Work to do before ’26 World Cup

absolute fan fiasco for the Argentina-Colombia final.

For those who weren’t paying attention, the game was delayed an hour-and-a-half because organizers could not handle the crush of fans who descended on Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. And to be honest, a city that has been a multi-time host for the Super Bowl, was completely overwhelmed by passionate soccer fans. A passion to which the Super Bowl can’t hold a candle.

The US men’s team constantly underperforms, so US officials have no idea how much soccer is loved in the rest of the world. But they got a horrifying first-hand look at it Sunday. About the only good that came

from Sunday’s fiasco was that nobody was killed by the crush of people — many of whom did not even have tickets — who swarmed the gates at the stadium.

But the chaotic final was just the latest in what was just short of an embarrassment for US soccer — which I’m sure is trying to pass the buck to CONMEBOL — the soccer federation of South America.

I’ve always thought the US should be the go-to country for any international sporting event, simply because the country already has enough established infrastructure to host myriad sporting events.

But the warts were evident during Copa: poor field conditions, fields that didn’t meet soccer regulations, half-empty stadiums. Then there is the questionable officiating and the time suck of instant replay.

US soccer officials need to reevaluate its ability to host a major soccer tournament. first and foremost, get games out of American football stadiums. Most of the host sites for the Copa America were held at places like Levi’s Stadium, Hard Rock in Miami and the domed

Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta — all American football stadiums that do not really cater to soccer. The fields are several yards short of regulation width, or are regulation width with no sideline room, and many of the stadiums use artificial turf, which is a no no for FIFA-sponsored soccer tournaments. That means several venues had to lay real grass sod over the top of the artificial turf, which definitely impacted the field conditions.

Then there is the fact that most of these stadiums hold 50,000 people or more, which lends to an empty feeling when they don’t get sold out.

The games in the European Championship were held at soccer-specific stadiums around Germany, which are much smaller than their American counterparts and much easier to fill.

There are plenty of soccer specific stadiums already in the US, including PayPal Park, home of the San Jose Earthquakes. While the team that calls PayPal home is horrendous, the stadium itself is beautiful and could have easily sold out the Ecuador-Venezuela game that was instead played at Levi’s Stadium to half capacity — maybe.

But those soccer-specific stadium don’t have the capacity of American football stadiums. I get that the almighty dollar — or euro, peso or pound — is all these federations care about, but if you made it a better fan experience, maybe there would be more ancillary money that rolls in.

Or simply stop being so greedy.

In the end, Argentina-Colombia was a great game, with Argentina earning its second straight Copa America title with a goal in extra-time, which snapped Colombia’s 28-game unbeaten streak.

Unfortunately, most of the attention is now on the utter failure of putting on a safe and sane championship game. Hopefully World Cup 2026 organizers can learn from these mistakes and provide a much better experience in two years.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.