ATLANTA — A major women's soccer tournament that features the U.S. national team will take place in Atlanta next year.
The SheBelieves Cup is an annual four-team tournament that routinely features the USWNT along with three other top international teams. According to organizers, all of the 2024 participants will be teams that featured in the 2023 World Cup.
The tournament next year, due for April, will take place with semifinal matches on April 6 and a third-place game and championship match on April 9 - all at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It will serve as a crucial tune-up for the USWNT ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
It also marks the first first US national match in Atlanta after U.S. Soccer announced this month that it's moving to Fayette County.
“These are the first U.S. Soccer-controlled matches of the Olympic year for our Women’s National Team and we’re looking forward to a big turnout at one of the best stadiums in the world,” said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. “We’re also excited to play our first match in the Atlanta area since we announced the site of our new National Training Center. From my time playing there for the Atlanta Beat, I know what the support for soccer and for our National Teams in the southeast is like and these opening games of the SheBelieves Cup in Atlanta will be a perfect way to launch our spring run to the Olympics next summer.”
The 2023 SheBelieves Cup was played in three cities - Frisco, Texas (Dallas area), Nashville and Orlando - featuring the U.S., Japan, Brazil and Canada. It also featured six games - each of the four teams playing the other, with the winner determined by the whoever was top of the standings at the end. That is the traditional format - with the U.S. winning each of the last four tournaments - but it will feature a shortened format next year due to changes in FIFA international competition windows and the earlier staging of the CONCACAF Gold Cup in February and March.
Tickets for the 2024 SheBelieves Cup will go on presale for various insider stakeholders on Dec. 15. Further presales are set for Dec. 19 (standard insiders) and Dec. 20 (Visa cardholders). The public sale of tickets will take place in mid-January.