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CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ohio has two paths to landing matches in the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup: a joint Cleveland-Columbus proposal and a separate bid centered on Cincinnati.
The official bid book pairs Cleveland’s future Brook Park stadium with Columbus’ existing soccer infrastructure, while Cincinnati stands alone with TQL Stadium.
That gives Ohio two proposals involving three stadiums: the Browns’ enclosed stadium under construction in Brook Park and the Columbus Crew’s existing soccer stadium, or Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium.
FIFA could use both Cleveland and Columbus or select only one, Greg Rush, chief financial officer for Haslam Sports Group, told cleveland.com.
The pairing combines Cleveland’s capacity with Columbus’ soccer infrastructure. Cincinnati offers fewer seats but a completed stadium with experience hosting both U.S. national teams. None of the three Ohio stadiums is guaranteed to host matches.
The bid book identifies about 50 stadiums across 35 cities or metropolitan areas in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica. None of the Ohio stadiums appears among the 20 venues used as examples for FIFA’s technical evaluation, but the document says other suitable locations will remain “equally considered.”
Cleveland offers size — and uncertainty
The Browns describe the Brook Park stadium as a 67,500-seat venue designed to host Browns games, international soccer and other large events. The building could accommodate crowds of as many as 75,000 for concerts and certain special events.
That would give Cleveland substantially more seating than Ohio’s existing soccer venues. TQL Stadium in Cincinnati holds 26,000, while the Columbus Crew’s stadium holds about 20,000.
Brook Park would therefore provide about 41,500 more seats than Cincinnati and roughly 47,500 more than Columbus.
Cleveland also offers Ohio’s only enclosed candidate venue. Its disadvantage is that the stadium remains under construction.
The Browns say the stadium is scheduled to open in 2029, giving it about two years of operational experience before the tournament.
Rush told cleveland.com that the building is designed for the field width required for international soccer. He said temporary natural grass could be installed if the Browns select artificial turf as the stadium’s permanent surface.
The publicly available materials do not disclose a Cleveland-specific host agreement, match allocation, tournament operating budget or commitment of public money for the event.
Columbus supplies experience
Columbus gives the paired proposal an operating soccer-specific stadium with natural grass.
The stadium opened in 2021, and Columbus has hosted the U.S. men’s national team during six consecutive World Cup qualifying cycles. The city also has been selected to host soccer matches during the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The Columbus Crew’s training complex and the Browns’ facility in Berea could provide practice sites for participating teams, Rush told cleveland.com.
Those assets give FIFA options for assigning matches and team bases. The public bid materials do not explain how games, transportation or fan events would be divided between Cleveland and Columbus if both were selected.
Cincinnati offers certainty
TQL Stadium opened in 2021 and was built specifically for soccer. It has a natural-grass field and a capacity of 26,000.
The stadium hosted the U.S. men’s 2-0 World Cup qualifying victory over Mexico in 2021 before a sellout crowd. The U.S. women drew 24,016 spectators for a June 2025 match against Ireland.
Cincinnati cannot match Brook Park’s ticket capacity. It can offer FIFA a completed stadium and demonstrated national-team operations without depending on construction or coordinating two metropolitan areas.
Demand is clear; economic effect is not
Recent matches show Cleveland can draw soccer crowds larger than either Ohio soccer-specific stadium can hold.
The Columbus Crew’s 2025 match against Lionel Messi and Inter Miami drew 60,614 people to the Browns’ lakefront stadium. A June 2026 exhibition between Brazil and Egypt drew about 64,000, according to reporting by cleveland.com.
Those crowds establish demand. They do not establish how much a Women’s World Cup would add to the local economy.
The bid projects about 4.5 million spectators and more than $4 billion in revenue across the four host countries. Those are projections by the bidders, not independent estimates, and they do not identify Cleveland’s potential share.
A local result would depend on the number and importance of Cleveland’s matches, the participating teams and how many spectators travel to Northeast Ohio and stay overnight. No independent Cleveland-specific economic-impact analysis has been released.
FIFA launched the formal bidding process on March 5, 2025. The United States and Mexico initially pursued the event with other potential partners from the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football. Costa Rica and Jamaica formally joined the coalition in October 2025.
FIFA received the four-country bid book in November 2025 as the only submission for the 2031 tournament. The organization still must evaluate the proposal and formally appoint the host countries. A virtual extraordinary FIFA Congress is scheduled for Nov. 23, 2026. Stadium selections will come later.
Cincinnati offers a completed, tested venue. The paired proposal uses Columbus to supply soccer experience while Cleveland supplies more than twice the seating of either existing Ohio stadium.
Cleveland’s strongest argument may depend on Columbus rather than come at its expense. Whether that combination outweighs Brook Park’s construction uncertainty will be decided when FIFA chooses where the matches will be played.
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit cleveland.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
