Why the US is already in the frame for the 2038 World Cup

The prospect of the World Cup returning to the United States as early as 2038 is being discussed seriously within football’s corridors of power. The driving forces are financial as much as sporting: a sharp rise in ticketing and hospitality income in the US market, coupled with Fifa’s determination to secure better value from future television rights.

Why the US has moved to the front of the queue

According to the source material, an American bid for the 2038 World Cup has become a prominent topic among football administrators during the current tournament period. Those conversations have been shaped by what many have seen on the ground in the US: a vast appetite for major events and a consumer market willing to spend heavily to attend them.

Fifa has also been encouraging the idea behind the scenes. At a meeting in New York, Gianni Infantino told representatives from the governing body’s member associations that projected revenue for the current four-year cycle had risen significantly, from $11bn to $15bn. Most of that increase, the report says, has come from ticketing and hospitality.

That trend appears especially pronounced in the United States. A Fifa source said ticketing and hospitality sales had moved beyond $5bn, making that segment more valuable than World Cup television rights for the first time. For an organisation that increasingly measures host appeal through commercial performance, that is a powerful argument in the US’s favour.

Ticketing boom changes the equation

The numbers outlined in the report help explain why senior figures around the tournament believe Fifa will want to return to the US quickly. Demand has exceeded expectations, aided by pricing models and resale practices that are already deeply embedded in the American sports market.

That matters because it suggests the US is not simply a safe host, but a potentially transformative one in revenue terms. Hospitality has become a major growth area in elite sport, and the World Cup appears to have benefited from that trend more dramatically in the US than elsewhere.

For Fifa, this is not only about full stadiums or global visibility. It is about the ability to maximise premium experiences, corporate demand and secondary spending around the event. In that context, the US offers a commercial environment few countries can match.

The TV rights issue Fifa wants to fix

Yet the same report makes clear that Fifa also believes it missed a major financial opportunity in the American market. Fox Sports secured the English-language US television rights without a bidding process, a move designed to avoid legal complications after the 2022 World Cup was moved to winter and disrupted the existing broadcast landscape.

Without competitive bidding, Fox paid $485m for the 2026 rights, the same figure as for Qatar, despite the tournament expanding by 40 matches and being staged on home soil. The report contrasts that number with the scale of domestic US sports broadcasting, where NFL and NBA deals operate at far higher levels.

Fox is said to have benefited strongly from the arrangement, with industry experts predicting more than $1bn in advertising revenue during the tournament period. The report notes that both the volume and value of adverts have risen, helped by the addition of hydration breaks.

That leaves Fifa with a clear commercial objective. If the governing body can bring the World Cup back to the US in a future cycle, it may be able to pair booming in-stadium revenues with a more competitive and lucrative broadcast process.

Why 2038 is now a realistic conversation

On the evidence in the source material, the case for the US is straightforward. Fifa sees a market capable of generating exceptional matchday and hospitality income, while also offering room for significant growth in future media rights negotiations.

That combination helps explain why 2038 is no longer a speculative idea but a credible one. The US has long been attractive to global sports bodies because of its scale and spending power. What appears to have changed is the extent to which this World Cup cycle has reinforced that appeal in hard financial terms.

If Fifa’s priority is to maximise revenue across every major stream, the United States has positioned itself strongly. The conversation around 2038 is therefore not just about hosting prestige. It is about a governing body following the money.