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See the full story · 1 sourcesWhy MetLife Stadium Was The Worst Possible Choice to Host the 2026 World Cup Final
The 2026 FIFA World Cup was a rousing success, but it wasn’t perfect. One standout hiccup was the final venue: New York/New Jersey Stadium, aka MetLife, which simply wasn’t up to the standards of the world’s biggest sporting match.
We’ve only just managed to catch our breath after a spine-tingling 2026 FIFA World Cup , and yet, the focus is already shifting towards the 2030 edition.
Like 2026, there will be three official host nations in Morocco, Spain, and Portugal, but to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the tournament, the first three matches will take place in Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina — making this the first World Cup to feature across six countries and three continents.
But four years out from the competition, there is plenty still up in the air. It’s uncertain how many teams will participate, and the final venue is still yet to be determined.
While Spain is confident of securing the rights to the final after the Santiago Bernabéu’s €1.35 billion renovation, don’t count Morocco out. The Hassan II Stadium is currently under construction just outside of Casablanca, and with a planned capacity of 115,000, it would be the biggest football stadium in the world upon completion.
But regardless of who ends up winning the bid, one thing is for sure: it won’t be as bad as MetLife Stadium.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images
My first experience at MetLife covering a FIFA event was for the 2025 Club World Cup , when I drove up from Maryland to New Jersey and made my way to a Super 8 motel that had precisely one benefit: it was a one-mile walk away from MetLife.
Having grown accustomed to European stadiums like Camp Nou , Estádio da Luz, Parc de Princes , Estadio Metropolitano, and the Bernabéu, I thought that it was going to be a breeze walking to the stadium. I was in for a rude awakening.
As I entered the lobby, I was greeted by a poster that was accompanied by the New Jersey State Police badge and a no pedestrian sign. “Hotel Guests attending events at MetLife Stadium cannot walk back to the hotel from the stadium. It is illegal and dangerous to walk on the roadways surrounding the stadium. Please make the proper transportation arrangements.”
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images
Unlike every other host stadium at the 2026 World Cup, MetLife doesn’t welcome foot traffic. Isolated in the New Jersey Meadowlands, ringed by multi-lane, limited-access highways without continuous sidewalk connections or crosswalks, state lawmakers have ensured that it is only possible to walk to the stadium from the final mile after arriving by other forms of transportation, like from the American Dream Mall parking lot or the geofenced rideshare drop-off zone.
Unlike other host venues in Kansas City and Dallas, which took great strides to ensure that fans could have affordable transportation to the stadium, New York/New Jersey did the opposite. Fans attending matches at MetLife Stadium could either pay $98 for a train ride (originally $150) from Penn Station to Secaucus Junction to Meadowlands Station, or pay $80 for a bus ride from Port Authority or NJ Park-and-Ride, or pay $225-300 for a parking pass. They could also stump for a taxi or rideshare and then walk one mile from the racetrack to the stadium gate.
This, naturally, created some of the worst traffic bottlenecks on the Eastern Seaboard, making what should be an otherwise manageable experience into a logistical nightmare. It is cruelly ironic that, for a metropolitan region that boasts the best public transportation network in the country, MetLife Stadium proved to be the least accessible to non-car traffic.
As I began to visit other stadiums during my Club World Cup adventure, I began to realize that MetLife lagged behind the rest in just about every single facet. The press box was fully indoors, with windows closed so as to block out journalists from hearing any of the action and energy from the stadium.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images
But while MetLife Stadium does a great job of insulating journalists from the outside elements, the same cannot be said about the fans. When it launched in 2010 at the cost of $1.6 billion, making it the most expensive stadium built in the U.S. at the time of its completion, it did so without a roof. Fans who go to MetLife Stadium are unprotected from sweltering heat, rain, hail, wind, thunder, and all kinds of other extreme weather.
“[MetLife is] too commercialized,” said London-based journalist Ryan Taylor, who covered the 2026 World Cup for The Mirror. “Having a big capacity doesn’t make any stadium a good one. The way it’s positioned means fans are actually heavily exposed to sunlight, the transport links are poor…I’m actually surprised it was deemed the best possible host for the World Cup final. That’s without getting into the pitch.”
In addition to the stands, MetLife Stadium’s playing surface also leaves more to be desired. It has come under scrutiny from various NFL players like Jaelan Phillips, Andrew Thomas, Josh Jacobs, and Malik Nabers, who have suffered long-term injuries while playing at MetLife.
Aaron Rodgers had missed just 22 games in 19 seasons due to injury when he took the field for his New York Jets debut, but he would last four snaps before tearing his Achilles tendon. This isn’t a coincidence: playing on synthetic turf increases non-contact lower-extremity injuries by 28% compared to natural grass, as well as 32% for non-contact knee injuries and 69% for ankle and foot injuries.
The synthetic turf sits on top of a rigid base, creating poor shock absorption and extra wear and tear on joints and transferring torque and biomechanical load directly into knee ligaments and the Achilles tendon rather than allowing the surface to yield.
Because FIFA requires natural grass for major international tournaments, MetLife installed temporary sod over its artificial turf, which merely results in a ha...
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