World Cup 2018 Bid

Have you heard that NSW Premier Morris Iemma is pushing all Australian states to come together and organise a bid for the 2018 Soccer World Cup. He has done an ok job as ninemsn has reported. The only hurdle politically is probably going to be between the Victorian and NSW Premiers debating whether the MCG or Telstra Stadium should host the final. When I believe they have much more important things to worry about, such as the fitness of our stadiums to host such an event. Here are some points to comprehend:

• Germany had 12 stadiums
• All hold 40,000 plus spectators
• Hamburg – 50,000
• Hanover – 43,000
• Berlin – 72,000
• Gelsenkirchen – 52,000
• Dortmund – 65,000
• Franfurt – 48,000
• Kaiserslautern – 46,000
• Cologne – 45,000
• Leipzig – 43,00
• Munich – 66,000
• Nuremburg – 41,000
• Stuttgart – 52,000
• All, I believe, are dedicated to Soccer
• Our stadiums have League, Union, Aussie Rules, or a mixture of all three played on them
• These sports chop up the surface – and soccer players won’t like that
• These sports will probably have to interrupt their seasons to fit in these games

According to Australian Stadiums we have the following venues that may suffice as far as capacity is concerned:

• Sydney
• Telstra Stadium – 83,500
• Aussie Stadium – 42,000
• Sydney Cricket Ground – 44,000
• Melbourne
• Melbourne Cricket Ground – 100,000
• Telstra Dome – 56,347
• Brisbane
• Suncorp Stadium – 52,500
• Gabba – 42,000
• Queensland Sport and Athletic Centre (formally ANZ Stadium) – 48,400
• Adelaide
• AAMI Stadium – 51,515
• Adelaide Oval – 33,597
• Perth
• Subiaco Oval – 42,992
• NZ
• Eden Park – 45,472
• Jade Stadium – 36,500
• Westpac Stadium – 36,000

We have a lot of Stadiums around the 20,000 capacity due mainly, I believe, because of our population. We don’t have enough people to require huge venues for regular use. We only have Telstra Stadium today because the world was coming here to watch the Olympics in 2000. The MCG was redeveloped primarily for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, and only fills for big matches like AFL finals, Rugby Tests and Soccer Internationals.

I have even checked out New Zealand. More out of desperation than anything else as I don't think we have the facilities at the moment. Maybe our trans-tasman friends can help us out. Even though they dropped out for the Rugby World Cup and theis event is much bigger.

Out of that list we have no dedicated Soccer ovals. Not even half of them are rectangle.

So Iemma and co. should start building!