Today it was announced that the U.S., Mexico, Jamaica and Costa Rica will all submit a joint bid to host the 2031 Women’s World Cup. If this bid were to come through that means that both the United States and Mexico will host two World Cups in the matter of five years.
Mexico and the United States had made it known that they were going to submit a joint bid for the 2027 World Cup but then in 2024 they dropped the bid. They did so because “it would allow them more time to learn from the joint hosting
of the 2026 tournament and how to properly support the host cities,” per U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone.
What wasn’t said but could be inferred, was that investment would not be the same from one year to the next. A lot of investment, i.e. money, has been and will be poured into the tournament in 2026 but sponsors might not be willing to give the same backing for the Women’s World Cup a year later in 2027. Especially since the Olympics will be held the year after in 2028 which means companies will have three consecutive tournaments to spend money on. While there are companies that will be more than happy to invest in women’s sports, others won’t and will excuse themselves from the tournament. Investment in women’s sports has come a long way but there’s still more work to be done. Waiting four years to host the tournament was the best decision so the World Cup would get the investment and the eyeballs it deserves.
With the announcement that four countries intend to host the 2031 World Cup it leaves a lot of questions about the logistics. Where will the inaugural game be played? Where will the final be played? Will all four countries host an equal amount of games or will one country host the majority of them? If people have any doubts they can look to the 2026 World Cup. Canada and Mexico will host a select amount of group stage games but the majority of the games will be played in the U.S. with the final to take place in New Jersey. It is easy to guess that the same thing will happen with the World Cup in 2031 since U.S. Soccer is spearheading the bid.
