USA Bid Book - English

EnglishSummary of thE uSa Bid for thE fifa World Cup™ in 2018/2022

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osting a FIFA World Cup™ in the United States in 2018 or 2022 would be an extraordinary honor for our country, both because so many of us are devout football fans and because we are committed global citizens. We intend to reward FIFA’s decision by growing the game to new levels in the U.S., by welcoming the

world to a magnificent event staged in progressive, modern cities and stadia, and by engaging every fan of the game to use football as a tool to promote lasting social change through a series of ambitious environmental and human development programs aimed at making a better, more equitable world.

We humbly believe there are a number of reasons why the United States would be a uniquely compelling choice.

the 1994 fifa World Cup™ made football history.

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a successful second half for the sport in the u.S. will help drive forward the entire world’s football economy by creating new opportunities across all levels of the game. this will result in not only an increased level of competition on the pitch, but also across the complete commercial landscape – higher television and sponsorship rights, increased franchise and team values, more investment in player development, and the assurance of even greater innovation across all sectors.

We wish to invite FIFA to return to this country to continue the mission it began when it so boldly brought the World Cup to America in 1994 at a time when the U.S. was technically prepared to host the tournament but was still a young footballing nation. Since the success of 1994, the U.S. has fully embraced its abiding passion for the beautiful game, making this vast and affluent country a fertile ground for more growth that can positively impact the global game.

We view a U.S.-hosted FIFA World Cup in 2018 or 2022 as the second half kickoff of our nation’s love for football. The first half whistle came in 1984 when record crowds packed the Rose Bowl for the football tournament of the Olympic Games. The energy released there inspired the country’s bid to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup™, where soccer history was made.

The 1994 event drew 3,587,538 fans, a World Cup attendance record that still stands today, and the direct and very tangible legacy of FIFA’s insightful decision can be seen on several fronts. We now have more than 90 million football fans, and according to FIFA’s 2006 Big Count, we have the second largest number of people playing the sport (24.4 million) of any country in the world, and the largest number of registered youth players (3.9 million) in the world. We have a sound and still-expanding professional league in the midst of its fifteenth season. We have strong men’s and women’s national teams. We even have multiple football-only television networks in two languages. None of these things, of course, existed prior to the 1994

FIFA World Cup™, and together they provide a vast and promising foundation for even greater growth of the sport if FIFA returns to our shores to kick off the second half of U.S. football development. To do so will elevate the football economy of the U.S. to the level of the fully mature markets in Europe and South America, which will in turn benefit the game around the world. The direct result of the anticipation of a FIFA World Cup™ here will lead to more widespread enthusiasm, deeper knowledge, and greater economic support for the game in a country that by 2022 will have a population of more than 340 million and a projected GDP of more than $19 trillion.

A successful second half for the sport in the U.S will help drive forward the entire world’s football economy by creating new opportunities across all levels of the game. This will result in not only an increased level of competition on the pitch, but also across the complete commercial landscape – higher television and sponsorship rights, increased franchise and team values, more investment in player development, and the assurance of even greater innovation across all sectors.

Those with only a passing familiarity with the United States sometimes underestimate the passion, even obsession, that Americans have for the game. These critics don’t understand that many of us come by our profound love of football through roots deep in the past. Of the 31 other nations competing in the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, 13 had more than one million residents of that ancestry living here in 2000 (when the last U.S. Census was completed), and 21 have populations of more than 100,000. In fact, at least 31 ancestry groups in the U.S. have more than a million members, and those numbers are only growing, our diversity evolving. By 2005, 45 percent of American children under the age of five were minorities, and by 2050 the Hispanic population will be 30 percent.

Other evidence of our tremendous appetite for the game: Last summer alone, the U.S. played host to more than 100 first-rate matches featuring iconic international clubs such as FC Barcelona, AC Milan, Chelsea FC, Club America, and Real Madrid, as well as the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament. Nearly two million fans across 26 cities attended this “Summer of Soccer.” The top 26 matches – many of them only exhibitions – accounted for 1.2 million tickets sold; 13 of these games drew more than 50,000 fans and six of them enjoyed attendance figures of more than 70,000. And as of February 9, 2010, Americans had purchased the largest number of tickets to the 2010 World Cup outside of South Africa, the host country – 119,365 tickets to be precise. Where there are football matches, Americans not only attend, but do so in large numbers.

For many in the United States, what connects us is not so much language or faith or cultural tradition, but our shared passion for the game we brought with us from every country in the world. Whether first-generation or sixth-generation American, football is very often in our DNA. It is in our blood. For others, especially our youth, the love of the game comes from an energetic football landscape that has made it the fastest growing youth sport in the U.S., according to a 2009 Turnkey Sports Poll. Young or old, we Americans play the game in schoolyards and stadia, on beaches and in parking lots. We live and die over our teams’ fortunes in tournaments that range from the UEFA Champions League and CONMEBOL’s Copa Libertadores to the African Cup of Nations and AFC’s Asian Cup, and we stay up all night transfixed by World Cup matches in distant time zones. Some of us even mark the passage of time – the passage of our lives – in World Cups. Make no mistake: The Game is in US.

Growing the game in the United States will have a profound impact on football here and abroad.

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In this case we will celebrate the game we all love on the planet’s greatest and most powerful stage, the FIFA World Cup™.

Before the United States was even a country, people have been coming to our shores in search of a home where they can practice their beliefs in peace, where they are free to pursue their individual hopes and dreams, where they can live a more just life. The result, 400 years into this inspired and sometimes challenging experiment, is quite likely the most diverse nation in the world, an extraordinary melting pot of races and religions, ethnic and national origins, languages and beliefs. It is a place where we celebrate our differences as well as our shared passions, and where we are united by common challenges and common hopes.

As President Barack Obama stated in his inaugural address, “This is the journey we continue today…. We are the keepers of this legacy, guided by these principles once more…. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of the Earth.”

If the United States once again has the privilege of hosting the FIFA World Cup™, it will be a vibrant showcase for tolerance and social change. And our country will welcome the world’s fans by making entry into the U.S. smoother than it has been in recent years, thanks to a new Travel and Promotion Act that was passed by the United States Congress on February 25, 2010. The president has pledged that the Act will bring “the full force of the White House and State Department to make sure… that visitors around the world feel welcome and come away with a sense of the incredible diversity of the American people.” thE

GamE iS in mE— denisse ruiz

“nothing, however, will propel and fuel this growth more than the return of the fifa World Cup™ in either 2018 or 2022. if the impact was huge in 1994, it will be stratospheric and unstoppable if it returns.”— Gary hopkins, Star Spangled Soccer: the Selling, marketing and management of Soccer in the uSa (palgrave macmillan, 2010)

The United States is a nation of immigrants seeking to do what it has always done – welcome and embrace the people of the world.


The FIFA World Cup™ matches will be played in existing modern stadia with an average capacity of 76,000. And our 18 proposed Host Cities are spread evenly over the full breadth of the U.S.

Similarly, our plans in the areas of security, health and medical services, transportation, information technology, and media facilities and communication will meet the highest FIFA standards.

We believe that a U.S.-hosted event will not only be an extraordinary experience for fans from around the world, but will be the single most profitable FIFA World Cup™ in history, with cumulative attendance of five million and a total of well over $1 billion in ticket revenue (nearly $1.5 billion including the Confederations Cup). Moreover, there will be virtually no capital expenditures on stadium and municipal infrastructure, and our bid will have (in fact, it already has) the full support of the U.S. federal government, as well as unprecedented support across state and city governments.

It is also important to note that while the U.S. is a vast country, it has become a remarkably well-connected one, thanks to increasingly sophisticated transportation and technology that are bringing both our country and the world much closer together. The 18 Host Cities are served by international airports that today routinely handle more than 790 international flights as well as 3,290 direct flights between the cities, and our rail system is being continually improved. Train travel in the Northeast, home to five of our proposed cities, has become a popular choice for tourists and business travelers alike, and President Obama has just approved $8.5 billion in federal grants to introduce new high-speed rail systems in such key states as California (where the coastal and inland cities will be linked by 320-kph trains) and Florida (between Orlando, Tampa, and other major cities).

the u.S. is confident that hosting the event will result in record profits for fifa, including combined ticketing revenue for the fifa World Cup™ and fifa Confederations Cup approaching $1.5 billion.

Existing u.S. infrastructure will make it easier for fifa and the loC to stage the best possible event.

The U.S. also continues to be at the leading edge of technology research and implementation, making a future U.S.-hosted World Cup a very different proposition from the 1994 event, when there was little use of e-mail, the Internet was still in early testing, and mobile phones were a rarity at best. One can only imagine where technology – and hence the operational environment and overall fan experience of a FIFA World Cup™ – will be by 2018 or 2022.

What all this means, beyond a well-executed and financially successful event, is that with so many critical pieces already in place, we are ready to focus a good deal of our energy and resources on FIFA’s inspired goals for Corporate Social Responsibility and other sustainability initiatives. And if the U.S. is awarded the privilege of hosting the World Cup in 2018 or 2022, our work will begin that very day, giving us an exciting and highly-anticipated eight- to 12-year opportunity to collaborate with FIFA on a series of programs that we believe can indeed use the platform of football to change the world.

The United States is about state-of-the-art infrastructure in stadia, transportation, and hotels; vast experience in hosting the biggest events; and a very high level of organization.

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This has always been an essential part of the American experience, but it is undergoing a renaissance under the leadership of President Obama as he sets a new tone at home and establishes a new level of engagement with the rest of the world.

FIFA’s core values and spirit are very much those of the United States, and the opportunity to further FIFA’s goals aligns perfectly with our country’s commitment to positive social and environmental change, to turning that “hope for a better future” into reality.

To that end, we have established a set of goals for social and environmental change designed to have significant and lasting impact. Inspired by FIFA’s Football for Hope initiative, the U.S. has created a plan for its World Cup bid that we believe will create significant, measurable change and could serve as a model throughout our country and perhaps even the world. We have formed a “dream team” panel of leading sustainability experts from NGO, business, environmental, and government sectors to address the issues before us. We will also ensure that all of our partners, from venues to transportation to accommodation, lead their fields in sustainable practices. Our goals may be ambitious, but our aim is true.

Economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and a preeminent authority on economic development and sustainability who is working with us on our plans, put it this way in a recent e-mail to us, “I strongly commend FIFA for its initiative to harness the world’s passion for football and the World Cup to promote sustainable development in communities around the world, and I applaud the U.S. for making it a cornerstone of its bid. I look forward to collaborating with FIFA on football-based sustainable development programs that will advance the Millennium Development Goals and empower youth worldwide to help themselves, their communities, and the world.”

As President Obama has said, “We have the power to make the world we seek.”

The United States is a country with an enduring commitment to helping those less fortunate, and is prepared to join others in making the world a better place.

thE GamE iS in mE— Bryant duell


atlanta

BaltimoreWashington, d.C.

nashville

Boston

indianapolis

San diegophoenix

denver

Kansas City

Seattle

new york

los angeles

houston

dallas

miami

tampa

philadelphia

flexibility● One of the great strengths of the U.S. bid is our

flexibility. Thanks to our infrastructure and the fact that there would be eight to 12 years to plan for the event, the U.S. wants to stress to FIFA that it is fully prepared to adjust to changing times and the specific needs of FIFA as they evolve.

● While our bid is necessarily specific in many ways, the U.S. expects to have an ever-expanding menu of options from which FIFA can choose in the years ahead, from stadia and Host Cities to accommodations and venues for Competition-related Events, and we have the ability to readily adapt almost any part of our bid since the infrastructure and experience already exist.

What follows are a few highlights of the two most important aspects of our bid: 1) our flexibility, infrastructure, experience, and organization; and 2) the legacy projects – in football, in social and human development, and in environmental protection.

many great programs are already in place today, but with the promise of a World Cup in the u.S., we intend to take these further by launching new initiatives that we believe can make for the kind of real and lasting generational change championed by fifa.

flexibility, infrastructure, Experience, and organization

host Cities● The U.S. has proposed 18 Host Cities for FIFA’s

consideration. This demonstrates the enthusiasm across the country in support of the Bid. This also guarantees a highly competitive process that will benefit the development of the game and the staging of the event as these candidate cities compete to be among the final 12 Host Cities.

● The U.S. may be large and our proposed Host Cities cover all corners of the nation, but the distribution of sites lends itself neatly to “venue clusters,” making the matches convenient for FIFA’s organizational needs as well as for team and fan travel.

● All of the cities exceed FIFA’s requirements, including infrastructure, community and government support, and the commitment to utilize the World Cup and the sport of football for higher sustainable social and environmental goals.

● All the cities have executed signed agreements, making this the first sporting event in U.S. history to achieve such a level of coordination across city governments.

Stadia● Each stadium is conveniently situated in a world-class

metropolitan area and supported by extensive public transportation systems.

● By using existing modern structures, no new construction will be necessary. This is easier on the environment and means that more investment can be dedicated to developing the game, CSR programs, and the staging of the event itself.

● Five of the stadia have domes or fully retractable roofs to ensure ideal conditions for players and fans. Our 18 stadia have an average World Cup capacity of more than 76,000.

● All of the stadia will meet FIFA’s pitch size requirements, as well as the vast stadia overlay needs for hospitality, media, and operations.

● Regarding new stadia that might come online in the near future, we will of course keep our options open, working closely with FIFA to ensure that the best locations are ultimately chosen. This will enable us to take advantage of new facilities as well as conduct a competitive tender.

● All of the proposed stadia have signed the FIFA Stadium Cover Agreement.


finance● A U.S.-hosted FIFA World Cup™ requires no major

capital investment in infrastructure.

● For the World Cup, we project a record-breaking five million tickets sold, generating well over $1 billion in revenue.

● We believe the U.S. is uniquely suited to host the FIFA Confederations Cup, propelling that Competition to records in both attendance and revenue.

● A World Cup held in the U.S. will ensure favorable time periods for television viewers in the majority of football’s major markets.

● The United States presents FIFA with one of the world’s strongest sponsorship markets that is ready to embrace the full power of football as a platform to reach consumers.

transportation● The LOC will work with the federal government to

ensure smooth and rapid access for international travelers attending the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup™.

● Each of the Host Cities has an existing international airport, currently servicing a combined total of 790 international flights a day. There are also 3,290 direct flights per day between these 18 cities.

● Each of these airports is already able to handle more than the FIFA requirements of 60,000 passengers a day.

● All of the Host Cities are linked by increasingly efficient rail travel. Thanks to continued improvements to the rail system of the northeastern U.S., where five of our Host Cities are located, train travel is becoming the choice of more and more tourists and business travelers; over the past decade, rail travel along the Northeast Corridor has increased by more than 25 percent.

● Each of the stadia is accessible by mass transit systems, making them eco-friendly. Each of the cities has mature transport systems that are rapidly being outfitted with sustainable-energy vehicles.

health and medical● The U.S. is a world leader in health-care delivery, with a

deep pool of resources (hospitals, emergency services, diagnostics experts, critical care units).

● There are 325 hospitals within 20km of our 18 stadia, and at least two elite hospitals within 10km, with transport times of no more than 10 minutes.

● Some of the most advanced medical teams in the world will be standing by to address FIFA’s and the athletes’ needs.

● A command center that works closely with all the venues will be put into place to manage any large-scale emergency, drawing upon and coordinating the resources of city, state, and federal agencies.

training Sites and Base Camps● We have contracted with 64 Base Camps and 54

Venue-Specific Training Sites across the nation, including all MLS football-specific stadia, and all are in full compliance with FIFA’s requirements.

● In addition to the 18 Host Cities, we have included an additional 14 markets that could host Base Camps, further ensuring that our bid is truly national in scope.

● We have selected the finest accommodations the country has to offer and matched them with the most desirable training sites.

● We have selected a range of facilities, from stadia that seat many thousands of spectators to quiet, secluded sites, enabling FIFA and the team delegations to pick and choose as they see fit. This will also give FIFA the option to create a variety of atmospheres for training sessions (e.g., selling tickets or providing complete seclusion).


accommodations● There are more than 550,000 guest rooms in hotels

across the 18 proposed Host Cities. This figure includes only three-, four-, and five-star hotels and excludes motels and bed-and-breakfasts.

● Eight to 12 years in advance, we are on course to contract an average of 9,000 guest rooms across the proposed Host Cities, for a total of 162,000 guest rooms. In itself, this will comprise perhaps the largest block of rooms available for any event in the world.

● This translates to more than 12 million room nights during the requested World Cup and Confederations Cup reservation periods.

● This number is sure to increase if the U.S. is chosen to host the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup™, particularly as the competition builds for the final selection of 12 Host Cities.

● We are using a unified network across the U.S., with Convention and Visitors Bureaus participating in the World Cup process.

media● Our media “No Boundaries” program goes above and

beyond FIFA specs and proposes a media environment that is responsive to the changing landscape.

● The One World Media Center concept will allow more journalists to cover the event even if they cannot be on-site, thus casting a smaller environmental footprint.

● We foresee a “cloud” of information for the media, a One World/No Boundaries media services platform that allows journalists to participate in the FIFA World Cup™ from anywhere, anytime.

● We propose Atlanta as the site of the International Broadcast Center, as it is the hub of U.S. fiber transmissions and satellite uplink prowess, as well as a transportation nexus readily accessible to Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the continental U.S.

fifa Confederations Cup● We propose to stage the most successful FIFA

Confederations Cup in history. Given the country’s track record in staging highly-attended international friendlies and tournaments, we plan to make the 2017/2021 FIFA Confederations Cup the major event on the U.S. summer calendar.

● Our multicultural heritage assures that each team will be received like a “home team” and neither FIFA nor the LOC will have to rely extensively on international ticket buyers to produce large and enthusiastic crowds.

● Attendance at the Confederations Cup is forecast to be 85 percent of stadia capacities, for an average of more than 70,000 spectators.

● We foresee this as a regionally-based event, utilizing five venues in just two time zones (the east and central sections of the country) to keep FIFA, team, and fan travel convenient and to a minimum.

Competition-related Events● The additional Competition-related Events we propose

touch every corner of our country, from New York to Miami to San Diego, and each venue has a history of supremely well managed and executed events.

● We propose that FIFA stage the Preliminary Draw in New York City, showcase the Final Draw in Miami, headquarter FIFA in our nation’s capital of Washington, D.C. (only a 90-minute flight from at least a third of our 18 proposed Host Cities), and host the FIFA Congress (and possibly the Opening Match) in Dallas, which played an integral role in the 1994 FIFA World Cup™ and now features the spectacular new Cowboys Stadium.


the following provides only a summary of the ways in which the u.S. intends to create a legacy by hosting the fifa World Cup™.

the football legacy● At each stage – from the day the winning bid is

announced, to the World Cup itself, to building on the event’s success long after it is over – we will leverage the opportunity by promoting a variety of football development initiatives, using the anticipated profits from a 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup™ to increase investments in facilities and programs at all levels.

● We will work to further attract the urban, Hispanic, and African-American communities, which will increase participation in the game, deepen the talent pool for our elite professional and national teams, and tap into a new market of football fans while also having a positive social impact.

● With 18 proposed Host Cities vying to be among the final 12, we will initiate a fierce competition to see which cities can best promote our sport. Each will be asked to take further steps to develop the game. Through a coordinated effort, these cities will showcase the game at all levels, generate enthusiasm in our fans, and fuel the dreams of our next generation of footballers.

● With football viewership in the U.S. already on the rise, hosting a FIFA World Cup™ will draw unprecedented numbers of domestic viewers in the world’s premier television market, and will mark the start of a new era in media coverage, with football assuming its full share of the American sports marquee.

legacies: three Ways We intend to impact a Generation

● We propose to tie all our initiatives together through the concept of “One on One, One by One,” an approach that empowers and enables every citizen of the world to utilize football as a tool for positive change.

● We especially aim to relate our vision and efforts to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), working closely with FIFA to help launch thousands of new beginnings around the world.

● We will collaborate with leading sustainability experts, including those of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, which is headed by Jeffrey D. Sachs, the renowned authority on sustainable economic development and an advisor to this U.S. Bid.

internationally, we will focus on three proposed projects:

● The FIFA World Cup of Life, which will encourage citizens to “fill the world’s cup” by buying “water for life” for millions of people in the developing world.

● An expansion of FIFA’s “20 Centres for 2010” concept to all of FIFA’s Confederations through adopting a multidisciplinary approach that uses the popularity of football to help promote and advance the science-based initiatives of the Millennium Villages Project.

● A social networking site that matches individuals and entities around the globe with projects in the developing world.

the Social and human development legacy

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domestically, we will use the great platform of football to help address the most pressing social and health needs of our communities: childhood obesity, urban blight, and social intolerance.

● We propose creating the FIFA Football for Life educational initiative and integrating it with three of our existing U.S. programs:

Play On!, a national program to increase physical activity and promote healthy lifestyles in urban schools and communities.Soccer for Success, an after-school initiative that addresses key social issues such as discrimination, juvenile crime and violence, and educational attainment. Places to Play, a program to increase the number of playing fields in urban neighborhoods across the country.

● A final component of our national program is the establishment of the FIFA Institute for Social Change, a think- and action-tank designed to identify football-based practices and offer a variety of services to assist educators and community groups. This would not only be the world’s preeminent football education center and a powerful lasting legacy, but a concept that could be introduced anywhere on the globe.

Volunteerism is a natural embodiment of our overarching concept of “one on one, one by one” and goes hand in hand with the ongoing american tradition of giving back. hence we propose using the fifa World Cup™ to inspire global citizenship without borders via the following concepts:

● World Cup Citizens of the World Day, which we aim to make the single largest volunteer event in history.

● FIFA World Football Jam, which uses music to engage youth at FIFA Fan Fests™ around the world.

● The FIFA Humanitas Award, which will honor outstanding volunteers in communities around the world.

thE GamE iS in uS— alan and Clayton Evans

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the Environmental legacy● As with our social and human development projects,

we will link all of our proposed environmental initiatives through the compelling “One on One, One by One” concept in which each and every fan who witnesses a World Cup match, whether in a stadium or in any of more than 200 countries, will understand that he or she has a very personal stake in the future and will be encouraged to make a difference.

● We intend to make a U.S.-hosted FIFA World Cup™ a self-sustaining energy event as well as a “living showcase” that connects people to new technologies and new behaviors.

● We will deliver a legacy that starts by minimizing the footprint of the event in FIFA’s six core areas: water, waste, energy, transportation, procurement, and climate change.

● In doing so, we will seek to set new standards in green operations and set tactical goals for the event, including:

Water neutralityZero waste to landfillsZero fossil fuels used in energy generationZero fossil fuels used in FIFA-provided transportation100 percent compliance to sustainability standards by suppliers and vendorsLess than 20 percent of attendees arriving at matches by combustion engine vehicles 100 percent organic, locally-sourced food at all stadia and FIFA Fan Fests™From its inception, the LOC will utilize the globally-recognized sustainability environmental management system, ISO 14001 to certify its operations

In concert with FIFA, we will seek to influence, inspire, and empower the five million people ticketed for the games, the 25 million people attending FIFA Fan Fests™, the billions watching worldwide, the suppliers and vendors, and the FIFA Family of players, coaches, volunteers, workers, and communities.

In sum, if given the great honor and responsibility of hosting a FIFA World Cup™, we will do everything in our power to present an extraordinary – and extraordinarily successful – event.

We are ready to welcome the world to our home, to embrace our fellow footballers in open, progressive cities and modern stadia in a country whose enduring values mirror the values of this beautiful game.

We are ready to take our country’s promise to new levels of engagement: to grow the game in our diverse and ever-evolving country and to use that success to help grow the game around the world.

We are ready to use the power and beauty of the FIFA World Cup™ to inspire every fan around the globe to take individual steps – One on One, One by One – to create lasting social and environmental change.

We are ready to honor FIFA’s vision, and all that it represents.

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USA Bid Book - English