The United States has made noises about a bid for the 2018 World Cup, and Brazil has just been awarded the 2014 Cup, so it’s on my mind. Where would you like to see games, or particularly think they should be played.
It seems that current rules allow 8-10 cities to host matches, with a possibility of one city holding two stadiums. However, Brazil has requested permission to have 12 host cities.
Stadiums in the past have held anywhere from 40,000 - 100,000, which generally rules out the soccer specific stadiums that have been built recently in the US. The majority of the large stadiums in the US host college football.
I think that the final should be played at the New Texas Stadium, which looks to be a beautiful stadium, holding 80,000, with potential to hold 100,000 more for special events. Though I admit that it’s proximity to me adds slightly to its appeal.
I haven’t really gone much farther into other places to play, but will come back later with more thoughts.
Now, there have been a few new additions to stadia that might make for good venues. Presumably, though, we’d want newer stadia that would be good in 2018, and since that’s ten years down the road, I wouldn’t want to limit anything at this point.
I think the new field in Denver might be a good choice, for example.
Just a thought (yes, directly inspired by other threads), if MLS is successful over the next decade, it’s not inconceivable that there will be a couple of purpose-built 40,000-seat football stadiums available. And I think 40k has been the official lower limit for recent tournaments, especially considering German stadiums having to install their temporary seating over higher-capacity standing areas :rolleyes:
I think 40k soccer stadiums by 2018 is extremely ambitious. I could see 30-35k with expandable sections, maybe. There are 6 soccer stadiums at the moment in MLS with the largest having 27k capacity. There are a few more planned, I don’t think anything larger than 30k is being discussed at all. If the next 5 years of the league are really good you might see some larger ones being built for expansion teams, but I’d be amazed that if the US got the WC there’d be enough stadiums to not play the majority in NFL or college football stadiums.
While it might be possible that there will be a couple purpose built soccer stadiums of that size in the US by that date, though I think that’s a bit unlikely unless it’s a facility intended to host other large events as a byproduct, I think it’s a moot point. The World Cup would never use a 40k seat stadium when a perfectly acceptable 80k stadium is available. It’s not as if American Football stadiums are vastly different in dimensions and sight lines.
There are big stadiums in the U.S. that get used for international matches quite frequently. The Rose Bowl could still host international soccer matches, although by 2018, that stadium is going to be over 90 years old.
That is not entirely accurate. One of the biggest problems I remember with watching FC Barcelona play the Red Bulls, was that in the nosebleed section you would lose the ball on the near sideline. At these points in the game, you would quickly remember that the stadium was not designed with soccer in mind at all. Fortunately, those instances were few and we only missed some of the action.
Also, you can add me in with the folks who think that a capacity of 40,000 is way too low for the World Cup. The Turnpike was packed like there was a Giants game and even though the Red Bulls are building their own soccer-specific stadium in NJ, they will continue to play larger venues at the Meadowlands.
Actually, there are significant problems with using most American football stadiums. Since American football is played on a field that is only 53 yards wide, the stadiums often have trouble accomodating the 70+ yard width of a full international field, especially in the corners. For the '94 World Cup, a special waver from FIFA was given to have some of the fields narrower than usual for international soccer (I believe the Meadowlands was one). FIFA did that in large measure because of its desperation to have the US host that world cup. I doubt wavers will be coming in the future; FIFA by now will have seen the light and understood that America isn’t just aching to be a soccer mad nation, if only they could see some good football.
Having said that, the '94 World Cup was a huge success financially for FIFA. Attendance set a record that, if I’m not mistaken, has yet to be equaled. Mostly, that’s precisely because we have these huge-ass stadiums to play in, so that you can pack a lot of people in for the tournament if you sell out. So if we can produce enough such stadia that have proper dimensions AND sufficient capacity to make it a financial bonanza, it might work. Of course, they might just go back to Mexico.
