Stockton University to host Haiti's World Cup team

Stockton University will play a role in the upcoming World Cup competition as the base for Haiti's team. The Galloway school is expected to provide "a supportive, high-quality training environment" for the Haitian squad, according to an announcement from the FIFA World Cup 2026 New York New Jersey Host Committee . "The campus features a 1,500-seat stadium with a grass pitch, a multi-purpose sports center that includes training facilities, fitness areas, and meeting spaces," it said in a May 19 statement.

$5M fund: State money to bring World Cup excitement to local towns Stockton will be one of four "team base camps" in the state, and the only one in South Jersey. The camps are expected to spur economic and tourism impact, "including hotel stays, local business activity, and global exposure for host communities," the joint committee's statement said. It also pointed to "opportunities for residents to engage with the tournament beyond matchdays.

" And the statement noted the region's "strong and growing" community of people with roots in Haiti, a French-speaking country that shares a Caribbean island with the Dominican Republic. Other base camps in New Jersey will host Brazil at the Columbia Park Training Center in Morris Township; Senegal at Rutgers University in Piscataway; and Morocco at The Pingry School in Basking Ridge, Somerset County. "The Haiti National Team, also known as the Grenadiers, are in Group C and will arrive at Stockton on June 8," the Atlantic County college said at its website.

World Cup competition is to begin June 11. "The Haitians will be staying at the Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Hotel and will be bussed to campus for each day of practice," said Stockton spokesman Mark Melhorn. The team's practices will be closed to the public "as mandated by FIFA," he said.