The Presidential approach to the 2026 FIFA Cup

The Game Room
1

He has declared that this will be the largest sporting event in history!, And has put together a task force that consists of Himself as the Chair and the Vice-Prez as (of course) the Vice Chair…but that’s not all, folks:
“In addition to the Chair and Vice Chair, the Task Force shall consist of the following members:
(i) the Secretary of State;
(ii) the Secretary of the Treasury;
(iii) the Secretary of Defense;
(iv) the Attorney General;
(v) the Secretary of Commerce;
(vi) the Secretary of Transportation;
(vii) the Secretary of Homeland Security;
(viii) the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs;
(ix) the Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff;
(x) the Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor;
(xi) the Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political and Public Affairs;
(xii) the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and
(xiii) the heads of such other executive departments, agencies, and offices that the Chair or the Vice Chair may, from time to time, designate or invite to participate.”
Basically, if you can find some way to make him happy, you too can be on that Task Force.

Is this normal, close to normal, somewhat normal, or so far from normal it takes three days to reach it in an F-16?

2

The corruption of FIFA meeting the corruption of Trump - this could be interesting.

3

He just has to put his fingers in every pie, doesn’t he?

4

Is he aware that this tournament will be co-hosted by Canada and Mexico?

5

There will be 104 matches, being played at stadia pretty large (Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium seats 71,000) and comparatively small (Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Park seats 25,000). Let’s just assume that average attendance at all matches, across the board, is 50,000. Multiply that by 104 and we get a total attendance of 5.2 million. A look at the attendance for the past three FIFA Men’s World Cups shows attendance around 3-3.5 million. So if my math is right, and if every seat at every game sells out, then I suppose this may very well be the biggest sporting event in history.

I’ve got some time to kill so in an hour or so I’ll have some more precise figures that take into account the actual seating capacity at each venue.

6

I doubt that matters to him one iota.

7

Ok, so I did the math, and here’s where we landed. But first, some disclaimers/assumptions. 1) I assumed that each stadium is being configured for maximum capacity. Many of the US stadia are NFL stadia, and I assumed (gridiron) football capacity for all of those venues. 2) I assumed that every seat at every match is sold (are there ever empty seats at a FIFA men’s World Cup match?). 3) Not relevant to the final numbers, but many of the host cities have MLS teams but the matches are being held not at the smaller, soccer-specific stadium, but a larger (gridiron) football stadium. Like Kansas City— the Cup games are being played at Arrowhead Stadium (NFL football), not Children’s Mercy Park (MLS soccer). 4) I’ve forgotten the names of some of these venues and will just be referring to the city. Forgive me. Anyway, the stadia, capacity, and number of matches is as follows:

Estadio Azteca Mexico City, five matches, 87,523 = 437,615.
Guadalajara’s stadium, four matches, 49,850 = 199,400.
Toronto’s stadium, six matches, 45,000 = 270,000.
LA’s stadium, eight matches, 70,000 = 560,000.
Boston Gillette Stadium, seven matches, 65,878, 461,146.
Vancouver’s stadium, seven matches, 54,500 = 381,500.
NY/NJ MetLife Stadium, eight matches, 82,500 = 660,000.
San Francisco Levi’s Stadium, six matches, 68,500 = 411,000.
Philadelphia’s Stadium, six matches, 67,594 = 405,564.
Houston NRG Stadium, seven matches, 72,220 = 505,540.
Dallas’ stadium, nine matches, 80,000 = 720,000.
Monterrey’s stadium, four matches, 53,500 = 214,000.
Miami Hard Rock Stadium, seven matches, 65,326 = 456,652.
Atlanta Mercedes Benz Stadium, eight matches, 71,000 = 568,000.
Seattle’s stadium, six matches, 68,740 = 412,440.
Kansas City Arrowhead Stadium, six matches, 76,416 = 458,496.

Grand total, IF my assumptions are correct, is 7,121,353. That would easily double the attendance at any of the previous three Cups.

I hate to admit when tRump is right, but…

8

It looks the Tour de France brings on about 12 million spectators. That number would thoroughly smash my estimate even under the best of circumstances. tRump is wrong.

9

It’s so far from normal, you can’t reach it from there.

10

Because FIFA was in a hurry to award a subsequent tournament to a wealthy Middle Eastern country, they declared this was North America’s turn. Most of the games are being played in the United Stares. But in the spirit of friendship and cooperation, some games are being played in Canada and Mexico. It will be interesting to see how well things are going at that time and whether this will work well. It will attract a lot of attention, since the World Cup is often extremely exciting.

11

According to the NYT

Infantino delighted Trump by describing the World Cup, the world’s most-watched sporting event, as “three Super Bowls every day for one month.” But Infantino may have made him even happier when he informed the president that the ball for this summer’s club world championship — also set for the United States — had been designed with Trump’s name on it. “Oooh,” the president said, “that’s nice.”

Trump thinks the tensions caused will “make the World Cup twenty times more exciting”. Perhaps some players will be eager to kick and deflate these balls. Infantino is pretty adept at shameless pandering. But Trump is tariffing Canadian dairy. Although little of this is exported to the States except some gourmet cheeses, it has traditionally been used to prepare the Presidential Pablum.

12

For further perspective, this will be the first World Cup with 48 teams competing, so the number of matches played is increasing from 64 to 104. It was pretty much guaranteed to be the biggest WC ever, if not the biggest sporting event.

All that said, I really have to wonder if there won’t be a sizable boycott amongst foreign soccer fans and how much effect it might have. There’s already a growing hesitancy to visit the USA and it’s not like people much love FIFA either. Great chance to stick it to two corrupt organizations by watching games in Mexico, Canada, or at home.

Oh, and that task force? What a joke. Only Trump would be stupid enough to form a team of people who are terrible at their important daytime jobs and give them another time-consuming important job. I predict they will quarter-ass them both.

13

They are just going to do everything FIFA wants anyway. Infantino knows where his bread is buttered, and is only interesting in buttering up the bigwigs - with choice seats, exclusive entrances and free tickets for their friends.

14

It should be noted that the current record largest World Cup attendance was USA1994, which only had 52 matches but an average per-stadium attendance of over 68K per match for over 3.5 million total spectators, which no nation has exceeded despite the tournament expanding from 24 to 32 teams (and 64 matches).

Given your numbers, it looks like USA1994 might keep the record for average per-game attendance of 68991, just over what you calculated (7121353 / 104 = 68475). Though, if (for example) Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Toronto each add a few thousand extra seats for the Cup, that average attendance record could fall as well.

15

Wait, the ball for the Club World Cup has tRump’s name on it? There aren’t enough WTFs on the internet.

16

Perhaps to allow the players to imagine that they’re kicking Trump’s rump during play? That’s sure to be widely popular.

17

They’ll kick the ball like they caught it fucking their wives.

18

There’ll be a halftime show in the final, for the first time in its history.

Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump have taken the 2026 World Cup for themselves | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian

19

“Can the US win?” Trump asked at one point, interrupting Infantino, who ignored the question.

“First time it’s ever been in this part of the world,” proclaimed Trump, apparently referring to the World Cup. Never mind that three men’s World Cups have already been staged in North America – in Mexico in 1970 and 1986, and in 1994 in the United States.

No, of course the US isn’t going to win the World Cup, you idiot.

20

I’m guessing there will be a posterboard of the FIFA results in the WH with “USA!” written in Sharpie over the actual winner.