"Bay Area stadiums identified in U.S. bid to win soccer World Cup" (not about the Earthquakes per se, but the team is mentioned) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
The only thing is Oakland will not be available as I dout the A's will have a baseball stadium by then...unless San Jose comes through...but both Oakland and Stanford need repairs to the sidlines. I thought Stanford was to narrow for soccer and Oakland too wide for fans?
For the world cup I'm sure they'd modify Oakland to play in the football config for both the superior sitelines and the Coliseum's full capacity. And I doubt they'd have to worry about the A's. By the time the World Cup comes to the US the A's won't be in the Coliseum one way or another. As for Stanford, what's wrong with it's existing setup?
Or maybe the new stadium that the 49ers will play in Santa Clara, that'd be awesome! World Cup right in our backyard!
Its narrow. You can't fit a 75 yrd wide field. Thw WC Final tournament does have a requirement that the games be played on a 75 yrd wide field, but even that was waved multiple times in '94.
Yes, it was waived then, but I doubt that would happen again, although they might do it for one or two stadiums, depending on the location. I don't think the same politics are in place that would prompt FIFA to waive those kinds of standards. US Soccer was attempting to prove that a World Cup could be successful in the United States, and with that in mind, they did get some concessions, as I understand it. Would FIFA be as accommodating again? Doubtful, I think. I could be wrong....it would obviously not be the first time.
You're probably right. Last time they had to do it because there were very few NFL stadiums that could accomidate that size. There's a lot more now.
With 70 sites to choose from in the US, I doubt that insufficient field width will be excused. They'll just choose somewhere else. If the Bay Area NFL teams don't get their act in gear, there may not be any World Cup in the Bay Area.
Well the good news is that the WC folks seem interested in at least two of our existing venues that aren't dependent on the two football teams at all.
Well they're so arrogant and insular that they won't even share a stadium. The NFL needs to be knocked down a peg or two. I hate that our World Cup bid relies on them.
Sadly NFL's popularity seems to be holding quite steady if it's not growing thanks to stuff like fantasy football.
I remember them enlarging the pitch out to the track in 1994....it was a lot wider back then ,however. From what I recall they did make many improvements to Stanford before the WC. Thats because they sold out every game in 1994 at Stanford......I was there it was awesome! The games were all sold out even though there were a few no shows to midweek matches. At that point some games were meaningless like Switzerland -Columbia etc etc and Cameroon Russia...Cameroon was still in it but Russia was out....Russia killed them though even though 44 year old Roger Milla scored.... 20 June 1994 13:05 PDT Brazil 2 – 0 Russia Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto Attendance: 81,061 Referee: Lim Kee Chong (Mauritius) Romário 26' Raí 52' (pen.) (Report) 24 June 1994 13:05 PDT Brazil 3 – 0 Cameroon Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto Attendance: 83,401 Referee: Arturo Brizio Carter (Mexico) Romário 39' Márcio Santos 66' Bebeto 73' (Report) 26 June 1994 13:05 PDT Switzerland 0 – 2 Colombia Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto Attendance: 83,401 Referee: Peter Mikkelsen (Denmark) 28 June 1994 13:05 PDT Russia 6 – 1 Cameroon Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto Attendance: 74,914 Referee: Jamal Al Sharif (Syria) Salenko 15' 41' 44' (pen.) 72' 75' Radchenko 81' (Report) Milla 46' 4 July 1994 12:35 PDT Brazil 1 – 0 United States Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto Attendance: 84,147 Referee: Joel Quiniou (France) Bebeto 72' (Report) 10 July 1994 12:35 PDT Sweden 2 – 2 (a.e.t.) Romania Stanford Stadium, Stanford Attendance: 83,500 Referee: Philip Don (England) Brolin 78' K. Andersson 115' (Report) Răducioiu 88' 101' Penalties Mild K. Andersson Brolin Ingesson R. Nilsson Larsson 5 – 4 Răducioiu Hagi Lupescu Petrescu Dumitrescu Belodedici