January 16 – Tickets for Miami, a controversial choice to host matches if the United States bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, will sell out in 24 hours, a leading official there has predicted.
The Florida city’s Dolphin Stadium was chosen ahead of several other grounds in United States cities that have more of a football culture but Marcelo Claure, a mobile telephone mogul who was behind the city’s failed bid to win a franchise in the Major League Soccer (MLS), claimed that its citizens would support the tournament.
He said: ”People here will support soccer if it’s world-class soccer.
“It’s second-tier soccer they’re not so keen on.
“Besides, the local fans will not be relied upon to fill the seats.
“The average stadium in the US bid has 78,000 seats, which means five million total available tickets, and there will be no trouble finding takers.”
Tom Mulroy, who played for several US clubs, and was the official spokesman the last occasion America hosted the World Cup in 1994 supported Claure’s theory.
He said: “It’s always been a challenge to sell tickets here in South Florida because we are so diverse and people want to watch only their home team, but these five million World Cup tickets will be sold out in 24 hours, guaranteed.
“So, while we may not have a reputation for selling tickets, we are an A-plus student in all the other categories – gorgeous stadium, hotels, training sites, proximity to Latin America, ability to throw global parties.
“This is what we do here.
“We throw Super Bowls, and we will be great at throwing a World Cup.”
The Dolphin Stadium, which was built in 1985, was considered to host matches in 1994 but in the end missed out because of baseball.
Sunil Gulati, the President of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), said: ”At the time, Miami had probably the best soccer stadium in the country; it would have been a great venue for World Cup because Joe Robbie [the owner of the Miami Dolphins] built it for soccer and was a huge soccer fan,.
“He was one of our founding members and came on a fact-finding trip to Italy with us.
“But baseball was being played at the stadium, and it would have been almost impossible to work out that conflict.
“But everything has changed now.”
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