Soldier Field Was Home to World Cup Games and the Opening Ceremony the Last Time the U.S. Hosted the Tournament

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the biggest yet in many ways: 48 teams will play in 104 matches at 16 venues in three countries over 37 days. It’s the first World Cup to be hosted by three nations, the United States, Mexico, and Canada, although the next World Cup, in 2030, will follow suit and even cross continents when Spain, Portugal, and Morocco host. Opening ceremonies for the 2026 event will take place in each host nation, starting with Mexico on June 11 and the U.S. and Canada on June 12. 

While the U.S. opening ceremony will take place in Los Angeles this year, it occurred in Chicago the last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup, in 1994. That year, the World Cup lasted only a month, featured just 24 teams, and took place in nine venues, including Soldier Field. The tournament may have been smaller that year, but it still holds the attendance record despite the expansion of subsequent World Cups to more teams, with a total attendance of more than three and a half million.

The 1994 World Cup began with an opening ceremony at Soldier Field attended by President Bill Clinton, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl – there on behalf of the first unified German team since 1938 – and Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. Then-Chicagoan Oprah Winfrey emceed a ceremony that featured Diana Ross missing a staged joke shot on goal in addition to performances by Jon Secada, Richard Marx, Daryl Hall, and the Sounds of Blackness. The inaugural game of the tournament was then played in the Bears’ stadium, with defending champion Germany defeating Bolivia. 

Soldier Field hosted four more matches over the coming weeks: three in the group stage featuring Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, and Greece, and one in the round of 16, in which Germany defeated Belgium. Of the teams that played at Soldier Field, Bulgaria went the furthest, defeating Germany in the quarterfinals only to lose to Italy in the semifinals and then Sweden in the match for third place. (Brazil defeated Italy to win the tournament.)  

Chicago isn’t hosting any games in this year’s World Cup, which will take place in 11 U.S. cities, three Mexican ones, and two in Canada. The whole extravaganza wraps up July 19 with the final game at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. If the World Cup ever returns to the U.S., maybe the Bears will have left Chicago and built their own suburban stadium in a neighboring state to host games, just like New York’s Giants and Jets.