St. Louis among 37 finalists for U.S. World Cup bid
The bid committee running the U.S. bid to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 has narrowed its field of potential sites to 45 stadiums in 37 cities, including St. Louis. Those cities have been sent RFPs, requests for proposals, which ask for information on subjects such as tourism, security, transportation and promotion. The U.S. application for the World Cup has to be in by May.
58 stadiums had initially expressed interest in hosting the World Cup. Columbia, Mo., did not make the cut. Other Midwestern cities on the list are Chicago, Fayetteville, Ark., Kansas City and Nashville.
Here’s the full list:
Proposed stadiums, cities and metropolitan markets for further consideration
Metro Market/ City Stadium Capacity
Atlanta Georgia Dome 71,250
Baltimore M & T Bank Stadium 71,008
Birmingham, Ala. Legion Field 71,000
Boston Gillette Stadium 71,693
Charlotte Bank of America Stadium 73,778
Chicago Soldier Field 61,000
Cincinnati Paul Brown Stadium 65,535
Cleveland Cleveland Browns Stadium 72,000
Columbus, Ohio Ohio Stadium 101,568
Dallas Cotton Bowl 89,000
Dallas Cowboys Stadium 100,000
Denver INVESCO Field 76,125
Detroit Ford Field 67,188
Detroit Michigan Stadium 108,000
Fayetteville, Ark. Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium 72,000
Houston Reliant Stadium 71,500
Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium 64,200
Jacksonville, Fla. Jacksonville Municipal Stadium 82,000
Kansas City Arrowhead Stadium 77,000
Knoxville Neyland Stadium 100,011
Las Vegas Sports City USA N/A
Los Angeles Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 93,607
Los Angeles Rose Bowl 92,000+
Miami Land Shark Stadium 75,540
Minneapolis Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome 64,000
Minneapolis TCF Bank Stadium 50,200
Nashville LP Field 69,143
New Orleans Louisiana Superdome 70,000
New York/N.J. New Meadowlands Stadium 82,000
Orlando Florida Citrus Bowl 65,616
Philadelphia Lincoln Financial 67,594
Phoenix/Glendale Sun Devil Stadium 73,500
Phoenix/Glendale University of Phoenix Stadium 71,000
Pittsburgh Heinz Field 65,000
Salt Lake City Rice-Eccles Stadium 45,603
San Antonio Alamodome 65,000
San Diego Qualcomm Stadium 70,500
San Francisco Stanford Stadium 50,500
San Francisco/Oakland Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum 63,026
Seattle Husky Stadium 72,500
Seattle Qwest Field 67,000
St. Louis Edward Jones Dome 67,268
Tampa Raymond James Stadium 65,856
Washington, D.C. FedExField 91,704
Washington, D.C. RFK Stadium 45,600
The bid needs to have 12 to 18 stadiums, holding at least 40,000 people. For the opening match and final, the stadium needs to hold 80,000.
While there are 45 stadiums, I think the relevant number is 37 cities, since I think it’s unlikely they would use two stadiums in one city.
Unless there are some major changes happening to the Dome down the road, there is no chance a FIFA World Cup game will be played on fake turf in a climate controlled building.
They did it before in Pontiac, Michigan. As long as you bring in a grass field I don’t think FIFA will care. There are clearly some cities on this list that you can rule out because of simple logistics (read Fayetteville), and I’m that some stadia will be ruled out because of temperature (Phoenix area). I think we have a pretty good shot at it personally.