Hosting football's World Cup has always been a big deal, and it is about to get even bigger.
The 2026 World Cup will be the first to feature a recently approved, expanded format of 48 teams, up 50 per cent from the present 32.
With 16 more teams and 16 more matches, the infrastructure required to support such a large tournament potentially limits the number of countries who can host.
So the materialisation of a bid for co-hosting, a practice traditionally shunned for World Cups, does not come as a great surprise.
United States Soccer Federation chairman Sunil Gulati says most of the games would be played in the United States.
"We will bid together. The general parameters of that bid are a World Cup of 80 games, three-quarters of which would be played in the United States -- 60 games in the United States -- and 10 each in Canada and Mexico. The final decision on those things are up to FIFA. It's their tournament, but that will be our proposal, and that is our agreement together."
The only previous co-hosting of a World Cup was in 2002, when politics brought together South Korea and Japan to share the tournament.
After that, the practice was banned ... until now.
Canada has never previously hosted a men's World Cup, although it did host the smaller women's event in 2015.
The United States has hosted the World Cup once before, in 1994, when the event had 24 teams.
It controversially failed in a bid to host the 2022 tournament, scheduled to be hosted by Qatar.
Mexico has hosted the World Cup twice -- in 1970, with 16 teams, and then again in 1986, with 24.
Any event co-hosted by the United States and Mexico now raises questions about the volatility between them since the rise of US president Donald Trump and his anti-Mexican rhetoric.
But Mr Gulati says this particular venture with Mexico has support all the way to the top.
"The President of the United States is fully supportive and encouraged us to have this joint bid. He is especially pleased that Mexico is part of this bid, and that's in the last few days we've gotten further encouragement on that. So, we're not at all concerned about some of the issues that other people may raise. We looked at bidding alone and decided in the end we wanted to bid with our partners in North America, and we have a strong encouragement from President Trump to that very end."
Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani says he is particularly keen on the opportunity for unity for football in the North and Central American region.
The regional FIFA confederation is known as CONCACAF.
"It's a testament to, I think also, how football has changed in our region. I also happen to be the president of CONCACAF, and we've completely changed our mindset in this region to having a more One CONCACAF vision. And nothing illustrates that more than the three biggest countries, in terms of GDP and size, too, coming together to host the number one event in the world bar none, the men's World Cup."
The three-nation bid also brings into focus the increasing toll of hosting big sporting events.
The 2022 Winter Olympics bidding process involved only two cities as finalists.
Paris and Los Angeles may gain a Summer Olympics each in either 2024 or 2028 almost by default.
And the 2022 Commonwealth Games is currently without a host city after Durban withdrew due to financial constraints.
History is littered with stories of waste and financial ruin from hosting big sporting events, but the president of Mexico's football authority dismisses concerns of burden and waste.
Declo De Maria says the big event allows building and growth.
"Football allows us to construct projects, dreams, emotions. With this agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico that we will sign today, we are putting football in first place, allowing a region that until now has half a trillion inhabitants among the three countries, and which probably will have more than a half a trillion inhabitants in nine years, men and women who come from all over the world, they will be happy to receive the rest of the world, offer them a big party and validate again that football is emotion, that football is a dream, that football can build things."
If the joint bid for the 2026 World Cup is successful, it could be the first of many.
Already, Argentina and Uruguay are talking of co-hosting the 2030 World Cup, the centenary of the first-ever World Cup, hosted by Uruguay.
FIFA will officially decide who hosts the 2026 World Cup in 2020.
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