Thursday, January 14, 2010

Apologies, being sick sucks.



There you have the final 18 candidates for the USA's World Cup bid in 2018/2022.  All cities have fantastic facilities and plenty of potential.  However, what bothers me most is that a city like Kansas City gets the invite over Chicago, which happens to be the third largest TV market in the US, not to mention the third largest city.  Is this fallout from the lost Olympics bid?  No one knows, but not having the city which is home to the USSF could throw some instability into the entire bid.  A couple more things:

  • Is Atlanta really being considered?  Maybe its just me, but I'm not a fan of soccer games in domed stadiums.  While the Georgia Dome is a fine facility, soccer there just seems like a push, but Atlanta does boast the busiest airport in the US.
  • LA really needs an NFL team back.  It's two "premium" stadiums (the Rose Bowl and the LA Coliseum) were built in 1922 and 1923 respectively.  While they have the potential to host huge crowds, they lack much of the finer aspects of the more modern stadiums in the bid, like say, Jerry World (Dallas), the Meadowlands (New York/New Jersey), and FedEx Field (Washington DC).
So my top 12:

1) New York (opening match)
2) Washington DC (final match)
3) Los Angeles (at least a semi-final)
4) Dallas (Jerry World)
5) Houston (super stadium)
6) Phoenix (super stadium)
7) Seattle (deserves it)
8) Miami (FL has to get in on this)
9) Boston (you just know that Boston will get some)
10) Philadelphia (lots goin on on the east coast, but Philly is too good to pass up)
11) Indianapolis (good stadium, plus Chicago fans need a place to go)
12) Nashville (personal bias)