Seattle, Washington: Lumen Field Scores 4.1 in FIFA Report for 2031 Women's World Cup

Seattle soccer fans got a clear signal on Wednesday that the World Cup could come back to Lumen Field in 2031. FIFA released its bid evaluation reports on November 11 for the Women's World Cups in 2031 and 2035, and the 2031 report includes Seattle as one of twenty potential host cities in the joint bid from the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica, USA TODAY reported. In the bid, Lumen Field is listed as a host venue for matches from the group stage through the semifinals.

What the report says about Lumen Field

FIFA gave Lumen Field a technical evaluation score of 4.1 out of 5, USA TODAY reported. The score combines stadium infrastructure, accommodations and fan and broadcast center capability. Seattle scored 5.0 on the report's accommodation rating, which looks at hotel availability, and 4.5 for Fan Festival sites. The report notes a stadium capacity of around 71,000 seats and says Lumen Field hosted six matches at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The report also praised how the stadium connects to transport. Lumen Field benefits from exceptional multimodal connectivity, the report says, citing its proximity to light rail, bus services, ferries and Sea-Tac Airport. One familiar job would come back with the tournament. The stadium's synthetic turf surface would again require a change to natural grass, as it did for the 2026 World Cup, the report notes. Seven stadiums scored higher than Lumen Field, among them Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, AT&T Stadium in Dallas, NRG Stadium in Houston, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Estadio Akron in Guadalajara and Estadio BBVA in Monterrey.

The bid as a whole, and what Seattle did in 2026

Reuters reported that both joint bids met FIFA's minimum hosting requirements and will go to the Extraordinary FIFA Congress for approval. The 2031 bid proposed 20 stadiums in 20 host cities and received an overall score of 4.4 out of 5. The 2035 bid, from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, proposed 19 stadiums in 15 host cities and scored 4.3 out of 5. The 2031 tournament will have 48 teams taking part for the first time.

Seattle's case rests in part on what happened this summer. The city hosted six matches at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, four in the group stage and two in the knockout rounds. Its final game came on July 6, when Belgium defeated the United States 4 to 1 in the Round of 16. Visit Seattle, the city's travel agency, reported that the tournament brought in $109 million in tax revenue and supported around 20,000 jobs, USA TODAY reported.

The twenty cities, and the next step

The twenty proposed host cities for 2031 are Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York and New Jersey, Orlando, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C., Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey and Torreon in Mexico, San Jose in Costa Rica and Kingston in Jamaica. Inclusion in the evaluation report is not a final host city selection, and FIFA has not said when final venue choices will be made.

The Extraordinary FIFA Congress will convene on November 23 to appoint the hosts for 2031 and 2035. The next Women's World Cup before 2031 will be held in Brazil from June 24 to July 25 next year, Reuters reported.