Philadelphia has been chosen as one of 18 host cities included in the U.S. bid to land soccer's World Cup tournament in 2018 or 2022, officials announced yesterday.
But don't rush out to buy your tickets just yet.
The U.S. bid is due to FIFA, the sport's governing body, by May 14, and the winning nations will be announced in December. It's far from certain the United States will be awarded one of the tournaments.
If the United States does win, it probably will be asked by FIFA to trim its list of host cities down to about a dozen. So Philadelphia would have to survive a second cull.
Still, the announcement represented an important step - Philadelphia passing the first cut, chosen from a pool of 37 cities contacted by the bid committee.
"What we at Philadelphia Union have always believed is coming true. Philadelphia has now become a world-class, international soccer city," said Nick Sakiewicz, the chief executive officer and operating partner of the Union, the new Major League Soccer team. "We'll continue to do everything in our power to bring the FIFA World Cup home to Philadelphia."
Sakiewicz serves as cochair of the Philadelphia Host City Bid Committee, helping to lead civic and sports organizations that want to bring the World Cup here. Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter serve as honorary cochairs.
"This is another fantastic chance for the country and the world to see what this region has to offer," Rendell said yesterday.
Nutter said he was "thrilled for the city of Philadelphia and surrounding region to be in this position to put ourselves on an even greater world stage."
The other chosen sites were Miami, Atlanta, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas, Seattle, Denver, Tampa, Fla., Indianapolis, Baltimore, Nashville, Kansas City, Houston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Boston, and New York/New Jersey.
Among those rejected were Chicago, Detroit, Orlando, and San Francisco, which were chosen when the United States last hosted the World Cup in 1994.
Contested every four years, the World Cup is considered the world's largest sporting event. The tournament will be held in South Africa this year, and in Brazil in 2014.
Cumulative TV viewership for the 2006 Cup in Germany was estimated at 26 billion. The economic benefits to the host country and cities are believed to be enormous.
The United States, Australia, England, Japan, and Russia have formally declared their desire to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022. Netherlands-Belgium and Portugal-Spain each submitted joint bids for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, while Indonesia, Qatar, and South Korea applied to host only in 2022.
At a news conference in New York yesterday, U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati said the 18 cities "share outstanding leadership with a vision and understanding of what a FIFA World Cup would mean to the United States, along with how well we can play the role of host to visitors from throughout the world."
Each city could expect to host four to six games during the four-week tournament.
In Philadelphia, the games would be played at Lincoln Financial Field, seating capacity 67,594. Some field modifications would be necessary, but the stadium has comfortably supported international soccer in the past.
The first event at the Linc was a soccer game, a 2003 exhibition match between Manchester United and FC Barcelona that drew 68,396.
In a November interview, Eagles president Joe Banner agreed that, as of now, the width of the Linc is too narrow to meet the 70-yard FIFA regulation. However, he said, sections of seats in the lower-deck corners are removable and would "perfectly accommodate the specs that they need for the World Cup."
