Several top sporting events have come to Miami. But is the FIFA World Cup the biggest?
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Miami is a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup
Miami was one of 11 U.S. cities to make the 2026 FIFA World Cup list along with Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York/New Jersey.
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Miami is no stranger to hosting high-profile sporting events.
Now the city can add another to its resume: the FIFA World Cup.
The 2026 edition is being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Miami was selected as one of the cities to host matches when the event begins in four years. That year’s World Cup is expanding to 48 teams. Miami was selected as one of 17 American cities that were finalists.
But where does it rank?
It’s arguably the biggest sporting event to come to South Florida. The area has seen the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals played over the past 30 years.
In fact, Miami has hosted 11 Super Bowls, with six coming at Hard Rock Stadium. The other five at the Orange Bowl. Formula One recently held its inaugural Miami Grand Prix around Hard Rock Stadium.
The venue is the site for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. FIFA, soccer’s international governing body announced Hard Rock Stadium’s inclusion on Thursday.
The Super Bowl is annually the biggest sporting event in America, with the spectacle of a halftime show, fan experiences, traditional watch parties and Super Bowl commercials surrounding the actual game.
The most recent Super Bowl had roughly 208 million people tuning in to see it, but the FIFA World Cup is bigger. It’s an international mega event. About 3.57 billion — yes, billion — watched the 2018 FIFA World Cup, including an estimated 1.1 billion that saw France defeat Croatia for the title, on televisions around the globe.
In 1994, the World Cup was held in the U.S. for the first time, but Orlando was the only Florida city that hosted any games. Now Miami gets its turn.
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 5:50 PM.
