BREAKING: Jets to Host World 'Football' Championship
After this latest 7-10 season, a Super Bowl championship isn't coming to the New York Jets' home stadium any time soon. But the road to a true "world championship" will climax at MetLife Stadium come 2026.
The FIFA World Cup announced Sunday afternoon that MetLife Stadium - New York/New Jersey - will host the championship match of the 2026 tournament. The quadrennial international soccer tournament - which features 48 nations and 104 games spread over a month - is far and away the most-watched sporting event on the planet.
The 2022 final match between Argentina and France drew 1.5 billion viewers. Last season's Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles mustered a relatively puny 115 million.
The 2026 World Cup final will be played Sunday, July 19 in MetLife Stadium. The tournament will be hosted by "North America," with games also played in Canada and the opener hosted at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Dallas' AT&T Stadium and Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium were awarded the two semifinals.
MetLife Stadium's artificial turf playing surface has come under much criticism in the past couple of years, including recently by Jets' Michael Carter II.
After a study seemed to indicated little or no difference between fake and natural grass fields, Carter said on Twitter:
"Need some of these people to go into MetLife and bounce off that turf for 3 hours and tell me how you feel after vs grass."
MetLife Stadium will replace its turf with natural grass for the World Cup, and also remove 1,740 seats in order to widen the field.
“I speak on behalf of New Jersey but also as our partner of New York City, do not underestimate how aggressive we’re prepared to be to get the best package of games possible,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said during a telephone interview last fall.
MetLife, which opened in 2010, drew 82,529 for Super Bowl XLVIII.
A New York lawmaker says he wants to bring the Jets back to Queens after 40 years in the New Jersey Meadowlands and the team could opt out of its contract at MetLife Stadium next year. But those plans wouldn't translate into a new stadium by 2026.
