Despite being passionate soccer city, Chicago not hosting any 2026 World Cup games

CHICAGO (WLS) -- As the world's biggest sport prepares to take center stage during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Chicagoans will have to watch from the sidelines.

Despite being one of the country's most passionate soccer cities, Chicago is not hosting a single World Cup match.

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Just days after a sold-out U.S.-Germany match at Soldier Field, nearly 200 young players showed up on the West Side, chasing their own soccer dreams. The sport's popularity is surging in the city. The hope is that one day Chicago will host a World Cup once again.

"This past weekend when Germany and the U.S. played, its sold-out field. Those are the kinds of memories that only feed the flywheel effect of more kids falling in love with the world's most popular sport," Intentional Sports President Austin Carr said.

It's one of the fastest growing sports in Chicago.

"It was a bummer for a lot of Chicagoans not to be able to host a World Cup game," Carr said.

Carr knows first-hand what a World Cup game would do, not just economically for the city, but for those who one day fill the arenas.

"Seeing over 150 kids from this neighborhood on the West Side get involved and play, and you realize soccer is here to stay," Carr said.

In collaboration with Abbott, they hosted tryouts for nearly 200 kids for the chance to play overseas.

"This opportunity is pretty much that, is opening doors that haven't been opened before," Javi Lopez said.

The hope is that it will also help to reopen formerly closed doors. The last time Chicago hosted a cup game was 1994.

In an interview with the Athletic, former Mayor Rahm Emmanuel expressed his frustration with FIFA's demand to have a dome over Soldier Field. It led him to say no to hosting the World Cup in 2018.

"You expect me to treat the Chicago taxpayers as the dumb money at the table. You got to be kidding me," Emanuel said. "You can't have something in there that leaves the city and the taxpayers exposed, and you get to decide it, and I have no vote in it"

He says the demand would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars for the city.

Chicago Sports Commission Executive Director Kara Bachman echoed that sentiment.

In a statement she said in part, "(An) intentional decision was made NOT to continue with FIFA because of their egregious and unfair demands. ... Chicago is an incredible soccer city as evidenced by the rich history of international soccer being played in Chicago."

Carr says while a World Cup game would be an incredible experience for the kids in Chicago, he believes leaders like Bachman are making the right decisions to make sure the investments are leaving the right mark.

"We're building an ecosystem here in Chicago that's more cohesive, and we're caring about things on the field, but also off the field," Carr said.

Carr said in just his little over four years as president of the facility, they went from zero to over 500 kids in their after-school programming.