NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The city of Nashville is still a finalist to become one of 10 American cities to host 2026 FIFA World Cup matches. The rest of the cities needed will be located in Mexico and Canada.
Originally, FIFA was scheduled to make a decision on host cities earlier this year, but because league officials can't tour all of the venues in person due to COVID-19, the decision has been delayed indefinitely.
City leaders believe that delay may actually work to Nashville's advantage.
Last week, Nashville's 2019 NFL Draft was named Best Sports Event in 2019 by the Sports Business Journal. "FIFA pays a lot of attention to the NFL so aligning us with the NFL helps to overcome the lack of awareness they have for Nashville," said Butch Spyridon, CEO of the Nashville Convention and Visitor's Corporation.
Minutes later, Spyridon says he emailed FIFA officials to make sure they saw the news too. They got back a promising reply. "He was impressed, he congratulated us," said Spyridon.
Spyridon hopes the award will prove to FIFA they're ready for a global stage. He says the economic impact for the city, if they're selected, would be a game-changer. "It’s big from a PR standpoint, it’s big from a revenue standpoint, it is big from a resume standpoint. If we can do this, I think we can have a legitimate Super Bowl conversation," he said.
The following cities are competing for 10 spots:
- Atlanta
- Baltimore
- Boston
- Cincinnati
- Dallas
- Denver
- Houston
- Kansas City
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- Nashville
- New York/New Jersey
- Orlando
- Philadelphia
- San Francisco (Bay Area)
- Seattle
- Washington, DC
Butch believes Nashville is a compelling, out of the box candidate because of the entertainment scene and that a vast majority of the city's hotels are within walking distance of Nissan Stadium.
"The competition we’re in is extremely stiff," admits Spyridon. "We’ve approached this like we’re in last place like they know the least about us."
Like the rest of us, FIFA is relying heavily on Zoom and video conferencing to continue the work of selecting host cities.
For the next several months, Nashville is preparing documents answering some of FIFA's probing questions -- everything from facility maintenance to human rights protections.
A final decision could come in 2021.
