Skip to content
Union
Link copied to clipboard

Lincoln Financial Field to host 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup quarterfinal doubleheader

It's likely that the U.S. men's soccer team will be the featured attraction when the regional soccer championship comes to Philadelphia for the third straight tournament.

Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field last hosted the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2017, when the United States played El Salvador in a quarterfinal doubleheader.
Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field last hosted the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2017, when the United States played El Salvador in a quarterfinal doubleheader. Read moreTon Gralish/Staff Photographer

This story was updated on Oct. 12 after Concacaf changed which groups will feed into each quarterfinal site.

Back in May, Concacaf announced that Lincoln Financial Field is to be one of the host venues for next year's Gold Cup. This week, the regional soccer governing body confirmed which games the Linc will host: a quarterfinal doubleheader on June 30, with teams from the United States' group.

The 2019 Gold Cup will be the fourth edition of the tournament to come to Philadelphia. Lincoln Financial Field hosted quarterfinal doubleheaders in 2009 and 2017, drawing crowds of more than 31,000 each time. The venue also hosted the 2015 championship game, which attracted a sellout crowd of 68,930 — the largest attendance for a soccer game in the city's history.

NRG Stadium in Houston will host the other quarterfinal doubleheader on June 29. The semifinals will be played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on July 2 and Nissan Stadium in Nashville on July 3.

Concacaf also announced the group stage venue schedule, and placed the tournament's four seeded teams — Mexico, the United States, Costa Rica and Honduras — at those venues. The schedule is as follows:

Group A (Mexico)
June 15: Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Calif.
June 19: Broncos Stadium at Mile High, Denver
June 23: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, N.C.

Group B (Costa Rica)
June 16: Non-U.S. venue to be determined
June 20: Toyota Stadium, Frisco, Texas
June 24: Red Bull Arena, Harrison, N.J.

Group C (Honduras)
June 17: Non-U.S. venue to be determined
June 21: BBVA Compass Stadium, Houston
June 25: Banc of California Stadium, Los Angeles

Group D (United States)
June 18: Allianz Field, St. Paul, Minn.
June 22: FirstEnergy Stadium, Cleveland
June 26: Children's Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kan.

Each group stage venue will host a doubleheader on its respective date. Allianz Field, which will open next spring, and Banc of California Stadium will host Gold Cup games for the first time ever.

The top two teams each from groups C and D will come to Philadelphia, and those quarterfinal winners will head on to Nashville. Groups A and B track to Houston, then Glendale.

Back in May, Concacaf said it also plans to have games in Central American and Caribbean nations for the first time, as part of expanding the tournament from 12 to 16 teams.

Concacaf announced in late September that Chicago's Soldier Field will host the championship game. It will be the third Gold Cup final at the stadium, and the first since 2013. The final will be played on July 7, the same day as the Women's World Cup final in France (and as the men's Copa América final in Brazil). FIFA, world soccer's governing body, has been criticized for allowing the two men's games to take some of the spotlight away from the biggest game in women's soccer.

As of now, Concacaf does not plan to move the Gold Cup final. In a statement to the Inquirer and Daily News, the organization said:

"Concacaf determined, after extensive consultation with key stakeholders and broadcast partners, that the best timing to host the 2019 Gold Cup Final is Sunday, July 7. Multiple factors, such as ensuring the proper rest period for players following an official competition and minimizing conflicts with domestic league calendars, were taken into consideration when making the decision. 

Working in close cooperation with our broadcast partners, Concacaf is confident that the FIFA Women's World Cup in France and our Concacaf Gold Cup, whose matches will be aired in different time slots, will complement each other well, elevating their visibility with our fans across our region and providing for a memorable celebration of our sport next summer."

The broadcast partners Concacaf mentioned would indeed benefit from the status quo. Fox will televise the World Cup during the day and the Gold Cup at night in English; Comcast's Telemundo will televise the World Cup and Copa América in Spanish. (Univision has the Gold Cup in Spanish; no one has the Copa América in English yet.)

In 2015, Concacaf delayed the Gold Cup until after the Women's World Cup, because with the latter tournament in Canada, there weren't nighttime TV slots available.

Fans will have a bounty of games to watch next summer, and viewership should get boosted through cross-promotion. But there's a fair case to make that the women's final ought to stand on its own on the calendar.