THE SIGHTS
- American Dream mall & DreamWorks Water Park (next door)
- Manhattan skyline & Statue of Liberty (across the Hudson)
- Empire State Building
- Central Park
- Liberty State Park, Jersey City
- Newark's Branch Brook Park cherry blossoms
A sea-level, open-air giant on reclaimed Jersey marshland: no thin air to trouble the lungs, just a wide roofless bowl and, for 2026, a real grass pitch laid over its usual synthetic surface.
Brazil meet Morocco in a Group C fixture on 13 June 2026 - the venue's first World Cup match.
France face Senegal in Group I on 16 June 2026.
Norway play Senegal in a Group I fixture on 22 June 2026.
Ecuador meet Germany in Group E on 25 June 2026.
Panama face England in a Group L fixture on 27 June 2026 - one of five group-stage matches before the venue's later role in the knockout schedule.
The venue's record football (soccer) crowd; the 2016 Copa America Centenario final between Argentina and Chile drew 82,026, and WrestleMania 35 in 2019 packed in 82,265.
On matchdays NJ Transit runs Meadowlands Rail Line trains straight to the stadium from Secaucus Junction, where lines from New York Penn Station and across New Jersey connect; coach buses and ride-hailing fill the gaps.
Traveller's tip: take the train - the Meadowlands sits in a sea of car parks with notorious post-event gridlock, so the rail shuttle from Secaucus is by far the quickest way out.
The New York-New Jersey metro has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) with four full seasons. June is warm and often humid, with long daylight, occasional thunderstorms and no dry season - rain falls fairly evenly through the year.
No history of World Cup nights to recite here - this is a newcomer - but few grounds carry a bigger 2026 brief. Built on Jersey marshland, roofless and at sea level, MetLife has already hosted a cold-weather Super Bowl and a Copa America final, and now swaps its synthetic carpet for real grass to take the tournament's grandest fixtures. A great open dish, dropped onto a swamp, about to host the biggest afternoon in the game.