World Cup 2026 - USA/Canada/Mexico

cafctom said:

J BLOCK said:

cafctom said:

ElfsborgAddick said:

cafctom said:

Hi all,

A few people on here asked about me putting together a day by day account of the World Cup trip I did in the US. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to put something like that together. The main reason being that I was on the go absolutely non-stop for 18 days and only really had the chance to gather much of my thoughts on things once I got back.

So here are an assortment of thoughts from the trip out there broken into a few topics. 

GAMES

I did the following matches:

- England vs Croatia - Dallas
- England vs Ghana - Boston
- England vs Panama - New York / New Jersey
- England vs DR Congo - Atlanta

I wish I'd been able to stay on, especially to do the Azteca game, but the reality was that I had to return to work. 3x weeks off is the most I'd ever done, and I prioritized the games that had certainty in their location and dates. With the geography for this tournament being so vast, it wouldn't have been easy to change plans and go to a different city/country altogether had England finished 2nd/3rd in the group, or been knocked out. 

The 2024 Euros in Germany were a lot different as you could just get on a train to wherever you needed to go. This World Cup was on a whole different level in terms of logistics. 

PRICES

For each of the four games I paid somewhere between 150-200 GBP. I’m somewhere in the medium-high end of the England supporters club points’ scheme, which I meant I could get the tickets at far more sensible prices than those just looking to turn up for the World Cup only.

It definitely pays to be part of the England Travel Club for tournaments like this, as long as you’re willing to put aside a few nights a year for qualifiers, friendlies etc at Wembley. 

The major issue was the cost of the Final. The way it works is that FIFA take the money off you in February and you have to pay the money up front for any knockout games you want to to - even if England don’t get there. If England get knocked out - you then get your money back. 

For me, that was about £3100 for the Final alone. And that is one of the cheapest tickets you can get without being a ‘top capper’ (ie - someone who hasn’t missed a single England home/away game in about 5-10 years).

So I’ll get that money back - but FIFA kindly wanted to hold onto it for about 6 months and make all the interest off it…

I was very organised when it came to planning travel, hotels etc and on average only spent about £120 on average per night. But that did involve having to get hotels booked on free cancellation literally within moments of the draw being done back in December. A lot of people do the same through necessity if you know you definitely plan to go. 

CITIES

Stayed in 10 different places in total, mixing the football with the sightseeing:

- Chicago
- Dallas
- Memphis
- Nashville
- Boston
- New York
- New Jersey
- Philadelphia
- Washington DC
- Atlanta

What was interesting was that even in the cities where there were no games taking place - there were football fans/shirts everywhere. Nashville for example - a lot of England, Scotland and Australia fans gathered there just for the party on the weekend I was there. And I tell you what - that city is the BEST night out imaginable. 

Even in Washington DC they had a big FIFA fan-park there, even though there were no matches happening there. 

From a sightseeing perspective, I liked every stop. Each have their own different personality. But personal favorites were Chicago and Nashville. 

THE STADIUMS

All of them were absolutely monstrous in size and really do look the part. The most impressive I visited were Dallas and Atlanta. Thankfully both indoors too, because the heat outside was unbearable for anything more than a few minutes at a time. 

I didn’t experience any issues getting in or out, but 3 out of the 4 were quite far out of town:

“Dallas” is actually Arlington - about 25 miles away. For this I was on a coach organised by England fans that worked well, but because it wasn’t a FIFA organised coach meant we had to walk about 25 mins in the heat from a bar where it parked up to the stadium.

Similar for Boston (actually in Foxborough, about 45 mins drive away), but what we’d been booked onto was a local school bus! 

For New York/New Jersey it was the infamous “NJ transit” service that made all the headlines. I got the coach version which cost me $20 for a return and ran very smoothly. Only issue being you had to queue for about 45 mins after the game to get on one back to Manhattan.

THE LOCALS

Anyone who has spent time in America will largely share the experience that locals are generally very, very friendly - and that was my experience too. I've been to America maybe 30-40 times, mostly with work, and never had any issues with the people. 

But on this occasion it was clear that they were genuinely very fascinated by the football culture coming into their city. I don't think many of them had ever seen anything like it. Particularly in places like Boston where they had god knows how many Scottish take over their city for 2 weeks. On the whole - the locals loved every bit of it. 

As for the interest in the football itself, I was surprised with how many Americans seemed to be glued to the whole thing. If you got in an Uber - they'd be able to tell you what scores happened the day before, who is playing today etc. 

Though my most interesting Uber journey was in Dallas where the driver asked me to say a prayer with her "for all the England soccer fans visiting the United States of America!". I joined in through politeness, not realizing I would end up being asked to pray on about 7 different random occasions across the trip.

A lot of people who went to USA 94 often comment on how the World Cup experience was great in the stadiums, but it was as if nobody else outside of the grounds really knew or cared for it. However for WC 2026, it was the complete opposite. It was EVERYWHERE. Every bar, supermarket, billboard, TV chat show - you'd have to be under a rock to not know it was going on. It took over the place. 

The TV coverage on Fox was quite strange. They had every single game, but it was obvious to anyone who has followed the game for a long time that they were catering their coverage for the “first time viewers”. That involved talking up the USA’s chances wherever possible, knowing full well that it was required to keep their interest. Even the ‘expert’ pundits like Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovich were clearly instructed to adjust what they say for the audience involved. 

MATCH-GOING FANS

Saw a comment a few posts up about how it seemed to just be middle class types who weren't proper football fans. There was an element of that - but, I think thats the case at all major tournaments.

Its important to note that FIFA had given tiny allocations to the official supporters clubs. For example, the games I went to only had between 3-4k official supporters club tickets for each team. So you're looking at about 10% or less for the regular fans who follow the team through thick and thin. They've done this for the obvious reason that they want more tickets to go to those willing to spend ridiculous over-the-odds costs to go to a one-off game. 

What was striking was that there were a lot of Americans going to games who had seemingly adopted one of the teams at the game, and gone 'all in'. It wouldn't be uncommon to see a family of 4 going to say England v Croatia, and they've all got American accents - but all wearing the latest Croatia shirt with 'Modric' on the back. It was as if they'd flipped a coin for which team they were going to take on as their own, and then spent all the money they could to take part in the World Cup experience. 

I got my tickets through the English FA supporters club, so was largely grouped alongside like-minded English 'proper' football fans who know the etiquette of being at a game. However, there was one surprising moment in the Dallas stadium where an American women was somehow in our end and had ordered a Pecan Pie desert via an app to her seat!

What really surprised me was how many fans did travel from abroad though. At the Panama and Croatia games in particular, they had brought thousands and thousands out there. I think we may have actually been outnumbered versus Panama. They took over Time Square the night before the game. And the night before that, the place was absolutely mobbed with Ecuador who reportedly had 20,000. Brilliant scenes though, with fans from all countries mixing together and no signs of trouble. 

And the Scots....every single one of them had their kilt out, every single day. Lucky buggers as well - every bar they went into, they got absolutely mobbed by beautiful Americans the moment they walked in. 

All in all, a very enjoyable trip and one of those that I will remember for a very long time. I’d be happy to see a World Cup in America again (probably 2038). The people were great hosts and there is so much to do outside of the games that you can’t really get bored. 

As for the costs….Yes, it’s expensive - but if you plan well enough in advance (and put the time in to support England outside of just the tournaments) then it’s nowhere near as bad.

I know this has been a long post, and hopefully some have found it interesting. Happy to answer any questions.

Glad you had a great time.

Out of curiosity, were there many outlets to be able to purchase tickets for games?  The grounds looked pretty much full.

As far as I know, the main official route was through the FIFA marketplace - where the prices were absolutely sky high. I met people following England and Scotland who spent anywhere between £700-£1,500 each for single games in the group stage/Round of 32. And quite surprisingly, the prices didn’t drop dramatically on the day of the game. 

It wasn’t the sort of tournament where you’d just meet someone in a bar who happened to have a spare or anything like that. Think those days are long gone. 

Looking ahead to 2030, I suspect FIFA know that those prices simply won’t fly with the locals in those countries. But, they also don’t want to see their balance sheet drop. So I think 64 teams is inevitable to try and make up the delta. 

People are willing to travel for these events in their thousands, even from smaller countries, far more than I realised. And they will spend big money if they have to, for fear of missing out. 

So there’s no reason for FIFA to make the pricing “cheap” the way UEFA do if they don’t want to. 

But like I said - anyone who wants to go - join the England Travel Club, go to a few games at Wembley a year (yes, that does mean boring friendlies and qualifiers), and this stuff isn’t too much of an issue.

The fans supporting the smaller team didn't necessarily travel from outside the US—many already live there. I can guarantee you they won't get that same level of support in Saudi Arabia.

Maybe not to the same size as in the US, but they’ll still travel.

I was in Qatar in 2022, and was taken aback by the following each country had considering the issues going into that tournament.

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