Where Has the USMNT Been Playing

One of the unique challenges a soccer country the geographic size of the United States faces is trying to figure out where to play all the home games.  There are 50 states spread out over thousands of miles and only so many games to go around.  Many other countries around the world, especially within CONCACAF, are small enough in area that they are limited in the number of cities and venues they have available to host games.  This shouldn’t be a problem in a country the size of the United States.  However, US Soccer seems to have forgotten that they have fans throughout the whole of this country and not just in a select few cities or states.

So where exactly has the USMNT been playing their games? Over the last two-plus World Cup cycles (September 2014-October 2017, November 2017-December 2022, and January 2023-present) the USMNT has played in a lot of the same venues.

The consternation of the USMNT fan base was further exacerbated earlier this month when US Soccer announced that they had scheduled two pre-Gold Cup friendlies: June 7 against Turkey at Pratt & Whitney Stadium in Hartford and June 10 at Geodis Park in Nashville. Again, those are venues that the USMNT has played at regularly, including the exact same venues in the exact same order for the October 2023 international window against Germany and Ghana. In fact, the USMNT has played Hartford eight times since 2005 and has appeared in Nashville nine times since 2006.

Here are the ten metropolitan areas that the USMNT has played the most since September of 2014.

Los Angeles (11 games)

Considering it’s one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, it’s no surprise to see Los Angeles on this list. And it’s certainly had it’s fair share of both competitive games and friendlies, mostly in the annual January Camp. It has also already been confirmed that two of the three USMNT group stage games at the 2026 World Cup will be in LA, so perhaps it might be time for US Soccer to hold off on scheduling any further games there. And with the crowds for the actual US games at the recent Nations League being…paltry…it should lead many to wonder how crowds wouldn’t be better somewhere else.

Kansas City (9 games)

Kansas City has been given the full spectrum of USMNT games the last few years: Gold Cup games, a Copa America game, and several friendlies (plus World Cup qualifiers in 2012 and 2013 that predate the time frame of this list). Attendance at these games has been surprisingly hit or miss. But with so many games in such a short period of time, fans can be expected to pick and choose which game to go to rather than making sure to go to all of them.

Orlando (8 games)

The continuous selection of Orlando to host USMNT games has caused much consternation among the fan base (along with two other cities that are featured later on this list). In fact, they have hosted eight USMNT games in seven years and have played a game in Orlando five straight years. Perhaps most galling was that US Soccer put the USMNT in Orlando twice in the same year back in 2019.

Dallas (7 games)

Dallas is getting more World Cup games in 2026 than any other city and over the course of the last two plus World Cup cycles, they’ve hosted more USMNT games than all but three other cities. Now, in a rare defense of US Soccer, it’s worth noting that they only picked Dallas for one of these seven games. The rest were picked by CONCACAF for the Gold Cup and this seems to be a rare occasion where US Soccer didn’t come in right on their heels. More on that later.

Nashville (6 games)

Nashville is perhaps a somewhat surprising destination on this list. They only got an MLS team after four of these six USMNT appearances. But they do have the largest soccer-specific stadium in the country, with Geodis Park seating 30,109 so more USMNT appearances should probably be expected. Nashville may have just missed out on hosting World Cup games in 2026, but the USMNT is making another appearance there against Switzerland on June 10 and there will also be three Club World Cup games at Geodis Park as well: Club Leon (Mexico) vs. Esperance de Tunis (Tunisia) on June 20, Auckland City (New Zealand) vs. Boca Juniors (Argentina) on June 24, and Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia) vs. Pachuca (Mexico) on June 26.

Austin (5 games)

The USMNT has visited Austin so frequently in such a short period of time, that most US fans would be just fine if the the team didn’t play there for another five years. Q2 Stadium has only been open for four years and yet the USMNT has already played there five times! It was also especially galling that the first three USMNT games in Austin were all in a less than 365-day stretch.

Cincinnati (5 games)

Everything that can and has been said about the USMNT playing in Austin, can and has been said about the USMNT playing in Cincinnati. The only slight difference is that their appearances date back to 2019, rather than 2021, and they’ve played in two stadiums, rather than one. But like Q2 Stadium in Austin, TQL Stadium in Cincinnati has hosted a USMNT game every year of its existence. They also get to host four group stage games at this summer’s Club World Cup including powerhouse teams like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

Philadelphia (5 games)

Philly making an appearance on this list may be a surprise to some, not because they don’t ever play there, but because they haven’t played there in nearly six years. The crowds can be a little bit and miss, however. The three biggest crowds happening in the NFL stadium while the two smallest crowds both showed up to the MLS stadium is pretty self explanatory but also requires a little bit of context. The 2015 game against Panama was the third-place game at the Gold Cup and the 2018 game against Bolivia was only seven months after the US failed to qualify for the World Cup in Russia. On the flip side, the 2016 game against Paraguay was the group stage finale for the USMNT at the Copa America Centenario.

St. Louis (5 games)

When the USMNT made their appearance at Busch Stadium in St. Louis for a World Cup Qualifier in 2015, it was a breath of fresh air. St. Louis had, at one point in the early 1990s, been the preferred venue for US Soccer to host World Cup Qualifying games. So a return after such a long absence was met with much enthusiasm, as evidenced by the 43,000 people who turned up. But more recently, US Soccer has done with St. Louis what they’ve done with Austin and Cincinnati: new MLS stadium gets all the US games. And with Energizer Park a venue for this summer’s Gold Cup, no one would be surprised if the USMNT were to play there….again.

Washington DC (5 games)

The final entry on this list is the nation’s capital. What DC has that the other cities on this list do not is the time between each of the games and the number of different venues used: two appearances at the old RFK Stadium before they made two quick appearances at the new Audi Field, and then finally a nearly five-year gap until they played at Northwest Field, home of the NFL’s Commanders. But as with most of the new soccer-specific stadiums on this list, US Soccer just couldn’t resist playing two games in the new stadium in the same year.

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Since September of 2014, the US has played 122 home games. 66 of those 122 home games have been played in these ten metropolitan areas. That means that ten cities in a country of 340 million people get to see 54% of all USMNT matches.

No doubt that US Soccer will continue to tell anybody willing to listen that they have no control over CONCACAF and CONMEBOL events like the Gold Cup and Copa America. Nominally this is true, but under further examination this excuse does not hold water. For example, the USMNT played a Copa America game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, which was not scheduled by US Soccer. However, US Soccer did schedule a friendly for the USMNT that was played at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City…..THE VERY NEXT GAME! Does US Soccer think that if they weren’t the ones who scheduled the game and picked the venue that it just doesn’t count? That people who paid top dollar to watch the US in a competitive game will again shell out top dollar a few weeks later just because it’s a “US Soccer controlled event?”

Energizer Park in St. Louis is another such example. The USMNT played a Gold Cup game there in June of 2023, which is of course a CONCACAF event, and was only 1,200 people short of a sellout. Less than three months later the USMNT played a friendly there, which was scheduled by US Soccer, and this time was 6,800 people short of a sellout. There seems to be a strong correlation between attendance and the time between the team’s last appearance in the city.

The United States is in the midst of hosting an immense amount of high-level soccer. The Gold Cup was here in 2023. Copa America was here last year. This summer will see the Club World Cup played mostly in the Eastern half of the country while the Gold Cup played in the Western half of the country. Next year, of course, the World Cup is in the United States (along with Mexico and Canada). The Olympics are in LA in 2028 and that means men’s and women’s Olympic soccer. And it was just announced that US Soccer plans on finalizing a bid to host the 2031 Women’s World Cup.

The USMNT must capitalize on the momentum being created by all this high level soccer. US Soccer CEO JT Batson has stated that he wants every USMNT game to be a big event. Unfortunately, playing over half your games in a small percentage of the country doesn’t get the job done on that front. The USMNT must start playing in newer and different venues both before the World Cup to excite the whole country, and after the World Cup to sustain the momentum for the growth of the game. US Soccer has repeatedly expressed their desire to grow the game. How can taking the US national team to the same ten cities and same fans over and over and over again possibly grow the game? The world wonders.

Photo Credit: Austin American Statesman