U.S. Soccer Trims List of Potential World Cup Host Cities

And then there were 18 and the U.S. Bid committee went big.

The list of cities:

Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, Tampa and Washington, D.C. The average stadium size is for these cities is about 78,000. If the U.S. gets the World Cup in 2018 or 2022, you could see 65 games with an attendance figure over 5,000,000. That is some serious attendance.

What I find interesting about this list of finalists is the number of cities on the list without an MLS franchise nearby (within an hours driving distance or so), Atlanta, Indianapolis, Miami, Nashville, Phoenix and Tampa, six or 1/3 of the cities and when you add Baltimore and San Diego to the list you have nearly half of the cities without a current MLS franchise. It makes you wonder what the MLS plans would be for these cities, if any.

It is good to see a good chunk of southeastern cities on the list.