In total, FIFA, world football’s governing body, is reportedly expected to announce 16 host cities, with 10 in the United States and three each in Canada and Mexico.
FIFA announced in April that Vancouver, Canada had made a successful late application to be considered a host city, leaving 22 candidates in total.
These are the candidate cities across the three countries that are eagerly awaiting Thursday’s decision: Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York/New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Baltimore/Washington D.C, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey, Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver.
The announcement will begin at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday.
“During the past months we have had open exchanges with the candidate host cities on a number of different topics,” Colin Smith, FIFA’s Chief Tournaments & Events Officer, said in a statement last month. “We are very thankful and impressed by how dedicated and innovative they all are.
“The host cities will be absolutely key to ensuring the successful delivery of the competition. We look forward to working with them to deliver what will undoubtedly be the largest FIFA World Cup in history.”
It will be the second time the US has hosted the World Cup after the first in 1994, and the third time for Mexico, which also hosted in 1970 and 1984. It will be the first time a men’s World Cup match has been held in Canada, though the country did host the Women’s World Cup in 2015.
The study said that those cities chosen to hold World Cup matches could see an estimated $160-$620 million in economic activity.
