As cities across the United States, Mexico and Canada prepare to host FIFA World Cup games, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is speaking out on why the Windy City isn’t hosting the event.
Emanuel, who was mayor of Chicago when it was announced the United States would cohost the 2026 tournament, blames FIFA for the city not playing host to the tournament, which gets underway this week. He says the organization wanted to take all the benefits and leave Chicago paying all the bills to host the tournament at Soldier Field.
“I was not gonna basically allow taxpayers of the city of Chicago to be dumb money,” he said. “They assumed that we were gonna take all the risk and they were gonna get all the reward. I told them to take a hike.”
Emanuel said FIFA wanted to collect all revenues from ticketing, broadcasting, concessions and parking, while leaving the city to pay for public transit, police and fire staffing costs, medical bills, and VIP escorts for teams and personnel.
“They treated Chicago as a welcome mat, and that was it,” he said.
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke to NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern on a variety of topics, including the Bears’ impasse with Illinois officials on a stadium bill.
Emanuel has said on multiple occasions FIFA wanted to include stipulations in its contract with Chicago that the city would potentially be required to put a roof over Soldier Field, which he said could have cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
He pointed to cities like Kansas City as an example of what he describes as the pitfalls of hosting. This week, FIFA canceled approximately 75% of the original hotel bookings it had secured in Kansas City, and didn’t reimburse the city for those costs.
According to the Kansas City Star, Kansas City put forward at least $15 million to help fund police, fire and traffic safety services during the tournament.
The state of Missouri allocated around $78 million, and the state of Kansas also authorized around $28 million to the effort.
Emanuel said the contract put forward by FIFA was full of such risks, and he wasn’t willing to sign off on it.
“I want you to come. I want you to have a great time. But I’m not paying for you to come here, and that’s the difference,” he said. “They wanted me to leave the taxpayers on the hook for a lot of unknowns.”
In 1994, Chicago did play host to World Cup games, with Group C and Group D playing games at Soldier Field. They also hosted a knockout stage game when Germany defeated Belgium 3-2.
This time around, most of the games are on the coasts, though Dallas and Houston are also hosting games.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off Thursday when Mexico faces South Africa in Mexico City. The United States will open their tournament on Friday when they play Paraguay in Los Angeles.
