The FIFA World Cup is quickly approaching, and countries around the world are gearing up to watch their teams compete. Although football (soccer) is not as popular in the U.S. as it is worldwide, attention on the sport is growing.
This year, American fans are getting ready to cheer on their team, especially with recent news that they may have something even bigger to look forward to in 2018 or 2022 – the hope of hosting the tournament for the second time.
Germany, France, Italy and Mexico are the only countries to have ever hosted twice in the tournament’s almost 80 year history. This time around, Bill Clinton’s chief advisor, Doug Band, is giving the U.S. a serious chance at becoming fifth on this list.
Band is the latest addition to the Board of Directors for the U.S. Bid Committee.
While the magnitude of the World Cup enticed a lot of high profile individuals to join the Board of Directors (such as, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, etc), having the relatively lower profiled Doug Band as the face of the committee may just give the U.S. their biggest bargaining chip yet.
Band has helped implement philanthropic initiatives in over 170 countries. Having him represent the U.S. bid will help promote America as a great location to host the World Cup.
Winning the World Cup bid could also help extinguish any negative sentiments that may still be lingering as a result of the unsuccessful attempt by Chicago to land the Olympics a few months ago.
There are a total of nine other countries bidding for 2018 and 2022, including the likes of Indonesia, Russia, and Australia. The decision for both years will be made when FIFA’s executive committee meets in December 2010, after visiting all locations to be considered.
Until then, Americans will remain hopeful about the opportunity to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 while cheering on this year’s team.
Ian
Guest
MLS already has a higher avergae attendance than NBA and NHL. The beautiful game has finally arrived in America...can't wait for the World Cup; it will be epic!
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Regina, I new it. I just new it. Americans are now calling American Soccer, "American Football". The times are a changing congratulations.. welcome aboard. :) ______ AF
Midfielder
Guest
I read last year about the MLC in relation to the other major codes in the US... What I found interesting is sometimes too much of a good thing can be harmful... a bit like a cold beer on a hot day ... after the first 60 ... you would almost pay someone to have the 61 first... But Basketball & Baseball are played a number of times each week..and Gridiron is played over a short season and once a week when compared to Baseball & Basketball and is growing as a TV product ....Whereas Basketball & Baseball have falling TV viewer numbers... What I found an amazing stat was that Basketball had fallen to a TV rating of 4% and MLS had risen to 2.5% ... BTW in US context I don't known what these numbers mean but Gridiron was well into the teens... However the media coverage of football in the US is similar to Australia.... in other words not great... especially when compared to Basketball... Straight numbers belie acute analysis in that in the cities with high population of South American people the football rated higher than say in cities with less South American people... However a number of articles I have read indicate within a reasonably short time ... say 5 years football could as a straight number out rate Basketball .. if this happens it could / will cause a huge shift in media which in turn will add to footballs growth... Meaning I guess that over doing something maybe bad ... in the Australian context I think the rise of the Socceroos has in part been the over play of Australian cricket wherein people grow tried of the product as you cannot have your national team playing what seems like 46 weeks of the year... My understanding of this is a national match is an event ... and a WC a major event ... an event is easy to, support, join and become part of... thus most sports fans in big games go for the Socceroos as it has no real bearing on their choice of codes ... same as watching Hewit in a tennis grand slam... even MC would be cheering on the Socceroos ... In Australia the challenge for football is to connect to the various and numerous football tribes.. from the novice to the zealot... However unlike the US the other major codes in Australia are divided along state boundaries in many ways... whereas football has a far more broader player and support base.... meaning as I see it if football could treble its audience and do so Australia wide it could challenge other codes and when this audience is added to Footballs events like International & ACL matches ... looking forward has some promise... I guess there is some kinda magical number that when reached will get media interest and additional media... To treble the domestic audience ... I guess requires the expansion program... but the expansion program requires money FFA need to find .... Some very interesting times ahead ... Obi Wan hope you can keep it all together ... the promised land awaits if we can survive long enough to get their.. BTW the promised land to me ... means .. general main stream media acceptance and coverage with easily access to football products at reasonable prices..
Football Person 2
Roar Pro
This is really more about America's world cup chances not the sport growing in Popularity. I still thoroughly believe that England And Aus will receive the cups. :)