FIFA tours Atlanta for possible 2026 World Cup site

ATLANTA — Members of FIFA toured Atlanta on Wednesday as the city looks to potentially host semifinal matches of the 2026 World Cup games.

Channel 2's Craig Lucie learned that Mercedes-Benz Stadium was only part of Wednesday's tour.

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Atlanta United F.C. has shown that Atlanta not only loves soccer, but the city has smashed Major League Soccer attendance records.

“Atlanta United leads the league in attendance. They average over 45,000 a game and they have the top four MLS attendance records in its history,” Atlanta United Fan Tanner McLoud told Lucie.

McLoud said many may not understand the magnitude of being a part of the World Cup.

“To host a FIFA World Cup match is massive. It can’t be understated. The World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world. It doesn’t even compare. There is nothing else that comes close to it,” McLoud said.

[READ: Atlanta United sets MLS postseason attendance record in first playoff game]

The United States, Mexico and Canada are trying to host the World Cup as a united bid. They are competing against Morocco.

The official Twitter account for the united bid posted pictures of the committee at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta United Training Ground.

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Lucie contacted FIFA about Wednesday’s tour but they said media was not allowed during the tour.

Channel 2 Action News learned five FIFA officials toured the training facilities in Marietta, did a tour of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and were shown the Georgia World Congress Center, which would become an international broadcast center for the event.

[READ: Atlanta United defeats D.C. United in home opener, sets another MLS attendance record]

Atlanta is also home to the world’s busiest airport.

There are 23 cities from Orlando to Boston to Seattle included in the bid options which the bid committee will submit to FIFA.

“I think it would be huge for the city and soccer in America,” soccer fan Zachary Cox told Lucie.

“They can host it and absolutely knock it out of the park,” McLoud said.

The committee heads to Toronto, Canada, on Thursday and then New York and New Jersey.

The visiting committee will eventually release a report about their findings from the Atlanta tour.

We won't know who wins this bid until a day before the World Cup Games begins in Russia on June 13.

The FIFA Bid Committee released the following about their tour Wednesday:

FIFA's 2026 Bid Evaluation Task Force continued its technical tour of the United Bid of Canada, Mexico, and the United States with a trip to Atlanta -the second of four United Bid Candidate Host Cities that the Task Force will visit and evaluate during their trip. 

The first stop on today's visit was a tour of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta United Training Facility. Designed to foster openness and an aspirational environment, this 33-acre facility features a 30,000 square-foot headquarter building and six full-size fields including three natural grass and three FieldTurf surfaces. With the headquarters facing towards the fields so academy players, front office employees and first team players can feel connected and focused on the club, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta United Training Facility promotes unity, further reinforcing our choice to include it as an option for a training facility in our United Bid proposal. 

Following the tour of the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta United Training Facility, the Task Force headed to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the most sustainable sports venue in the world and the official home of Atlanta United. The stadium, which is the first professional sports stadium in North America to achieve LEED Platinum certification, features an impressive 42,500-seat soccer configuration which has the capability to expand even further to house over 70,000 fans. The stadium has also been home to record crowds-Atlanta United was able to break Major League Soccer's single-match attendance record on October 22, 2017, when they housed 71,874 for their regular season match against Toronto FC. 

The last stop of the day was the Georgia World Congress Center, which opened its doors in 1976 with approximately 350,000-square-feet of exhibition space. Today, the Center features 1.4 million square-feet of exhibition space, making it the fourth-largest convention center in the United States. The Center has also been home to the International Broadcast Center and was used to host seven Olympic sporting events in 1996. 

Cox Media Group