Potential 2026 WC Hosts (Update: Morocco Sole Challenger to CONCACAF Bid)

Look, you make some good points about FIFA corruption and how over-rated the economic impacts of hosting major sporting events are, but I need to call BS on a few things. 1, the mythical 9 billion figure with no source, which someone else already called you on, and 2, this:

Sorry, but every single major spectator sporting event in the world is designed to put money in the pockets of the organizers of the event. Otherwise, there would be no event. The amount of money (and as such, the influence of the money) has ballooned in recent years after the explosion of broadcast media, but ultimately, the reason why watching people kick a ball is a major international spectator event is because some people decided they could make money off of it by selling tickets.

And every sporting event that has a winner is designed to "give out the trophy" to someone. Until someone develops a perfect mathematical method to calculate who the best team is. Hey, maybe college football is on to something!

Finally, 3:

This is completely subjective. I, personally, would be greatly honored, as an American soccer fan, to see the World Cup come back to my country, and I'd be honored to be a part of attending such an event in my backyard if Massachusetts had one of the host stadia. This is why cities and countries bid on major events, build stadia, etc. - for the prestige factor, and for the pride it instills in the populace.

Sure, some people subscribe to the smoke and mirrors of quick-fix economic benefits, but most people understand that those are overstated at this point.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/opi...er-association-to-bid-for-2026-world-cup.html

 

Oh I'm well aware Canada intends to bid. I just think it's a pipe dream if they think they can actually get it.

 

I used to think the same way until Qatar won...though Canada will have to get lots of oil out of them Alberta tar pits...lol

 

Speaking of Qatar, they are spending $200 billion on their World Cup. I think it's utterly absurd. Canada won't have the same resources to bribe FIFA officials.

 

now bribe is such a nasty word...I prefer to call it just the spoils of the game...

 

President Webb said in an interview with Wahl that the US would be the best host

 

I'll bite: what spoils of this game is worth spending over 226 billion dollars on?

 

I think it's pretty clear that the US is the definite frontrunner from CONCACAF in 2026. Canada just doesn't have the stadiums to pull it off and Mexico is a cesspool of drug cartel violence right now. If FIFA keeps the current rotation policy in effect and, unofficially, plans on a 2030 Argentina-Uruguay Cup, I have a hard time seeing this anywhere but the US.

 

226 billion that belongs to the tax payers so in the eyes of investors is a win win situation for them


[]__[]

 

My guess is that 2022 gets moved to the US at some point, and 2026 ends up in China. After the stadium construction issues at South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014, I think at some point FIFA is going to start turning to developed nations which already have stadiums built and know how to run a big event smoothly.

 

Africa just hosted a WC in 2010 and it was a success.

 

How do you define "success"?

Because the transportation infrastructure was so poor, many supporters chose not to go to South Africa, resulting in low attendances only remediated by the giving away of free tickets at the last minute to fill the stadiums. Heck, the transportation problems were so bad, that a significant number of people didn't even get into the stadium for one of the semifinals until halftime.

It was success by FIFA's standards, since they get all their revenue from the sale of TV rights and the tournament for the most part went off without a hitch. But, South Africa, the host country, is now stuck with a huge debt bill and a bunch of white elephant stadiums, so I'm not sure whether or not they would consider hosting the WC to be a success.

 

I have no problem in for the World Cup in Qatar, but that's just me. I'll be 23 and I'd like
an awesome hi-tech stadiums. They have enough money to build TV's on the back of every seat . Who doesn't want that?

The thing bothering me is the extreme heat. But then again, they'll probably have air cooled stadiums.

Mod Note: let's not go into Qatar's laws.

 

They won't have an air cooled nation.

 

Really? Considering the amount of money they have, I'd have thought they would.

 

This thread is for 2026. Keep the Qatar discussion on the other thread.

 

So I read the World Cup Economics: What Americans Need to Know and it turns out to be just an intellectual hack job. It does pretty well in destroying the rose-colored glasses projections from the '94 bid committee but then we knew that anyways. The study then proceeds to completely miss the ironic parody boat by only using cherry-picked negative numbers for it's own projection. I was flabbergasted by the intellectual dishonesty. It's as bad as listening to political ad and had just an absolutely biased conclusion. To me the only useful paragraph was the following:

"Five billion dollars sounds like a lot of money, and the Bid Committee wants people to think of it that way. A variety of comparisons are made to show that the projected impact, even if completely accurate, is a trivial contribution to the US economy."​

For me, it sounds like any gain or loss for a WC in the United States is a minuscule number in comparison to our economy.

Whatever money is used to buy tickets would have been used for other events. Whatever money a municipality spends for game-day security would have been used for a similar event at some other time. Whatever improvements that are done in stadiums would likely have been done anyways. So it's useless to argue if there is profit or loss. Taken at a city level a WC game in the US is really just another event. All in all, it's really no different than having the NFL play their season.

 

There are a lot of nations that would be good hosts for 2026. I'm assuming 2030 is going to Uruguay, so I'll take South America out of it.

Europe:
A. Netherlands/Belgium. Dutch have never hosted. Belgium is rising. Would be a good time for it. Though this generation will be long gone by then.
B. Spain. Second one has to be coming.
C. England. Second one has to be coming.

Others:
A. Australia. Some of the best fans around.
B. USA.

 

I think it's very presumptuous to assume that the Uruguay/Argentina bid in 2030 will be successful. Recall that Athens finished 2nd in 1996 for the Olympic centennial.

But the presence of their future bid will probably preclude much support for any South American country in 2026 anyway, so you're probably right to take South America out of the running.

All would be plausible hosts...if FIFA scraps the current policy on bidding eligibility. As it currently stands, Europe would be ineligible to host the 2026 World Cup because Russia hosts in 2018.

 

I wouldn`t count out other South American countries, that haven`t yet hosted their first WC.

Colombia, Venezuela and Peru, all have said that they would love to host or co-host the WC sooner than later at their territories, so the future Uruguay-Argentina bid might even get competition within the same continent, for whatever, the 2026 or 2030 WC.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if a CONMEBOL member bid in 2026, I just don't expect a CONMEBOL member to get it. I think the idea of Uruguay-Argentina will undercut support for a different bid in 2026. I'm pretty sure the head of CONMEBOL has already voiced support for Uruguay-Argentina 2030, which means that any 2026 bid probably won't have the support of the federation.

I do like the idea of CONMEBOL co-hosts. As seen by South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014, the infrastructure costs of building all the huge stadiums FIFA requires is pretty absurd. Most CONMEBOL nations don't really need 12 stadiums that seat at least 40,000. But if nations team up to meet the requirements, they could do so much easier. And rather than be saddled with having to build two huge stadiums (one for the opening game and one for the final), each could build one and have it serve as the national stadium.

 

Yeah, no wonder that they have (Figueiredo (actual president of Conmebol) from Uruguay and Grondona (vice-president) from Argentina).
Of course they are both talking about 2030, because as of today, none of them has the support of their respective governments to hold an event of that magnitude, so they "wish" that as time goes by, future elected authorities of their countries might think diferently.
But tell me one thing. Have you seen the quality of their actual stadiums ?.
I don`t believe that none of their local governments are really willing to spend the amount of money required in order to stand up more than 4 or 6 stadiums (between both of them, not by each one of them. You've seen the protests in Brazil related to what has been spent there for the 2014 WC, and Brazil has a lots much better economic situation than the one that exists today in "La Plata- nations", so its not hard to imagine how it would be, if it were these 2 nations the ones doing similar amount of spendings, ), which would also, at most, be refurbished old existent ones (at least the one in Uruguay would be exactly the same stadium that held the WC from 1930, I wouldn`t be so optimist as to expect a new one there), which would also imply that FIFA will have to blind fold their eyes over this requirement and once again make lots of concessions to it .

While on the other side of the coin, those other South American countries, all ready have in place at least 60 % each of the potentially required stadiums, up to FIFA standards. (all of them have hosted recently some world youth tournaments and Copa America's in them), so when things gets to protect their right to host an event that they have never hosted before, I believe they will not simply back-up the uruguayan or argentine pretentions to host once again the tournament at their land, pretending that all the rest of South America will once again stand by their side, when it would be more logical to see other members of the Confederation to receive that same kind of support "as a change", at least for once, instead. Some of them, already withdrew their intentions to bid, when FIFA was to choose whom would host the 2014 WC, as a sign of unity. But can`t expect them to always be the same ones who witdraws their intentions, to always favour those others, who don`t seem to show the same kind of atitude in return.

Here you have a very good point, and it is probably the reason why joint bids are probably the way any of Conmebol future bids will be.

 

Sin Russia has 2018 and Qatar has 2022 every single country in your list with the exception of the US is ineligible under the current rules. It's Africa vs the Americas in 2026. I think it's easier for Argentina/Uruguay to host in 2026 than 2030 but whatever.

 

Colombia wanted 2014 but was almost unanimously turned down due to Brazil's clout and resources.

There were rumors that Colombia was going to go hard for 2026 but with the Argentina/Uruguay 2030 rumors swirling that has died down a bit in recent years.


I would not mind a Colombia/Venezuela joint bid if that can provide them a better chance of hosting but I think Colombia can host by itself quite frankly.