L.A. remains in contention to host 2018 or 2022 World Cup
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The USA Bid Committee on Thursday trimmed its list of potential host venues for a FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in either 2018 or 2022, and Los Angeles remains in contention.
Twenty-seven cities survived the third stage of the city and stadium proposal review process, which has the Rose Bowl and Coliseum slated as potential suitors.
The committee said that officials representing 38 cities submitted the requests for proposal, which required information on the city’s tourism, climate, security, transportation, training sites, promotion, etc.
“The overwhelming interest and creativity shown by the candidate cities made our extensive review process that much more difficult in narrowing down the list,” Sunil Gulati, chairman of the USA Bid Committee and president of U.S. Soccer, said in a statement.
FIFA requires host nations to provide between 12 and 18 stadiums, each with a minimum capacity of 40,000. Venues must also seat at least 80,000 spectators for consideration to host the opening and final matches.
Eight of the 32 stadiums in contention have capacities between 80,000 and 108,000, including the Rose Bowl (92,542) and Coliseum (93,607).
The U.S. must submit its application with the final list of cities to FIFA by May 2010. Then FIFA’s 24-member Executive Committee will determine the host countries for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments in December 2010.
The U.S. hosted the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 1994. Nine stadiums were used for the events that year.
The Orlando Business Journal reported on its website Thursday that the World Cup tournament held in Germany in 2006 attracted 3.4 million spectators. Two million were tourists who spent $766 million, the article stated.
South Africa will host the World Cup next summer. Brazil will play host in 2014.
Other U.S. cities that remain in contention include: Atlanta; Baltimore; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Houston; Kansas City, Mo.; Indianapolis; Jacksonville, Fla.; Miami; Nashville; New York City; Oakland; Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia; Glendale-Phoenix, Ariz.; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; St. Louis; Tampa, Fla.; and Washington.
The U.S., Australia, England, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico and Russia have formally declared their desire to host the World Cup in either 2018 or 2022. The Netherlands-Belgium and Portugal-Spain have each submitted shared bids for both those tournaments. And South Korea and Qatar have also applied as candidates to host only the 2022 World Cup.
-- Mario Aguirre