A tale of two cities: a case study approach examining the inter-city competitive bid process for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup

This paper examines the 2026 FMWC intra-city competitive bid process, focusing on the urban politics and governance strategies of two major US cities – Cincinnati, Ohio and Baltimore, Maryland – as they sought to provide FIFA with unprecedented financial commitments and government guarantees in a bid to secure 2026 FMWC matches. Drawing on the theories of urban entrepreneurialism and spaces of urban capital, we use a case study approach to investigate how the prospect of hosting matches for 2026 FMWC is linked with broader urban redevelopment strategies of the contemporary neoliberal American city. We find that the 2026 FMWC bids of Cincinnati and Baltimore were a characteristic inter-urban competition shaping the urban policy of major American cities. In the process, we argue that by staging a second round of an internal bid competition, FIFA created competitive conditions for short-listed cities to offer favourable political assurances, generous public funding, and substantial economic certainty to secure hosting opportunities.