World Cup 2026 stadiums: Ranking each venue from 'below average' to 'elite'

The host cities for the 2026 World Cup of North America have recently been announced.

It’s led to a welcome aura of excitement and anticipation amongst national fan bases after the highly controversial appointment of Qatar for the 2022 edition of football’s most special tournament.

FIFA have announced 16 host cities which will be staged across the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Although, most are situated in America (11), with Mexico hosting three and Canada two.

Naturally, along with the confirmation of the location came an announcement on the venues.

And let us tell you now, some of the stadiums are simply magnificent.

From the Azteca Stadium – which will interestingly become the first venue to host three different World Cups – to the Sofi Stadium which hosted this year’s SuperBowl, fans attending the spectacle are in for one hell of a treat.

So, in the spirit of the World Cup, and also to allow you take a sneaky speak at these picturesque venues, we’ve decided to categorise them from ‘below average’ to ‘elite’.

Check out what we came up with below.

‘Below average’

BMO Field (Toronto) – 27,456 Estadio Akron (Guadalajara) – 48,071

It’s a testament to the quality of these World Cup venues that only two of the 16 fall into the ‘below average’ category, although these two are certainly justified.

A capacity under 30,000 quite simply isn’t suitable for hosting matches of such magnitude and despite claims that it can be extended to 40,000, the BMO Field Stadium in Toronto is hardly blessed with beauty either.

Image: BMO Field Stadium

‘Decent’

BC Place Stadium / Vancouver – 54.500Levi’s Stadium / San Francisco – 68,5000Lincoln Financial Field / Philadelphia – 67,594 Gillette Stadium / Boston – 65,878

This