — SoFi Stadium (70k)*; LA Memorial Coliseum (78k); Rose Bowl (91k); Dignity Health Sports Park (27k)
• Miami — Chase Stadium (22k)
• Minneapolis — U.S. Bank Stadium (66k)*
• Nashville — Nissan Stadium (70k); Geodis Park (25k)*
• New York / New Jersey — MetLife Stadium (85k)*; Sports Illustrated Stadium (26k); Etihad Park (24k)
• Orlando — Camping World Stadium (63k)*; Inter & Co Stadium (25k)
• Philadelphia — Lincoln Financial Field (68k)
• Phoenix — State Farm Stadium (73k)
• Salt Lake City — America First Field (20k)
• San Diego — Snapdragon Stadium (32k)*
• San Francisco / Bay Area — Levi’s Stadium (60k); Oracle Park (35k)
• Seattle — Lumen Field (69k)*
• St. Louis — Energizer Park (22k)
• Tampa Bay — Raymond James Stadium (65k)
• Washington, D.C. — Robert F. Kennedy Stadium (65k)*; Audi Field (20K)
• Mexico City — Ciudad de México Estadio Banorte (83k)*
• Guadalajara — Estadio Akron (48k)*
• Monterrey — Estadio BBVA (53k)*; Estadio Universitario (37k)
• Pachuca — Estadio Miguel Hidalgo (26k)
• Torreón — Territorio Santos Modelo (30k)*
• Querétaro — Estadio Corregidora (34k)
• San José — Estadio Nacional (35k)*; Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá (23k)
• Kingston — National Stadium (37k)*

Should the bid move forward, the 2031 Women’s World Cup would add to a growing list of major international events headed to the United States over the next decade. Those include the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games in Los Angeles, the 2028 World University Games in North Carolina, the 2031 Rugby World Cup, the 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup and the 20234 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Utah.

UK Submits Joint Bid for 2035

Meanwhile, the UK bid calls for 19 potential venues, with notes that more new stadia are in development and could be added to the mix. The venues specifically called out in the bid were:

• Birmingham — Villa Park
• Brighton & Hove — American Express Stadium
• Bristol — Ashton Gate
• Leeds — Elland Road
• Liverpool — Hill Dickinson Stadium
• London — Emirates Stadium; Selhurst Park; Tottenham Hotspur Stadium; Wembley Stadium
• Manchester — Etihad Stadium
• Newcastle — St James’ Park
• Nottingham — City Ground
• Sunderland — Stadium Of Light
• Trafford — Old Trafford
• Edinburgh — Easter Road
• Cardiff — Cardiff City Stadium
• Belfast — Clearer Twist National Stadium At Windsor Park
• Glasgow — Hampden Park
• Cardiff — Principality Stadium

In addition, the bid calls for 48 potential team base camp training sites, 82 venue-specific training sites and two referee base camp training sites.