US delivers bid for Cup in Miami

Associated Press

NEW YORK

The United States proposed holding the World Cup draw in Miami ahead of a tournament in 2018 or 2022 and suggested the possibility of hosting the opener at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

The five-volume U.S. bid book, presented to FIFA on Friday, would put the qualifying draw in New York, its location ahead of the 1994 tournament. The U.S. bid committee has steadily been adding big names to its group and scheduled a news conference with former President Bill Clinton at a field in Harlem on Monday.

“We’ve got 320 million people. If we get even a small percentage increase of them turned onto the game in a way that follows the team or MLS now, it would be extraordinary growth,” said U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati, chairman of the USA Bid Committee. “We don’t have to spend money on infrastructure, and not only don’t we have to do it, we don’t have to ask the U.S. government or any state governments to do it.”

Gulati said proposals for the specific sites for the draws and the opener were preliminary.

The U.S. bid proposed 18 stadiums, six more than probably would be used. In addition, new stadiums would be considered if they are built for the NFL in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis and other places.

“There are a number of combinations that would work,” Gulati said. “Clearly New York is an important city. The same goes for Miami, which has become very much the gateway for South America.”

The bid committee has reserved 170,000 rooms totaling 12.8 million hotel nights for 2018 and 2022. It has lined up 68 base camps and 118 training sites and projected 5 million tickets sold.

“I don’t see how anyone else could technically match all of the standards at the level we’ve met,” Gulati said.

England, Russia, Australia, Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands are competing for both tournaments, and Japan, Qatar and South Korea are bidding for 2022 only. Because Europe has eight of 24 votes on the FIFA executive committee, soccer’s top economic continent is likely to host in 2018.