MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Jets, has been chosen as the host stadium for the 2026 World Cup Final set to be hosted by the North American trifecta — the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. After numerous bids from New York, Dallas, and Los Angeles, NYC prevailed in negotiations by securing one of the most prestigious matches set to happen in the next 2 years.
The U.S. will now host its second World Cup in almost three decades, the former being the ‘94 World Cup that also happened to be the most widely broadcasted World Cup to date. However, the choice of MetLife Stadium has received some criticism — not just from the disappointed fans from Texas and California, but because MetLife also happens to be a “cursed” field for many NFL players.
Because MetLife uses artificial turf, the number of injuries that can potentially occur shoot up drastically. According to NFL and college football analytics, 7 of the 10 stadiums with the highest number of injuries between the 2017 and 2022 seasons used this synthetic surface, and college athletes were 58% more likely to suffer injuries on artificial turf. However, MetLife and Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta have all revealed their plans to install natural grass to remedy the situation. Nevertheless, fans are unconvinced that other stadiums will follow this example to do the same, as the recent 2015 Canada World Cup had a lawsuit from the players who expressed their complaints about the use of artificial turf in Canadian stadiums.