we can do that too. we can host a world cup as we are. we can put some games in shit stadiums.

or we can make our stadiums better. maybe economically these improvements can be justified by long term benefits to tourism.

thats what they did with olympics. but if flopped because of september 11.

anyway i think there are too many hang ups about economics. i am sick of capitalist pigs who only care about money. i think we should get the world cup here no matter how much money we lose doing it! there. how about that?

i think newcastle should have games. you have a population bigger than canberra, darwin and most other regional cities. you need a better stadium is all.

some cricket and aussie rules grounds are very big ovals. this is shit for spectators. maybe this doesnt matter – because its all about money, and therefore tv right?!

some grounds like telstra dome, and the grounds in germany with athletics tracks are not ideal – spectators are closer, but they would be cheaper to use than building a new stadium.

big ovals like football park are not great for spectators, but as said maybe it doesnt matter. the mcg is also a large oval – but it is used and would be used in the world cup. because it has such a large capacity and is so famous.

hey and the thing i was trying to say about most rectangular grounds in australia is that they are too small, for precisely the reason that there will be so many fans from other countries.

and the grass. i am sure the olympic embarrassment wont happen again. maybe the specified grass wasnt fifa grass, maybe it was ioc grass? or maybe fifa in the 7 years since has developed better grass?

so what all my long ramblings comes down to? we have 2 stadiums in melbourne, 2 in sydney, 1 in brisbane, and 1 in perth. that totals 6 world class stadiums suitable for soccer.

questions for the next decade – where will the others be? and how will we get them? 1 will be in adelaide, but will it be football park? then at least 3 more, probably in smaller cities. which cities? darwin, townsville, gold coast, newcastle, gosford, wollongong, canberra, geelong, launceston, hobart, or others?

It would seem totally appropriate for Newcastle to host a game, as it was through the Hunter area that soccer founded its roots in Australia. Working class migrants who worked in the coal mines of England started a football regular footballs between different coal mining companies.

All we need is Johnny to give us the remaining cash and change the redevelopment plans and we would have a stadium, with a capacity of 40,000.

games that might not attract as large crowds could be played in smaller cities and in melbourne and sydney at a secondary venue.

major venues for 2018:

melbourne – mcg (only because it has 100,000 capacity) and docklands / telstra dome (it is ok as a small field, and 50,000 capacity is more than the 20,000 of the new olympic park, which wont be redeveloped twice – and other grounds like princes park are no chance)

sydney – olympic / telstra stadium (80,000) and sfs / aussie stadium (40,000) (both purpose built for soccer / rugby and scg is no chance because it is not – the sfs was built for that very reason)

brisbane – lang park / suncorp stadium (50,000) (also brand new, award winning, purpose built for soccer / rugby – the gabba and qe2 stadium / qld sports and athletic… built for the commonwealth games are no chance)

perth – the new subiaco (60,000) or a purpose built soccer / rugby stadium (couldnt be more than 35,000 / 40,000 in a aussie rules dominated city)

adelaide – tricky, same thing, a smallish purpose built stadium? (upgrade hindmarsh stadium from 15,000 to 30,000) or football park / aami stadium? (has too large a field, despite its 50,000 capacity) (and adelaide oval, used in the rugby world cup, wouldnt be a chance)

so thats five or so venues, and then you are stuck.

the rugby world cup successfully shared games with smaller cities. but the soccer world cup will have larger demand for tickets because of international tourists. the smaller cities grounds would not be able to cope. they could be made larger, but they would probably be bigger white elephants than many of the olympic venues.

possible other host cities could include:

capital cities, darwin (no suitable stadium), and canberra (bruce / canberra stadium could be expanded from 30,000 to 40,000 but crowds average 15,000 so why? – also note manuka oval is only used for aussie rules and cricket)

and then regional cities like wollongong (wollongong sports ground / win stadium is 20,000 and old but could be upgraded), gosford (central coast stadium is new, and regularly hosts international fixtures including the rugby world cup, despite being only 20,000 – this is probably because it is owned by the very rich john singleton), newcastle (newcastle international sports… / energy australia stadium at 25,000 is in major need of refurbishment), gold coast (the new gold coast / robina stadium will be 25,000), and townsville (dairy farmers stadium 25,000, but basic) all would struggle to justify stadiums larger than 30,000 with average crowds also at 15,000 – but are these capacities big enough for a world cup?

and even more of a problem southern cities like geelong, launceston and hobart, dont even have good facilities at their aussie rules grounds – it would be hard to justify upgrading them for the world cup (because it would be hard to justify using them at all when the fields are so large), and it would be even harder to justify building new, purpose built soccer stadiums larger than 20,000 (because they would have no use after).

oh and fifa standard grass got layed in all olympic venues in 2000. even in canberra where it died because of the cold (causing much last minute panic).