Here's a prediction: Nashville will make the next round. I would be very surprised if Nashville wasn't included in the next list of 25 teams. It's the next cut that after that which will be difficult. Either that, or maybe I'm too close to the forest...
Another (perhaps non) development this week happened when U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati held a news conference to discuss the bidding. One reporter asked him specifically about Tampa possibly being chosen to be a host city (I believe this was asked because they were in Florida). This is relevant to Nashville, because probably the two best venues (in my opinion) in the Southeast to host a World Cup game would be Nashville's LP Field and Tampa's Raymond James Stadium. Since cities will be picked from all over the country, cities from the same region tend to have to compete against each other to win a chance host games. Here is Gulati's response:
"Tampa as I understand has already hand delivered their information yesterday. We’ve got 37 cities that are responding and we’ve got an extraordinary wealth of choices. So I think it would be a bit early for me to pre-judge that. There are a number of venues in Florida. Tampa has indicated a very strong interest, as has Jacksonville, as has Miami. And, we’ve got a lot of great new stadiums across the country, one of which Mr. Blatter visited at the (New Meadowlands Stadium) on Sunday prior to the game. And there was another one showcased a week earlier in Dallas. The one at Dallas, obviously, with a roof so you don’t have weather issues. It’s impossible to predict at this time, how we’re going to get down to meet this requirement of no more than 18 recommendations and we might convince them to let us have a couple more. We have so many extraordinary choices but we’ll certainly look very strongly at Tampa.”
That's about the response you'd expect, not giving anything away. And I'm sure it isn't indicative of ... anything. But it's still definitely interesting to hear Gulati's answer. One wonders what he and other decision makers think of Nashville and LP Field as possible hosts.
You might remember that the two cities that hosted the semi-finals and finals of the Olympic qualifying games last year were Nashville and Tampa. I think that if Nashville does make the list of 25 cities, that Tampa and Nashville will be competing with each other to be a host city. If one is chosen, I doubt the other makes it. Then again, there are tons of great venues, and only twelve will be chosen. Nashville would probably have to also beat out Cleveland, Cincinnati, Charlotte and Indy.
A new website has been set up for more information on the US's bid. You can learn more here, and can see a list of all the bidding cities (and venues) here.
Here's what cities I think (& hope) should be chosen for the cut to 25:
Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincy, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas (new Cowboys stadium), Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indy, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, Oakland, New York, Philly, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Tampa, D.C.
I pretty much eliminated all the older college football stadiums and the old domed stadiums. I can't see any reason why the USSF would go back to places like that. There are just too many new state of the art stadiums in proximity to those that blow the domed stadiums away. For example, you have St.Louis (great soccer market) but they have the aging Edward Jones Dome. In the same region you have Indy's new indoor stadium, two state of the art outdoor stadiums in Ohio, 1 in Nashville, not to mention Soldier Field in Chicago.
It could be that my guess as to how venues will be chosen is completely wrong and the US would go with sheer numbers (like 100 grand in Knoxville over 69,000 in Nashville) over field size and overall quality of the venue and city. But I don't think so.
Let's hope I'm right.
**Read previous posts on Nashville's WC Bid here**
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