Friday will be Soccer Day on both sides of the state line, as Mayors Joe Reardon and Mark Funkhouser celebrate the official submission of the United States’ bid to host a World Cup to FIFA, soccer’s governing body in Zurich, Switzerland. Kansas City is among the 18 cities to be included in the bid, which will be submitted to FIFA on Friday morning.
Mayor Reardon will be issuing a proclamation at 11 a.m. CT on Friday, declaring the day to be “Soccer Day in Kansas City.” The proclamation will take place on the 9th floor of the KCK City Hall, and media members are encouraged to attend. Mayor Reardon and representatives from the Kansas City World Cup Bid Committee will be available for interviews following the proclamation.
This afternoon Mayor Funkhouser and the Kansas City, Missouri City Council approved the proclamation, as the group officially declared Friday “Soccer Day in Kansas City.”
Kansas City was chosen in January as one of 18 host cities that will be included in the United States’ bid to host the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup, with the newly-renovated 76,000-capacity Arrowhead Stadium serving as the city’s primary venue. Kansas City offers unrivaled amenities and affordable prices for fans, world-class facilities for teams and a rich history as the quintessential American city. Over 12,000 people have already signed the petition to bring the FIFA World Cup to Kansas City – you can do so today by visiting www.gousabid.com/kc.
The World Cup is far and away the most popular and widely-viewed sporting event on the planet. The 2006 edition in Germany drew a total of 26.2 billion television viewers, including a cumulative audience of 715.1 million for the final match alone.
The tournament has also been shown to be a massive economic benefit to the counties and cities that host it. Economic firm AECOM revealed in a recent study that hosting a FIFA World Cup™ could bring as much as $600 million to a host city and $5 billion to the nation as a whole. The study also estimates that between 5,000 to 8,000 jobs would be created in each host city during the event’s month-long run.
Following Friday’s submittal of the World Cup bids, FIFA will have six and a half months to decide which countries will be awarded the 2018 and 2022 tournaments. An official announcement is scheduled for December 2nd of this year.
VIDEO/FTP INFORMATION:
The official handover ceremony of the U.S. Bid Book occurs at 9:15 a.m. CT and video footage will be available on an FTP site at 12 p.m. CT, less than three hours after the ceremony. The video package, including footage and interviews, is free of charge:
Video Availability: May 14, 2010, starting at 12 p.m. CT
Formats: NTSC and PAL
FTP-Server: www.tpctrans.ch
Username: gousa2018
Password: gousa2022
Folder: usabidhandover_fifa
