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MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey -- and not Southern California's Rose Bowl -- will host the final of next summer's Copa America Centenario, multiple sources have told ESPN FC. The home of the NFL's New York Giants and New York Jets, located eight miles west of New York City, was the original choice of U.S. Soccer, which will serve as the local organizing committee for the special one-off tournament that will feature top national teams from North and South America, according to a source close to the federation. The Rose Bowl, which hosted the World Cup final in 1994, was an early front-runner to host the championship match as recently as last month, just before it was announced that the competition would go ahead as planned following doubts in the wake of the FIFA corruption scandal. While the 93,000-capacity Rose Bowl is the bigger venue, with 10,000 more seats than MetLife Stadium, the latter has more suites and luxury boxes. It also sits within the nation's largest media market. Those factors make MetLife more appealing for the finale, even though its artificial turf field would have to be covered with temporary grass for the event, one source said. The venues and schedule for the tournament are being finalized and are expected to be announced in the coming days, according to another source. The 16-team competition is scheduled to take place in 12 cities across the U.S. next June. At least 10 have already been locked in, according to a source. In addition to Met Life and the Pasadena's Rose Bowl, which would likely host a semifinal, there's Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California; Seattle's CenturyLink Field; Reliant Stadium in Houston; Soldier Field in Chicago, the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Philadelphia' Lincoln Financial Field; the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona; and Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
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