Canada bid director says World Cup pitch for 2026 focuses on real grass

TORONTO — Unlike the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada, a North America men's World Cup in 2026 would be played on natural grass.

"I believe moving forward that the inclination will be towards natural grass for the competition," said Peter Montopoli, Canada bid director and general secretary of the Canadian Soccer Association. "But we're waiting for after the bid is awarded to enter into those discussions with FIFA."

The 2015 women's world showcase was played on artificial turf, despite a human rights complaint by a group of top female players arguing discrimination since men would never play their World Cup on artificial turf.

Toronto's BMO Field is the only one of the three Canadian 2026 candidate cities that currently has a grass playing surface. Montreal's Olympic Stadium and Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium — both of which hosted women's tournament games in 2015 — have artificial turf.

A Canadian Soccer Association spokesman, citing a U.S. counterpart, said the American bid venues were about 50-50 grass versus artificial turf.

"We're not really concerned from a surface point of view," said Montopoli. "We know we have eight years to figure that component out should we be lucky to be granted the competition by FIFA."

The so-called unified bid involving Canada, Mexico and the U.S. is up against Morocco. The winning bid is to be decided in June at the FIFA Congress.

The North American bid group offers 23 potential host cities. FIFA is expected to choose up to 16.

The bid group says all of the stadiums are already in place and have an average capacity of more than 68,000. The unified bid also promises more than 150 training site options.

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North American Candidate City Stadiums (gross capacity as per unified bid group)

Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz Stadium) 75,000

Baltimore (M&T Bank Stadium) 70,976

Boston (Gillette Stadium) 67,955

Cincinnati (Paul Brown Stadium) 67,402

Dallas (AT&T Stadium) 92,467

Denver (Mile High Stadium) 77,595

Edmonton (Commonwealth Stadium) 56,418

Guadalajara (Estadio Akron) 48,071

Houston (NRG Stadium) 72,220

Kansas City (Arrowhead Stadium) 76,640