2022 World Cup Selection: A Final Case Why the United States Should Host

Tomorrow, 22 football delegates throughout the world (plus FIFA President Sepp Blatter) will meet in Zurich, Switzerland to make two tremendous decisions that will impact the world for years to come.

Those two decisions will be for the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup's respectively.

For United States soccer fans, this decision could be one of the defining moments for soccer in their country.

Ever since the United States hosted the 1994 World Cup, soccer has grown tremendously in the United States.

Today, soccer is the most played sport in the United States and many of the stars on the United States national team have gone through the youth system known as Project 2010.

From the start of Major League Soccer in 1996, the top flight of American soccer has nearly doubled in size and now has two of the most famous footballers in the world playing in MLS in David Beckham and Thierry Henry.

Internationally, the United States national team has grown tremendously, winning their group for the first time since 1930 in the 2010 World Cup, and defeating Spain 2-0 to reach the 2009 Confederations Cup final.

In the last ten years, Americans have started to become successful overseas and appear to be a strong contender in the upcoming 2014 World Cup.

And American support has followed their nation overseas, buying more tickets than any other nation at the last three World Cup's combined.

In the United States, there were more people who watched the United States loss to Ghana (19.4 million) than the 2009 World Series, and every game of the 2010 NBA Finals except for Game Seven (which drew 28.2 million viewers).

The 2010 World Cup final drew even higher than the United States vs Ghana match, generating an incredible 24.3 million viewers.

From this support, ESPN also had a record amount of viewers use its ESPN 3 service (on line television) and Internet traffic reached an all-time high following Landon Donovan's goal vs Algeria.

Overall, the American bid will be the safest bid for FIFA.

You have world class stadium's that will be in use that are projected to seat over five million fans for the tournament.

That would easily beat the old attendance record (3,587,538) that the United States holds from the 1994 World Cup.

And FIFA will not need to put in as much money into the United States as it will for any other nation for 2022.

Meanwhile, a bid such as Australia's will have stadiums such as the stadium in Canberra that will be constructed solely for the World Cup, and will never be used again.

Plus, FIFA will lose a large portion of its American and European audiences due to inconveniences in the timing of the matches.

Japan co-hosted a World Cup in 2002, and don't have a stadium ready to host the World Cup final.

South Korea co-hosted a World Cup in 2002 with Japan, and it is rumored that they will be giving up a large portion of money over the next several years to reunify themselves with North Korea.

And then there is Qatar, who are the favorite to host the 2022 World Cup.

With this bid, Qatar will certainly be a more open World Cup than any of the other bids because fans will need to move into the country for each match.

Due to this (and the fact that it is in the Middle East), Qatar have a high operational risk for the World Cup, something that no other bid from either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup bids have.

Qatar has also been labeled as a high health risk.

But most importantly, the level of football will be terrible if it were to be played in Qatar.

Matches will need to be played during the day, and despite claims that the fans will be cooled by air conditioning in the stadiums, the players will be exposed to 130ºF temperatures (54.444ºC) at all times.

Finally, Qatar has no experience of hosting anything larger than the 2006 Asian Games.

The United States, Japan and South Korea have all hosted a World Cup, and Australia has hosted two Olympic Games (1956 Melbourne and 2000 Sydney Games).

Tomorrow, hopefully FIFA will look to the World Cup that will leave the best legacy when they decided the 2022 World Cup.

And FIFA should recognize that the best legacy for the World Cup will be in the United States.

For the sake of American soccer, the United States needs to win this bid, and will attempt to make the 2022 World Cup the greatest World Cup ever.