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

I'm asking questions about transportation. Maybe there could be clustering host cities to make fans relying less on plane to reach cities to see games. Can't wait to see a summuray and the bid book.

The lobbying phase is underway. There'll be lots of reunion and symposiums the two bids will surely go to. I won't take any vote as granted and I'll see the tas force's report.

 

Only losers and broke college kids travel by bus in the U.S. That stigma isn't going in change in 8 years.

 

I have said previously that world politics isn't as big a deal as reported. There are some countries that are an exception because the Association is completely dominated by the ruling regime. This is particularly true in the Gulf states and probably Morocco itself.

The following article is interesting.

https://www.socceramerica.com/publi...e-royale-the-world-cup-2026-campaign-for.html

 

This new voting method is going to make campaigns very tough. The nuances and intricate interplay of competing interests will be hard to judge.

 

I'm okay with the voting I just think there should be a rotation-policy along with the voting. For every 6 WCs (so a 24-year cycle) each confederation would host one, except UEFA would get two. In addition, a country shouldn't be able to host if they hosted in the previous 24-year cycle.

Without a firm rotation policy in place, the WC might just keep going to the U.S. every 12-16 years.

 

Safe to say that the concept of "United bid" for North America is a one off. I don't expect next time to be the same as this one.

Win or lose, we're looking at 2038 or 2042.

• Mexico and Canada won't put up with another 60-10-10
• USA might try to host for a 2nd or 3rd time
• Mexico might try to host for a 3rd time
• Canada might try to host for the 1st time
  
• Central America could try to put a "true" United bid

 

Nope. No one from the royal family is in the football business. Also we don't have 1001 princes.

 

I agree with this idea. Each confederation will have turns to organize a FIFA World Cup.

 

I think Canada is pretty far away from hosting their own WC, especially a 48-team one. As big as the country may be, in terms of stadium infrastructure its not even at the level of Poland or Portugal. And whatever is built for the WC will turn into white elephants.

 

Morocco is submitting a bid with 14 stadiums I think. Canada already have 10 stadiums that are fit or could be upgraded to be fit for a world cup.

We'd be missing 4 to 5 stadiums. 20 years from now? 100% realistic.

 

For starters, it seems crazy to build a big stadium in any Canadian city that doesn't have a CFL team. So that's 9 cities. Perhaps 10 if we say the CFL could expand to Halifax in the next couple of decades.

Missing 4 to 5 stadiums is alot. Where would they go? I mean is there going to be 3 in Toronto and 2 in Montreal? Because there aren't even 14 cities in Canada with a population over 250k.

I understand that my questions might be shrugged at because Morocco has similar demographics and Qatar will have like 7 stadiums in one city. But Canada is different because, for one, they don't have unlimited oil resources to dip in-to. Politicians would have to sell this to the people. And also, soccer just isn't popular at all in Canada.

 

I don't see a reason to put the constraints of Confederation membership on considering who should host a World Cup.

 

I was talking about 20 years from now.

FIFA Requirements for 2026
https://img.fifa.com/image/upload/hgopypqftviladnm7q90.pdf

Assuming that Canada would hit all the requirements, let's look at the elephant in the room, stadiums

According to FIFA:
Stadiums: minimum net seating capacities

• Opening Match & Final Match 80,000+

Canada would require a new stadium, most likely in Toronto which could help the city to bid for future summer games

New stadium : Toronto, Ontario

• Semi-finals 60,000+

Existing Stadiums

1. Olympic Stadium: Montreal, Quebec(1976 configuration for football : 71k)
2. Commonwealth Stadium: Edmonton, Alberta (over 60k)

• Remaining Group Stage matches, Round of 32-16, 3rd place game and Quarter Finals 40,000

Existing Stadiums

1. BC Place: Vancouver, BC 54k
2. Rogers Centre: Toronto, Ontario 53k
3. McMahon Stadium: Calgary,Alberta: 46k
4. Investor's Group Stadium: Winnipeg, MB 33k - Expandable to 40k
5. Mosaic Stadium: Regina, SK 33k - Expandable to 40k
6. BMO Field: Toronto, ON 30k - Expandable to 40k
7. TD Place Stadium: Ottawa, ON 24k - Expandable to 40k
8. Tim Hortons Field: Hamilton, ON 24k- Expandable to 40k

We have 10 stadiums that fits and can be upgraded to fit FIFA requirements

As shown above, the costliest stadium would be the one for the opening ceremony + game and the final game.

We already have the stadiums for the semi-finals.

We'd be missing up between 4-5 (40k minimum) stadiums

Potential new stadiums

• Calgary, New Stadium for the CFL Stampeders. The city might bid on a 2026 Winter Games Olympic allowing the city to find a way to deliver the Calgary Flames their new arena and the stadium for the CFL team. This was what CSEC had submitted below. The city is against using the river shore for this project and wants this to be moved next to the current Saddledome Arena to also revitalize the entire area.

• Halifax-Dartmouth, New CFL Stadium (proposed): The CFL confirmed a potential expansion in the Maritime region and are talking to the ownership group

• Canadian Premier League Stadiums are expected to build modular stadiums in the following locations: Saskatoon, Surrey, Vaughan & Halifax.

• CPL cities expected to join and build new stadiums: Victoria, London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Mississauga, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City.*

*New CPL stadiums will start as modular stadiums. An example of such stadium was the Empire Field in Vancouver who temporarily hosted the MLS Vancouver Whitecaps and CFL British Columbia Lions. It was built for $15M and had a capacity of 27.5k and such structures are designed to be easily expandable. This is the preferred route for CPL as its a new league and the cost is low.



However, as the league gains popularity and attendance increase, a solo World Cup bid would justify the construction of permanent BMO Field type of stadiums with a minimum capacity of 40k twenty years from now. This lowers the risk of being stuck with "white elephants" as all the facilities would be used after a 2038-2042 Canada World Cup.

• Oil Reserves: 3rd overall in the world --> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_proven_oil_reserves

• Politics: Selling white elephants and spending for lower impact events is hard to sell. Olympic games have never been that hard of a sell to Canadians. We got Montreal 1976, Calgary 1988, Vancouver 2010. Calgary supports a 2026 Winter bid while cities like Quebec City and Toronto have officially bid in the past. Women's World Cup and U World Cup were hosted, expos, Pan Am games and other costly international competitions. The biggest event on the planet would be no different in a solo bid.

Soccer popularity in Canada

• More kids are registered as soccer players than hockey players.

• More Canadians watched the all Canadian MLS Semi-finals than Americans watched the all American MLS Semi-finals in the 2016 MLS playoffs...with only 1/10 of the US population

• More Canadians watched both MLS Cup finals than Americans with only 1/10 of the US population

• Canadians were one of the biggest buyers of the 2014 Brazil World Cup tickets in proportion to their actual population. On top of that, we haven't sent a team since 1986 and we still had those stats

Soccer-mad Canadians dig deep to see the World Cup

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/rep...ig-deep-to-see-the-world-cup/article18234445/

 

@Robert Borden , you make some good points that rebut many of my points over the stadium issues. I still see it difficult for Canada to ever have 14 stadiums. You got to 14 by doing some double-counting I think (e.g. you counted Calgary’s existing stadium and also included Calgary as a potential place for a new stadium; you have a stadium in Saskatchewan under both the ‘existing’ and ‘new’ list). Montreal’s existing stadium is almost prehistoric. I went there in the 1980s and even back then it felt old. Probably the worst stadium I ever visited in my life.

But you present some good facts and maybe FIFA will relax that requirement for 14 stadiums.

Pretty much disagree with everything you said about soccer popularity. Kids playing soccer is not a good metric for soccer popularity. If it was, soccer would already be huge in the US since it was already the #1 participation sport 15-20 years ago and now all those kids are adults.

Neither is # of people that watch the World Cup. Anyone can pay attention to the best event of something every 4 years, the true measure is supporting a successful domestic league week-in/week-out (i.e. the value of the TV deal).

 

The loss of McMahon Stadium assuming they demolish it, would be compensated by the construction of a new stadium elsewhere.

The current CFL Stadium in Saskatchewan is in Regina and not Saskatoon. So both cities will have a stadium

Montreal Olympic Stadium will never be demolished (cost). They will keep modernizing it as they are planning to do by completely rebuilding the roof and they already rebuilt the inside of the tower.

We're getting our own domestic league as of 2019. We have 20 years to prove our claim that soccer is very popular. It's only as of 2014 that willingness to break away from the USSF arise with the election of Victor Montagliani as the CSA president, now CONCACAF president. Decades of cross-border league culture was hard to break but he saw how dysfunctional it was in soccer. The Canadian Premier League was started thanks to him.

The reforms he implemented are starting to show results and as of this morning, 20 cities have contacted the league to bid for a team. You'd be surprised to know that even US teams wanted to join but the league said no.

Paul Beirne: "I think we’re now up to 20 different communities who have shown interest in us. I think we’d want to be at 12 teams by 2022, and 16 teams by 2026." #CanPL

— The CanPL Hub (@thecanplhub) March 22, 2018

They were rebuffed, but Beirne said #CanPL did have some U.S.-based suitors. https://t.co/VYrzBzlIuK

— Steven Sandor (@stevensandor) March 22, 2018

The Canadian Premier league is starting April 2019. The long term plans are 16 teams in D1 and starting Pro/Rel all the way down to D2 and D3. This will removed PDL and USL from Canada (NASL folded) leaving the 3 MLS team's future up in the air. The champion is expected to be awarded a CONCACAF Champions league spot as well. It will be single table, no playoffs just like in Europe.

 

Completely ignoring all your points about anything related to this topic - but LOOK AT THAT LAST COLUMN - Australia is at least 50% further away from Brazil than all those other countries (and it's a 26 hour flight to get there - from Sydney, let alone other State caps). And yet ... wow!

J

Although - why do they appear to be using end 2010 population levels for most of the countries Aus, USA, Chile and Canada, 2008 for Brazil - I though France was actually less than that - even now.

 

FIFA will publish both bid books, including summaries on monday.
Have great reading.

Before the evaluation phase, lets discover all the FACTS which will matter.

 

Would be nice.

 

Russia, France, Serbia and Luxembourg all came out in support of the Moroccan 2026 bid the last couple of days.

https://www.sport24info.ma/football/mondial-2026-russie-votera-maroc/

https://www.thepeoplepost.com/news/sports/serbia-luxembourg-support-moroccos-bid-2026-fifa-world-cup

 

For the ones interested in the bid books, FIFA jus published them online

http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=2018/m=3/news=2026-fifa-world-cup-bid-books-now-available.html

 

Given the influence that France and Russia can exert, the Morocco bid is gaining momentum and should win it when voting time comes.

 

Morocco paranoid that the Evaluation Task Force will hand the hosting rights to the United bid without a Congress vote:
http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...ear-fifa-politics-pushing-pre-vote-exclusion/

 

Morocco’s decision to point to “very low gun circulation” comes amidst the growing call for stricter laws regarding firearms in the U.S. following a school shooting in Florida that left 17 dead.https://t.co/ZLGdB5kzHY

— Toronto Star (@TorontoStar) March 27, 2018

 

That is a pretty low blow by whomever in Morroco decided to focus on the gun laws.

In the last three decades I have been following futbol in the USA there has never been a Gun incident at any match. Especially matches that are official matches (World Cup, Gold Cups, Copa Centenario, etc).

On the other hand I bet you there has been a lot more violent incidents involving fans at Morroco football matches ( Even without the guns).

 

that's well possible, especially if polls start showing morocco winning. why should FIFA abandon an extra billion USD?
they may even pack it nicely, state how 16 billion USD is too high investment that might jeopardize future of moroccan economy etc

all high politics .... and awarding the world cup was always just that and nothing else but that, money and politics!