Okay, so it’s not quite as bad a violation of “measure twice, cut once” as ordering trains that won’t fit alongside the platforms or crashing a spaceship into a planet because you forgot to convert to metric. But Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium maybe not being able to host the final of the 2026 World Cup because the field is too narrow is still not the best:
Sources close to the 2026 organising committee say in order to comply with Fifa’s regulations, the width of the field would have to be increased — possibly by as much as 63ft — which would mean removing some of the seats close to the pitch and raising the playing surface.
Fifa normally expects a stadium that can hold at least 80,000 people for the final, but losing seats would reduce the capacity of the SoFi Stadium to below 70,000, which may prove a step too far.
The Times of London article omits any mention of the most interesting question here, which is how Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke built a $5-billion-plus stadium and failed to take into account that people might want to play soccer there — something that’s doubly embarrassing considering that Kroenke also owns the Premier League soccer club Arsenal F.C. (Normally I would make a joke here about how it’s embarrassing enough just to own Arsenal, but Arsenal went and ruined that joke this year.) Thankfully, Inglewood got away with putting hardly any taxpayer money into Kroenke’s stadium, but there may need to be some corrections to all the hagiographic articles crediting the building with making the city the sports capital of the U.S.
If FIFA isn’t interested in providing the L.A. stadium with a waiver, next in line to host the World Cup final appears to be MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which if you’ve ever been to an event there in the summer, or really an event anytime, seems like an extremely bad idea, even if it would be very convenient for me personally. This would look to be an embarrassment for FIFA as well that it failed to notice all these problems with the host stadiums when selecting the site of the next World Cup, but then, if FIFA wasn’t embarrassed by the last World Cup, it’s probably never going to be embarrassed by anything at all.
I know, I know, you want a glib takeaway. How about: Just because billionaires have billions of dollars doesn’t mean they’re always smart about the things they do? That already seemed the case with SoFi Stadium’s mammoth price tag, and there are plenty of other recent examples of super-rich guys being completely idiotic. That would be reassuring, except that unlike in the movies, super-rich guys usually end up less being brought down by their hubris than surviving to be idiotic another day, so maybe the lesson here is … the world is broken? Sorry if you were hoping for something more inspirational, now go and eat your schadenfreude.
wikipedia (I know, I know) claims that SoFi can add 30,000 seats for “major events” but primarily seems to cite articles from when it was in the planning stages. Can anyone confirm whether that’s even remotely possible?
They use the same seat rail system as AT&T Stadium in Arlington. They just push the seats closer together and add more seats to the rail in each row.
Interesting, thanks. Don’t think they did this with the Super Bowl but it would get them the necessary capacity.
I’m looking at this video:
https://youtu.be/16o4KrX_rsE?t=144
That’s interesting, but if they’re talking about adding one or two seats per row, that’s still not going to get you to an additional 10,000+ seats, is it?
Stan’s not dumb. He’s evil. Uncouth. Vindictive. But not dumb. Having seats closer to 20 NFL games a year is far more valuable than a one off World Cup game.
RIght. The Cowboys are in the same position and are planning to raise the field height by 15 ft to meet FIFA requirements.
That requires eliminating the first few rows of seats, though, which is where we get back to the capacity issue.
Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but being a multibillionaire has never hurt me.
Arsenal are the Mets of the Premier League….give it time, Neil…give it time
The Arsenal are 8 points ahead of Manchester City going into this week’s international break — and need only 4 more wins to celebrate St. Totteringham’s Day.
Super rich guys usually end up having the tax payer bail them out of their expensive mistakes, more to the point.
But this sure is a curious development. When building a $5-6bn – and counting – stadium, wouldn’t you include removeable seating in areas where NFL configuration swages the floor area down to a point the facility can’t easily be used for international football matches?
I’m with MB and Dave on this one… shoe horning a regulation pitch into a stadium built for the NFL is less of a problem if they plan to build a new elevated “floor” above the concrete and give up the first 2-3 rows of seats. From the SoFi seat map site… it looks like 37 sections in the lower bowl. Even if we assume that every section has 20 seats (it does not) and every section will lose three rows (also not likely true given the way modern stadia are built), we are talking about losing a little over 2,000 seats.
https://static.clubs.nfl.com/image/upload/v1659589291/rams/chsobaacevmtbk7q0aou.pdf
I don’t know that I can see a way they can add “30,000” temp seats for major events (as both the stadium website and Wikipedia claim), but they can probably add 10-12k – which looks like it would get them from the 68k and change they would have with three rows missing from the lower bowl to where they need to be.
(also, does the seating in the 260 suites count toward the world cup capacity or is that an ‘externality’ – as it is for the listed capacity?)
Raising the floor would also give better sight lines (and TV viewing) for the World Cup without affecting the Rams or other NFL teams at all. Their facility would be unavailable for a month plus construction/demolition time during the summer… but that seems a not unreasonable burden to bear doesn’t it?
Looks like FIFA will just have to host the 2026 Final down in here in Texas in Dallas at Jerryworld .
Close enough for me to road trip it up to the match.
Those four square cut outs in the formerly oval end zones at the Rose Bowl were added for the 1994 World Cup Final. They’re still there for the 2028 Olympics. So it might be a better idea to just spruce up the old bowl.
Does FIFA require luxury boxes? Although the old folks in Pasadena might moan about the traffic, The Rose Bowl could work if luxury boxes aren’t critical.
The Coliseum is probably not wide enough. Otherwise, go up north to Santa Clara?
Santa Clara might work.
I’ve been to MetLife and it’s fine, I thought.
Might be not so hot in the summer.
I’ve been to MetLife in the summer, and it is definitely so hot.
Doesn’t FIFA demand 80,000+ for the final because they give away a lot of the Ducati to insiders?”
Sorry “ducats.” Old people word for tickets…..