Depend entierly on which Confed the play. Against the UEFA no8 they are toast. Againt the AFC no5 (with NK suspended) they have just a small chance. Against the CONMEBOL no4 the have a decent chance.
3.5 would be ambitious for CONCACAF even when they are not hosting. Costa Rica is still well below the level of competition at the World Cup. But the consequences of having so many spots in 2015 could be dire. The likes of Haiti or Guatemala would be downright embarrassing on the world stage, should they get through a playoff (not probable, but still too close for comfort if they get to play the 5th place team from the Asia (minus North Korea) in 2015). It really would be better for 2015 to do away with all of those playoff spots and just take 9 teams from Europe. Even a fourth side from Africa would be better than a fourth side from South America or a fifth side from Asia or North America. I don't agree with this one at all. Nigeria just failed to qualify for the Olympic games a few months ago, and before that they failed to qualify for the all-Africa games (an 8 team competition). Cameroon, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, and South Africa are too competitive to expect that Nigeria will always finish in the top three.
LOL, I forgot DPR Korea won't be in contention for Canada, and I also forgot how much more competition Nigeria actually have in the CAF region too. So 2015 could actually be even more lopsided than many of us imagine
Yeah, it could be ugly, but there already were ugly results like the infamous 11:0 of Germany against Argentina when only 16 teams participated. But maybe it won't be this ugly, considering how few goals the newcomers from Equatorial Guinea and Colombia allowed. I rather fear for a very boring group stage. Imagine this seeding: Canada (Hosts), USA, Germany, Japan, Brazil, Sweden 6 UEFA teams Australia, South Korea, China, Mexico, Costa Rica, 3 CAF, 2 CONMEBOL now there is one team missing in each of the last two pots, that would be New Zealand and either the 4th CONMEBOL or 4th CONCACAF or 5th AFC team.* I shamelessly assumed the 8th UEFA team will qualify regardless. Considering the 4 best 3rd placed team will qualify for the next round as well, I can't really see how the group stage could be "dangerous" for the top seeds in any way. Also the strength of the groups will greatly vary, because of the large difference in strength of the pot 3 teams in this example. In these groups even the Norway of 2011 would qualify easily for the next round. *Under normal circumstances (North Korea not banned) it should be the 5th AFC team, unless they have to play against the 8th UEFA team.
Well I expect a beatdown here and there, but another 11-0 level beatdown? Maybe not this time, but I'm just looking at CONCACAF and panicking with thoughts of some teams being way too close to the big show, causing me to overlook and acknowledge the reality of situation at hand, which is that they won't actually qualify....... Famous last words right When you say boring group stage though, do you mean having an Olympics style top 3 qualifying from each group?
New Zealand showed in the 2011 WWC, that they deserve to be there in a 16-team field (finally). So they are most definitely worthy of getting there in a new expanded 24-team filed, each cup going forward (provided they don't regress much).
The 6 venues will be: Moncton Ottawa Winnipeg Montreal Vancouver Edmonton Ottawa is a concern. Toronto is hosting the 2015 Pan American Games and Halifax refused to build a stadium.
2015 Women’s World Cup could be a memorable event for Canada Andrew Bucholtz Eh Game 4 May, 2012 The best women's soccer players in the world will be coming to six cities across Canada in the summer of 2015. FIFA president Sepp Blatter was at Ottawa's Parliament Hill Friday to make the official announcement of which Canadian cities were selected as hosts for the 2015 Women's World Cup, and, as expected, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal, Winnipeg and Moncton were chosen. (Toronto declined to bid for the event thanks to preparations for hosting the Pan-Am Games that same summer.) That should set the stage for a tremendous and historic event, one of the most high-profile women's sports competitions in the world, and one that should provide a chance to see the Canadian team excel. The Women's World Cup isn't as well-known as the men's competition, and that's understandable considering both its recent beginnings (the tournament only started in 1991, compared to the men's tournament's debut in 1930) and the lower degree of interest many have in women's soccer. However, it's still an incredible tournament in its own right, and it's the largest single-sport women's event in the world. What's also notable is that the Women's World Cup is on the rise; it's come a long way from the initial domination of the Americans, Norwegians and Germans to a place where there are plenty of contenders around the world, as exemplified by the Japanese team's surprising victory over the U.S. in the 2011 tournament final. That growing depth will be reflected in 2015. The tournament's expanding from 16 to 24 teams and from 32 to 52 matches, and that will allow Canada to be a part of women's soccer history. There are still definitely teams that are head-and-shoulders above the main pack, including the U.S. and Canada (as seen in Olympic qualifying this year), but the women's game is getting much better around the world, and that should make for at least some entertaining and competitive matches in all of the Canadian host cities. Expect Canadian fans to turn out in force, too. This country's gotten behind big soccer events before, including the 2007 men's U-20 World Cup and the 2002 women's U-19 World Cup, which saw 47,000 pack Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium to watch the home team take on the U.S. in the final. Which stadium will host the 2015 final doesn't seem to have been determined yet, but Commonwealth and B.C. Place will presumably be in the running, and either would be an excellent choice. The other stadiums involved should be great sites for this tournament as well, including the new CFL stadiums in Winnipeg (to be completed this year) and Ottawa (to be completed for 2014), Montreal's Olympic Stadium and Moncton Stadium. There are strong soccer communities in each city involved, and we've seen plenty of support for the Canadian women's team over the last decade; it's not hard to imagine large numbers turning up for other matches, either, especially if enough is done on the promotion and marketing front to convince people of the quality of soccer that will be on display. Some of the world's best female athletes are coming to Canada in 2015, and it should be a great event for the country; Canada's also a perfect host for this tournament, given the interest in women's sports here (as we've seen with other events like the women's ice hockey world championships). It's a perfect fit of event and location, and it should produce a memorable experience. It's also positive that the Canadian team seems to be on the upswing under new coach John Herdman, who led them through the Olympic qualifying campaign with flying colours. There's a long way to go before 2015, but the Canadian women's team looks like a legitimate top-10 side at the moment, and if they can keep that up, they could use the home-field boost to do something really special in a few years. The 2015 Women's World Cup will be a solid event regardless of how the locals do (the winless, goalless performance of the home side at the U-20 World Cup in 2007 didn't spoil the party), but a strong Canadian showing could make it truly special, and there seems to be a good chance that could happen. It's going to be well worth watching.
Host stadiums for Women's 2015 World Cup (Canada) Vancouver - BC Place Capacity 54,320 Smaller configuration 21,000 Edmonton - Commonwealth Stadium Capacity 52,000 Winnipeg - Investors Group Field Capacity 33,500
Commonwealth Stadium does not seat 53,000. It seats 62,000 (and after the current upgrades to new green seats it will be 58,000)
Ottawa - Frank Clair Stadium Capacity 24,000 Montreal - Olympic Stadium Capacity 56,040 Moncton - Stade Moncton 2010 Stadium Capacity 10,000 (expandable to 20,725)
Eskimos' plan? Put you in comfy seats, keep you there Entertainment plan to spike party climate John MacKinnon, Edmonton Journal April 11, 2012 The Edmonton Eskimos are going to punch up the game-day entertainment package so they can attract more fans to fewer, but wider and far cushier seats at Commonwealth Stadium this CFL season. So says the club's CEO, Len Rhodes, a brand management professional, who joined the football franchise last fall after serving as a senior executive with Reebok-CCM for several years. On Tuesday, Rhodes outlined the Eskimos "Unleash It" marketing campaign, which will feature those long-awaited modern seats - complete with cupholders - new home and away jerseys, and the deployment of a $250,000 boost to the club's existing $87,000 budget for the a season's worth of game-day presentation. "Ten dates in a year is something that can be viewed as a happening," Rhodes said at the club's kickoff luncheon. "And we want to make that the best place to be in Edmonton." Rhodes has pledged to be more transparent about many aspects of the communityowned club's fashion of operating, such as its season-ticket base, which sat at 22,000 last season. Including suite holders, the base bumps up to 25,000. Walk-up sales lifted the club's per-game average attendance to 34,000 in 2011. But in 58,000-seat Commonwealth Stadium, the largest average gate in the CFL can look a bit scattered, something Rhodes is intent on changing. The $12 million cost of installing the modern seats, a project started on former president and CEO Rick LeLacheur's watch, will be borne by the City of Edmonton, the Eskimos and a five per-cent ticket surcharge on all events at Commonwealth. "In terms of numbers, I want the stadium full," Rhodes said. "I won't be happy until we really fill that stadium. "But I don't want to get caught up on numbers, I want to talk about fans coming out saying, this is the place to be. "Let's say, 40,000 is a nice number to start with as an average, and be the pride of the league." With the newer, wider seats, to be installed incrementally over the next two seasons, the capacity will dip by about 6,000 to 52,000, Rhodes said. But by making Commonwealth comfier, the hope is to enhance the fan experience. To that end, each of the club's 10 dates (nine regularseason games and one preseason date) will be themed. The 2012 calendar will include Ladies Night, Military Appreciation Night, Country Night, and Pinktoberfest, a hybrid affair that combines a fall beer fest with the CFLwide Pink campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness. "Can it be better? Yeah, and I think the learning was we can do more in making sure that, in and around football, halftime, pre-game, all the little details, we can ramp it up a bit and make it a little more entertaining," Rhodes said. That will start, game-in, game-out, with 200 fans holding a massive, 75 by 150-foot Canadian flag on the playing field during the singing of O Canada before each game, but also include pre-and postgame festivals at the completed field house to foster a party atmosphere every game. Finally, what drives the fan experience, in any sport, is the on-field product. On that score, head coach Kavis Reed said the formula is simple. "It's one thing to say we want an exciting brand of football. I'm going to go so far as to say, we just want a winning brand of football. "We want the Edmonton Eskimos to be (at a level) that when people walk into that stadium, there's an expectation that we're going to play solid football and we're going to win the football game. "That's the biggest thing. And that's the biggest way that we can support the efforts of our marketing guys and our president is to win football games."
Still some question about where games will be played in Montreal. The Big Owe or Saputo. Saputo Stadium - Montreal Capacity 20,341 Looks like the Montrealers are lobbying to hold the final at the Big Owe but in my opinion BC Place is the showcase venue.
Not that much of a biggie but just this past Saturday Fox Soccer aired a station promo before the Real Madrid-Santos Laguna friendly touting some of the properties that they have, including the EPL, UEFA Champions League, Europa League, then finally mentioning the 2015 WWC. It's a nice touch, considering how early that is. Maybe they're piggybacking on the Olympics?
I would be surprised if a World Cup Final or any WC game would be played on turf. Has there been any WWC (or WC) game played on turf? I don't know if it is true, but I read something interesting on Wikipedia about BC Place's surface: Do you think the stadiums may change their surfaces (sorry if this is a stupid question)? Or will FIFA make exceptions for Canada? In my opinion the final and all the games should be on grass, but maybe this is not possible.
According to FIFA tournament regulations, certified FIFA two star artificial surfaces CAN be used for major FIFA tournaments, including World Cups. That hasn't actually happened yet, as the recent UEFA tournaments backed off having those surfaces. What had happened in the past is that stadiums have provided real grass for internationals, dating to as far back as a qualifier in Portland as far back as 1996 or 1997. The women's WC semi in 2003 was played at PGE Park in Portland on such a temporary surface. It's not your ordinary sod. It is twice as thick, and it comes in 20'x 10' rolls. Don't be surprised if the sod comes from Oregon. They have shipped the stuff all over the world. The last figure I saw for the cost of such a surface shipped in the USA was about $70K. Vancouver isn't any further. As a bonus, the sod got re-laid at local schools.
The people of British Colombia don't need to be told how to grow grass. Ever heard of BC Bud? And for the record concerning other posts, the word turf means grass, that's why we call the other stuff artificial turf
For the record, turf means grass. In the stadium business Turf ( capitalized) means an artificial surface. And Oregon producess about 90% of the cool season grass seed in the world.
The CSA has a page to fill out if you want updates on tickets. http://www.canadasoccer.com/forms/fifa_womensworldcup2015_tickets-f247
it was announced during their qualifying draw for the 2014 Asian Cup that the AFC has been allocated 5 spots for the 2015 WWC.
FIFA settled it in June: Africa (CAF): 3 Asia (AFC): 5 Europe (UEFA): 8 North America and Central America (CONCACAF): 3,5 + host South America (CONMEBOL): 2,5 Oceania (OFC): 1
It's reported that practice fields at Moncton are being converted from grass to artificial turf as will the stadium. I've heard that the stadium people want a temporary artificial turf installation. http://www.news919.com/news/local/article/413007--moncton-sports-fields-to-be-upgraded
Somebody should explain to these fine folks that converting grass to artificial turf does not "upgrade" a soccer facility. I'm glad the WWC is coming to Canada but I don't understand why FIFA permits this. All major tournament games should be on natural turf. Always. There is no excuse for it being any other way.
Don't be silly. The university of Oregon just upgraded its Bluegrass/Ryegrass blend pitch you could putt on by tearing it up for pointy ball practice pitches, then built a multiuser turf stadium that just happens to also work well as a venue for corporate tents during football games. Much better, except they can't recruit players to play there.