Cleveland Out as World Cup Co-Host

I would like to have seen the criteria used. If you ask me, it is rather silly to have four cities within a two hour drive of each other each be one of the sub-finalist to host the games. 

18 Bid Cities

The following cities will form the United States bid to FIFA. Each city could see World Cup matches in their venues if the US is awarded the honor of hosting the world's largest sporting event.

The USA Bid Committee announced the list of cities following an NINE-month selection process that started with fifty-eight stadiums in consideration. That number was reduced several times — most recently twenty-seven cities — before the final eighteen were chosen.

Official host cities were chosen based on a set of twenty-one different criteria that included FIFA's specific bidding requirements. David Downs — the Executive Director of the USA Bid Committee — commented on the difficulty of the selection process:

"Just by virtue of the quality of our cities and stadiums, it was very difficult to reduce the field to the maximum of 18 established by FIFA. In fact, we could have submitted 24 cities and stadiums, making it possible for the United States to hold two World Cups simultaneously.

We consider it a meaningful indicator of the significant growth of soccer in this country that we can put forth such a technically sound bid without four of our cities that served as hosts for the first FIFA World Cup™ in the United States in 1994. The emergence of passionate followings for the sport and state-of-the-art venues throughout the country has strengthened our ability to put together a truly national bid to host the FIFA World Cup™ in 2018 or 2022."

Representatives from all 18 cities and their respective stadiums signed agreements that are in full compliance with FIFA's hosting requirements. These agreements involved a tremendous amount of coordination between State and local government officials along with representatives from the various stadiums and Convention and Visitors Bureaus.

John Kristick, the Managing Director of the USA Bid Committee said:

"The final group of cities selected exceed all FIFA requirements in all areas, including infrastructure, community and government support, as well as commitment to utilize the FIFA World Cup and the sport of soccer for higher sustainable social and environmental goals."

Due to FIFA's eighteen city maximum, nine host cities had to be eliminated. In alphabetical order, they are: Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Jacksonville, Oakland, Orlando, St. Louis and San Francisco.

The official cities announcement does not mark the end of the USA Bid Committee's campaign. There is still much work to be done before FIFA decides whether the US will host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. Please help us show FIFA that the Game is in US by either signing the petition or asking your friends to do so.