Gian-Luca Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 Bid makes plenty of cents Canada appears set to cash in on U.S. bid to host upcoming Women's World Cup By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun A kick in the grass? Or a kick in the ass? "I think co-hosting is now our only obstacle,'' said Kevan Pipe. The CEO of the Canadian Soccer Association was reacting to the news yesterday that there were only two-and-a-quarter countries to submit bids for the relocated Women's World Cup of Soccer. Everybody else was a tire-kicker. Australia, Italy and Brazil did not submit bids by Sunday's extended deadline. FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren said yesterday the bids by the Americans and Swedes were being forwarded to the emergency (selection) committee along with Canada's offer to host one group of the tournament in Edmonton if the event is awarded to the United States. The Sept. 23 to Oct. 11 event featuring the top 16 teams in the world was removed from China due to the SARS epidemic. "If there's a comparison to the history of hosting the event - and Sweden and the U.S.A. have played host to the last two - the differences between those two countries is astronomical,'' said Pipe. Indeed. The average attendance for the Sweden '95 Women's World Cup was 4,316 to the U.S.'s 37,944 in '99. Sweden had four years to prepare for the last one. There will only be four months to prepare for this one. The Americans aren't promising anywhere near their 1999 numbers for an emergency hosting. But Canada's offer is promising almost exactly those numbers for games in Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. HOPING TO BLOW THEM AWAY "I'm delighted we got to this stage,'' said Pipe. "We've sent them all the information and we hope it blows them away. "We've given them a budget,'' he said of hosting the four-team group for three double-header dates in Commonwealth Stadium (and possibly a quarter-final game) in the neighbourhood of $1 million. "Thanks to the people at Commonwealth Stadium and the Eskimos bending over backwards, we've been able to send them the availability of the stadium, hotel reservations, training sight availability and everything else. We put our best foot forward. We think we nailed it.'' One of the big selling points, he said, is the fantastic success of last year's FIFA U-19 Women's World Championships which drew 162,207 for six doubleheader dates including 47,784 for the final. That and the fact 34,000 tickets have already been sold for a deja vu/bon voyage Aug. 31 pre-World Cup game between Canada and Mexico here. The U.S. bid proposes using a new 22,000-seat stadium in Carson, California, and a 27,000-seat facility in Columbus, Ohio, in addition to an NFL-sized stadium in Washington, D.C. The American bid proposes the possibility of playing the final in the Rose Bowl where the 1999 final drew 90,125. Sweden only has four stadiums with a capacity of over 20,000. Despite the sudden surge of the Canadian loonie, it's a big part of the Canadian offer to play games in Canada - that plus the fact that a group with the Canadian team in it would draw a whole lot more people playing in Edmonton than in, say, Columbus, Ohio. "It's a very big bang for the buck,'' he said. "Our costs are much less than the Americans' just because it's Canada. "Our forecast of attendance is that we would be able to duplicate what we did last year. And the cost of doing business in Canada is very low. The hotel costs, the ground transportation, the meals ... "If a financial consideration is part of the decision, there's no doubt our bid will receive very, very serious consideration.'' DECISION EXPECTED THIS WEEKEND The decision is expected to be made sometime prior to this weekend by the seven-member emergency committee which includes CONCACAF president Jack Warner who is on record of intending to ask the heads of the other six areas of the soccer world to follow the CONCACAF recommendation to put a group in Edmonton in the event they chose to bring it to a CONCACAF country (the U.S.A.). "Jack has already seen our bid material and made a point to call and tell us how pleased he was,'' said Pipe. The hang-up there is FIFA's hang-up with co-hosting. They made an exception for Korea-Japan 2002 and have the stated resolve of never doing it again. "Our hope is that they look at this as special circumstances,'' said Pipe of Canada losing a chance to bid for the event in 2007 because of FIFA's decision to give China 2007 as a result of being forced to take it away for 2003. "But the concept of co-hosting is definitely an obstacle,'' said Pipe. If you could count on common sense winning the day in international sport, it's in the back of the net. ________________________________ "All them rock & roll writers are the worst kind of sleaze, selling punk like some new kind of English disease. Is that the wave of the future? Awww spare me please!" Frank Zappa, Joe's Garage (1979). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoyleG Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 FIFA may be more willing to let Canada get a shot at hosting in 2007. They already got egg on their face by giving the 2007 event to China. Sweden has the best chance since it wouldn't interfere much with the Swedish domestic season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strobe_z Posted May 22, 2003 Share Posted May 22, 2003 I'm pretty sure that FIFA has already presented China with the 2007 WWC, I don't think they'd go back on that one. I do have a little trouble trying to understand FIFA's reluctance to co-host events.. especially since the situation with Korea-Japan is much different than the North American dynamic. I really don't see how FIFA could refuse the offer. The USA had the last WWC, and Canada was obviously the strongest bidder for the 2007 event. It's an emergency situation, so the US is the obvious choice to host on almost no notice, but if FIFA is interested in expanding the women's game they should see this as an opportunity. http://www.fifaconcacaf.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strobe_z Posted May 22, 2003 Share Posted May 22, 2003 I'm pretty sure that FIFA has already presented China with the 2007 WWC, I don't think they'd go back on that one. I do have a little trouble trying to understand FIFA's reluctance to co-host events.. especially since the situation with Korea-Japan is much different than the North American dynamic. I really don't see how FIFA could refuse the offer. The USA had the last WWC, and Canada was obviously the strongest bidder for the 2007 event. It's an emergency situation, so the US is the obvious choice to host on almost no notice, but if FIFA is interested in expanding the women's game they should see this as an opportunity. http://www.fifaconcacaf.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted May 29, 2003 Share Posted May 29, 2003 I'm going back to read some articles that I didn't get a chance to read when they were first posted and this is one of them. Reading this article in retrospect, knowing what happened after it was written, makes all those grandiose comments by Pipe sound sadly laughable, especially given the lame way that we bowed out. The CSA has to stop talking and start doing. This is so tiring. And what's with those comments about Warner supporting us? What the heck happened there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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