Abstract

Co-hosting mega-events is not a new concept. It has been viewed as a strategic endeavour among nations to not only ease the cost of hosting, but to work on multi-national collaborations that go beyond underlying political and economic agreements. United 2026 is a successful FIFA World Cup bid led by the United States to co-host the event with Canada and Mexico. This commentary offers a cultural and political geographical discussion of this bid and the future mega-event. Some of the governance challenges include critically discussing the uniting of these three nations (based on the role of NAFTA and neoliberalism), contested points of disuniting (through the rise of right-wing political movements) through to an intended reuniting (through a shared mega-event hosting). This political and cultural journey of working towards a United 2026 event began in the early-1990s with the NAFTA agreement initially negotiated by George H.W. Bush and signed by Bill Clinton (as the economic binding of the USA, Canada and Mexico) through to Donald Trump’s threats of a US withdrawal and what would ultimately be renegotiated as the new USMCA Agreement. This context provides some geographical/geo-political underpinnings for understanding the potential and perceived governance of a United 2026, following the longitudinal political history of uniting, disuniting and reuniting. With the geopolitical climate in North America, a united effort is (somewhat) contradictory to the apartness that framed the recent relationship between the USA and Mexico in the past years. But alternatively, a co-hosting approach can be viewed as working towards a new North American togetherness, at least in the sense of an event spectacle and imaginary. From a political geography standpoint, power relations will likely exist in a matter similar to that of NAFTA, but as events are promotion oriented opposed to production focused, it is expected that a newfound cultural connection could emerge amid evolving political disruptions using sport as a cultural driver.

摘要

共同举办大型活动并不是一个新概念。它被视为各国之间的一项战略性努力，不仅可以降低托管成本，而且可以开展超越基本政治和经济协议的跨国合作。United 2026 是由美国牵头与加拿大和墨西哥共同主办世界杯的成功申办。这篇评论提供了关于这次竞标和未来大型活动的文化和政治地理讨论。一些治理挑战包括批判性地讨论这三个国家的联合（基于北美自由贸易协定和新自由主义的作用）、有争议的分裂点（通过右翼政治运动的兴起）到预期的重新联合（通过共享的巨型-活动主办）。这场为实现联合 2026 事件而努力的政治和文化之旅始于 1990 年代初，最初由乔治 HW 布什谈判并由比尔克林顿签署（作为美国、加拿大和墨西哥的经济约束）一直到唐纳德特朗普的美国退出的威胁以及最终将作为新的 USMCA 协议重新谈判的内容。遵循联合、分裂和重聚的纵向政治历史，这种背景为理解联合 2026 的潜力和感知治理提供了一些地理/地缘政治基础。在北美的地缘政治气候下，团结一致的努力（在某种程度上）与过去几年构成美国和墨西哥最近关系的分裂相矛盾。但是，或者，联合主办的方式可以被视为朝着新的北美团结而努力，至少在事件奇观和想象的意义上。从政治地理学的角度来看，权力关系可能存在于类似于北美自由贸易协定的问题中，但由于活动以促销为导向，而不是以生产为重点，预计在不断演变的政治破坏中，将体育作为一种文化活动，可能会出现一种新发现的文化联系司机。