By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
You might have recalled the Raiders submitting the Las Vegas stadium into the competition to host World Cup soccer matches in 2026 as part of the overall North America venue package to host the world’s biggest single-sport event.
So, when FIFA — soccer’s governing body — awarded the North America team of the United States, Canada and Mexico the right to host the 2026 World Cup in eight years, you may have wondered why Las Vegas was not part of the cities listed in the U.S. line-up of host communities.
That’s because the Raiders and Las Vegas dropped their stadium bid after they deemed the FIFA requests were too demanding of the host’s venue and hotels. The Raiders’ $1.8 billion domed stadium on 62 acres on the west side of Interstate 15 bounded by Russell Road, Polaris Avenue and Hacienda Avenue is scheduled to open in July 2020, so the venue would have been open with plenty of time to spare.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, charged with putting visitors in hotel beds and generating tourist spending in southern Nevada, explained the rationale for dropping out of the bidding process.
Basically, the return on investment was not strong enough. There’s a lot of formal public relations language in this statement issued by the LVCVA, but you will get the drift.
LVSportsBiz.com received this statement from Jacqueline Peterson, LVCVA chief communications and public affairs officer: “We were excited to be asked to continue in the United Bid Committee’s selection process after the initial RFI stage. As we received further information and analyzed our expected expenses to meet the requirements, it became clear that while hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup would be an honor for any city in North America, further pursuing this bid would not have been in the best interest of our city.
“Our committee members, which included leaders in government, tourism, education, and major business organizations concluded that the significant expenses involved would not provide a commensurate return on investment for our community.”
The last time the World Cup came to the U.S. was 1994 and FIFA raked in more than $1 billion, with the Los Angeles area supplying hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.
LA is back in the running with a bevy of other cities from Atlanta to Cincinnati to Seattle. The 2026 World Cup final is expected to be in MetLife Stadium in metro New York.
This time around, not every city that was part of the North America winning bid will host a World Cup match because the 23 proposed host cities will be reduced to 16 host towns by the time the worldwide soccer tournament is staged.
As of now under the winning tri-country bid, U.S. has 17 host cities and Mexico and Canada have three each.
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Las Vegas and the Raiders threw their hat in the ring because the Raiders’ 65,000-seat stadium could have accommodated the World Cup matches and Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman has been touting Las Vegas as a soccer city.
The first-year Las Vegas Lights FC of the United Soccer League is playing in downtown at Cashman Field and will be the sole sports tenant at Cashman in 2019 when the Las Vegas 51s Triple A baseball team leaves Cashman for a new $150 million ballpark in Downtown Summerlin.
The 2026 World Cup will include 80 matches played by 48 teams, with 60 of the games in the United States and 10 each in Canada and Mexico.
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