I too have thought about the possibility of a World Cup qualifier there the next time around. In fact I mentioned that to Mr. Maturi when we did the interview. I will also be forwarding this onto Mr. Buethe at US Soccer. Neil is a great guy and I know he will forward the article onto the committee for US Soccer that looks at future game venues.

We will always fight the fact that US Soccer seems to prefer to play in cities that have MLS teams and MLS SSS’s and that only makes sense.

The other piece that I have mentioned here several times is the possibility that Sunil Gulati spoke of if the US does receive a WC bid. That possibility would be that Chicago would likely be a host city and there are usually a friendly or two played previous to the WC competition. Again, just like the Olympic scenario in Chicago, we are close in proximity to the Windy City and could just find ourselves with a couple of friendlies before the 2018 or 2022 WC.

What’s odd about this conversation is if we actually have to wait that long, we are talking 2 to 3 years for a qualifying game and 9-13 years for a pre-WC game. Most likely the Vikings will have a new state of the art stadium by that point with a retractable dome. If that happened and the US won the bid for a WC, would they reconsider their venue locations?

I just wonder who will be the leading force in bringing a world class soccer game to this area?

I also sent emails way back in 2001 to Jim Froslid with the Thunder, as the legislature took up stadium ideas and asked him to lobby so the venue would be able to host qualifyers or Gold Cup games. He always responded and was willing to try. I think he may have even bid to be a Gold Cup host site once when the Schwan’s cup was being held at the same time, but they told him he needed at least 25,000 seats, back then. He also thought the national team might really like bringing the Mexicans here for a February qualifyer. Columbus would seem like the tropics!