HOUSTON 2026
THE ENERGY CAPITAL OF THE WORLD: HOUSTON’S 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP BID WITH SUSTAINABLE LEGACY AT THE HEART With the 2026 FIFA World Cup scheduled to be hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico, the biggest challenge for organisers of the biggest sporting event in the world is to choose the 16 host cities out of the numerous ambitious bids competing across North America. Chris Canetti, President of the Houston 2026 World Cup Bid Committee, outlines what makes Texas’ largest city an ideal host, their environmental sustainability efforts, and the economic impact that the tournament will bring. What makes Houston the ideal host city for the 2026 World Cup? There are a lot of things that go into it but in general we’ve got everything, and that’s our strength across the board. We are the fourth largest city in the United States, we are the largest city in Texas, and we have an array of world-class infrastructure – from two international airports to hotel and convention centres to the NRG stadium where the matches will be played, to world class practice facilities and training pitches. We have all the infrastructure in place to be able to host a major event like this. We have got a track record for hosting sporting events like this. Houston has hosted more major sporting events than any other host candidate city since 2004, so we’ve been there and done that with Super bowls, NCAA college basketball Final Fours final fours and major All-Star games – even a tonne of soccer matches. With our infrastructure, track record and history we really have all these great things going. Houston is also most diverse city in North America, so when you are bringing an international event such as the World Cup, for the global game, to have an international city that is so diverse with 20 | OTFF ISSUE 18 ★ DECEMBER 2021
many different languages spoken and very rich in culture is important. I should also say our accessibility and our location are an advantage to us as well. Houston is an extremely easy place to get to internationally. With our airport system, we are connected to every inhabited continent with direct flights and the most direct flights to south and central America, where a lot of international world cup fans will come in from. Once you’re here in Houston for the World Cup, we are centrally located in North America: You can get to New York in a couple of hours, you can get to LA in a couple of hours and of course there will be matches in Mexico, which you can get to in less than two hours in some cases, so our location is ideal for many reasons. All these things add up to making Houston an ideal place to host a FIFA World Cup. With a huge focus on environmental sustainability within sporting events, how
are you looking to reduce your carbon footprint when hosting the World Cup? The Houston 2026 World Bid Cup Committee has been in existence since January 2019 and very early on in that process we decided to make our focus on legacy. Our legacy strategy is why all these things add up to making Houston an ideal city to host a FIFA World Cup based on how we are going to grow the game in our area and beyond, how we are going to focus on human rights issues, and how we are going to focus on sustainability issues. We have sub-committees as part of our bid committee that are very focused on these three pillars, with a group of experts on the sustainability task force working on how we are going to reduce the carbon footprint throughout the competition. We have got a great track record of doing this through other events in our city but obviously as this continues to evolve and become a bigger deal. With technological developments, we need to be at the forefront of that. Houston is, as you know, the energy capital of the world, therefore most of the major energy ➡
