Although most of the attention is focused on 2015, the FIFA Women’s World Cup of that year is not the next FIFA event Canada will be hosting.
As part of the 2015 hosting agreement, Canada is also putting on the 2014 FIFA Women’s u20 World Cup. And, there is a decision that needs to be made soon regarding that event.
The 2015 World Cup involves 24 teams and requires six host cities. In 2014 there is just 16 teams and only four host cities. So, the CSA needs to trim the six 2015 hosts – Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal and Moncton – down to four. They have indicated that the decision will be made by the end of the year.
Ottawa made things easier by pulling itself out of the running recently. The stadium refurbish in the capital is not expected to be done in time to give the host group their enough time to properly prepare for 2014. So, the CSA only needs to drop one city.
What criteria needs to be considered?
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The most important consideration should be to remember what the purpose of giving the 2014 u20 World Cup to the senior World Cup hosts is – as a dress rehearsal. The men have the Confederations Cup. This is the women’s equivalent.
With that in mind it would seem important to give both Winnipeg and Moncton a chance to host. Neither city was involved in the 2007 men’s u20 World Cup, the last time Canada hosted a FIFA event.
The smaller venues of Winnipeg and Moncton will suit the youth tournament better as well. It’s always better to play in front of small stadiums that are packed than big stadiums that are half empty.
So, that leaves one of Vancouver, Edmonton and Montreal to drop. Geography will likely put Montreal into the mix – the CSA will probably look to have a western and eastern hub.
That leaves Vancouver and Edmonton. Both cities have a history of supporting women’s soccer and both would do well in 2014. It’s a coin flip that no one wins.
However, there might be a solution that includes all five cities.
Award the two semi-finals, third place game and final to Vancouver – it’s a big, but not too big stadium, has the bigger population and more exhaustive media reach -- and then have that city drop out of consideration for group games. They will have Whitecaps games to fit in anyway, and have lots of hosting experience.
Instead of tying BC Place up for three weeks, it would probably only be lost to the Caps for a single weekend (semi-final on Wednesday and Thursday, third place game on Saturday night or Sunday morning and final on Sunday night).
Each of the other four cities would host a group and one quarterfinal. So, Vancouver gets the four biggest games of the tournament, but three less games overall than the other four cities.
To illustrate, the tournament would look like this:
Group A - Moncton
Group B - Montreal
Group C - Winnipeg
Group D - Edmonton
Quarterfinals
Q1 - A1vB2 - Moncton
Q2 - C1vD2 - Montreal
Q3 - B1vA2 - Winnipeg
Q4 - D1vC2 - Edmonton
Semi-finals
S1 – Q1vQ2 - Vancouver
S2 -- Q3vQ4 - Vancouver
3rd place game – Vancouver
Final – Vancouver
An additional benefit to this format is that it would allow the organizers in Vancouver time to sell ticket packages while the tournament is going on. The momentum of the media coverage would likely help push those four games to sell-outs.