Philly officials are excited for the U.S.-Mexico 2027 women’s World Cup bid, but it’s early

"There is still much to learn about the bid and what U.S. Soccer and Mexico envision for it," a statement from Philly's 2026 men's World Cup organizing group said.

Lincoln Financial Field was a women's World Cup host venue in 2003, and in 2019 (above) set a record for the largest crowd for a standalone U.S. women's team friendly game in program history.Read moreMitchell Leff / Getty Images

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published April 20, 2023, 12:33 p.m. ET

World Cup hosting bids don’t come out of nowhere, for men’s or women’s tournaments. But a lot of people around American soccer were surprised when the United States and Mexico announced a joint bid to host the 2027 women’s World Cup.

Mexico had been pondering a bid on its own, which would have competed against Brazil, South Africa, and the biggest-of-all bid from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. The U.S. had, by all accounts, been focused more on 2031 than 2027.

Now the landscape has changed dramatically. Friday is FIFA’s deadline for bidders to file initial expressions of interest, and the next deadline is coming fast: a formal “Bidding Agreement” document is due by May 19. The deadline to provide all the details is Dec. 8.

There will be a workshop program for bidders during this summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Bidders then will have three and a half months to put on their finishing touches.

It seems that cities won’t have to fully signal their interest in being involved until the December deadline.

This is happening less than a year since the bidding process to host games in the 2026 men’s World Cup ended. The announcement of that tournament’s venues, including Philadelphia, was 10 months ago. Local officials here have done a lot of work since then, but there’s still more to do. And now there’s a possibility of having to run two campaigns at once.

Philadelphia’s World Cup organizing committee signaled Thursday that it’s ready to do so, though with an understandable note of caution.

“We support all opportunities to grow the game of soccer in North America and are certainly excited to hear the news of the United States/Mexico bid for [the] FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027,” a statement from the committee said. “However, there is still much to learn about the bid and what U.S. Soccer and Mexico envision for it.”

As with the 2026 process, a lot of entities likely will have to be involved: the city, the convention and visitors’ bureau, the Eagles, the Union, and corporate sponsors starting with Comcast Spectacor — whose new CEO Dan Hilferty chairs the World Cup committee.

“There are many parties beyond Philadelphia Soccer 2026 … who would need to be involved in any decisions regarding this bidding process,” the committee said, “especially given the wide-ranging impact of such a major event on our region. As always, our team looks forward to any/all conversations.”

While the city has never hosted a men’s World Cup before, it has hosted a women’s World Cup. In 2003, when FIFA had to move the tournament out of China on short notice because of the SARS pandemic, the U.S. stepped in. Lincoln Financial Field was one of six venues used, even though it was during the NFL season. There were four group-stage games here.

The Eagles’ home also holds the record for the largest crowd drawn for a U.S. women’s team standalone friendly game: 49,504 fans in August 2019, during the Americans’ post-World Cup victory tour.

It will interesting to see if all of this sparks new interest in bringing a NWSL team here. Philadelphia and Atlanta are the only cities that had teams in both of the NWSL’s predecessor leagues but don’t have a women’s team now.

When the NWSL announced earlier this month that it will expand to the Bay Area and Boston, raising the franchise total to 15, there was an admission that the door is open for a 16th. So far, no potential owner has stepped up publicly to launch an expansion effort.