Showing posts with label World Cup Bid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Cup Bid. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Tuesday's round-up: World Cup, Roehn and Hurricane Watch

Tuesday’s big news, of course, was Tampa being named as one of the 18 cities to be included in the United States’ bid for the 2018/2022 World Cups. The Tampa Tribune’s Bill Ward was at the announcement, which had a lot of smiling faces.

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In high school action on Tuesday night, Berkeley Prep routed St. Petersburg Catholic 7-1, a win made more significant by Buccaneers standout T.J. Roehn scoring his 100th career goal with a first-half hat trick.

Roehn finished with four on the night, and now sits on 101 goals for his career, needing just another five to break Tyler Davis’ school record of 105. Roehn, who will join the University of South Florida’s program next season, said the biggest thing for the Bucs this season was to continue to have success as they moved into the playoffs.

“The biggest part of the season was just trying to rebuild from last season,” Roehn said. “The main goal is to do as well as we could in the playoffs, and if we do well in the playoffs, the goals will come, so they work together.”

Buccaneers coach Tim Cooper was very happy for his standout striker.

“He’s cruising along,” Cooper said. “He’s gotten on track, and if he can get another couple of goals in the next couple of weeks, he should be there. I’m proud of him.”

Elsewhere on Tuesday night, Mitchell continued its strong season with a 4-1 win against Countryside in the Hurricane Watch tournament hosted by Palm Harbor, but as the St. Petersburg Times’ Bryan Burns writes, the lone goal proved crucial for the Cougars, who will get a rematch with the Mustangs in Friday’s final.

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In other Pinellas County news, Palm Harbor will travel to face St. Petersburg for the Pinellas County Athletic Conference championship on Friday evening at 6:30 p.m.

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Tampa one of 18 cities included in U.S. World Cup bid

Tampa has been selected as one of the 18 cities that will make up the United States’ bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup when the list was announced on Tuesday afternoon in New York.

The bid committee, led by former Tampa Bay Rowdies standout Farrukh Quraishi, made its final presentation for the US Bid committed in December along with the other 26 cities vying for a place in the bid.

Nine cities were eliminated from the process today. Should the U.S. be awarded the competition for either year, another six cities would be eliminated, leaving 12 official host cities for the tournament.

Also included in the bid were Miami and Atlanta, with the biggest surprise being the omission of Chicago from the list of 18.

The bid, should it succeed, would likely be the largest in the World Cup’s history. U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said the stadiums available to the bid would allow for an average capacity of 78,000 seats, allowing for over 5 million tickets to be available for the tournament as a whole.

Friday, October 16, 2009

New U.S. World Cup petition allows fans to support their hometown bid


The Bid Committee for the United States’ effort to land the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 has added a new wrinkle to its online support petition, allowing fans to support one of the 27 cities that are currently in the running to be a host site if the tournament were to be awarded to the States.

The online petition being hosted at goUSAbid.com has already received 129,000 signatures, but the U.S. Bid team is hoping that the ability to support their hometown will add to the numbers who will sign the petition.

“We anticipate an even greater response as fans across this country are given the opportunity to support the cities where they were born, live, work or play,” David Downs, Executive Director of the USA Bid Committee, said in a press release on Friday afternoon. “The 27 American cities and 32 stadiums still under consideration to be included in our bid are all outstanding in their own way. The passion their citizens exhibit towards the opportunity to potentially play host to FIFA World Cup matches will be one of the many factors that we will consider throughout our ongoing selection process.”

Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium is one of the facilities under consideration, with a group of local business leaders headed by former Tampa Bay Rowdie Farrukh Quraishi preparing the presentation for the U.S. Bid committee. Quraishi was the venue executive when Orlando hosted games at the 1994 World Cup, and believe the petition is an attempt to show FIFA how much the viewership and passion for the game of soccer has grown in the U.S. in the past 15 years.

“Even though we have so many other sports, I think there is a perception that soccer takes a back-seat to these other sports,” Quraishi said. “But there is a large segment of the population that we all believe has an interest in seeing soccer, and I think that’s evidenced by the fact that the largest demand for tickets to the World Cup next year in South Africa outside of South Africa has come from the United States.”

If bay area fans do want to throw their support behind Tampa as a location for a potential upcoming World Cup, they would be advised to do so soon. The Tampa bid committee will head to New York on Nov.10 to make its presentation to the U.S. Committee along with the other cities vying for a bid, after which a decision will be as to which 18 facilities will be included in the U.S. bid that will be submitted to FIFA. If Tampa is selected, FIFA delegations would visit the area next year, with the announcement of the host countries for both 2018 and 2022 being made in December 2010.