Boston will once again be a World Cup host city.
The 2026 World Cup — soccer's biggest event — will be played at 16 cities across the United States, Mexico and Canada. FIFA announced Thursday that Gillette Stadium will be one of the venues.
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The stadium in Foxboro has a seating capacity of about 70,000. It's hosted international soccer games over the years, and is familiar to local sports fans as the home of the New England Patriots and Revolution.
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The last time the World Cup was in the U.S., in 1994, games were also played at Foxboro, though at the old Foxboro Stadium.
The event could bring up to $500 million in gross economic activity, along with hundreds of thousands of visitors filling up area hotels and restaurants.
Foxboro is about 30 miles outside of Boston.
No past event in the city’s history would come close to this one, said Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Visitor and Convention Bureau, ahead of the draw.
"Maybe if we hosted the Olympics," she said. "That's probably comparable to what it would be like to host the World Cup."
The other host cities include Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey, Toronto and Vancouver.
American soccer fans still have a World Cup to look forward to between now and then. The 2022 event is being played in Qatar; it was moved to the winter to avoid playing in the intense Middle Eastern summer heat.
