Other stadiums selected included Chicago’s Soldier Field, Boston’s Gillette Stadium, Houston’s NRG Stadium, Los Angeles’s Rose Bowl, New York’s MetLife Stadium, Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, Phoenix’s University of Phoenix Stadium, Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco, and the Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium in the eponymous city. While all the cities hosting save for Phoenix and San Francisco are home to an MLS team, only Seattle and Orlando will use the stadiums in which their MLS teams play.

While the stadiums have clearly been selected with capacity in mind (the smallest capacity for any venue is 63,400 in Phoenix), grumbling will likely ensue regarding the playing surfaces. Of the 10, only four use grass (San Francisco, Chicago, Phoenix and Los Angeles). Five use artificial turf (Seattle, Boston, New York, Houston, Orlando), with the final venue (Philadelphia) using a turf-grass blend.

International soccer officials are usually wary of playing important matches on artificial surfaces, due to the way the ball plays as well as greater impact on players’ legs, which increases the likelihood of injury.

This could mean that the turf venues may be quietly blacklisted from hosting later rounds of the competition, to appease pressure from international organizers. Another option would be the use of temporary grass installations, though this produced farcical results when attempted at the Clink and other venues as part of the International Champions Cup the past two years.

Either way, Seattle and the other four artificial venues, regardless of the soccer culture in their respective cities, will be at a natural disadvantage to host the most important matches when the tournament comes to town in June.