Why couldn’t NOLA be a WC host site?

Euros would have no chance fighting off gunfire in the french quarte! It would take them to long to find someone to sell them a fake knife permit before they got capped

Could the field be expanded enough to be soccer field size? Not sure the width is there

I also wonder how well the grass does in domes that aren't retractable. They did have a game or two at the Silverdome in 1994.

There is no soccer community in NOLA compared to others. All US sites have an MLS team.

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I don’t think New Orleans even placed a bid.

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New Orleans placed a bid, but it was quickly ruled out because…

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It’s not wide enough without removing seating. Plus rules state that matches have to be played on natural grass for World Cup.

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This.

NOLA didn’t get past the phase where specs were even issued. The size of city and size of soccer community (or lack there of) shut it down.

The renovation of the Super Dome made it impossible to have a regulation sized field according to FIFA guidelines. They were looking at a preliminary bid, but the money had been appropriated for the renovations and it couldn't go any further.

I think a lot of cities were given opportunities to host, like Chicago. However the costs were just too much for some. Maybe NO was in a similar pirogue.

FIFA wanted:
Zero Event Revenue: FIFA’s model mandated that the organization keeps nearly all revenues generated from ticketing, broadcasting, concessions, and parking.

City-Funded Operations: Host cities were required to pay the costs for all necessary public transportation, police and fire staffing, medical bills, and VIP escorts.

Massive Infrastructure Risks: FIFA required cities to absorb the financial burden for required stadium upgrades, fan festivals, and "no-go" zones.

New Orleans expressed early interest in hosting World Cup games. Here's why it didn't get far

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This was the first phase of the bid process back in 2017,” said Jay Cicero, the president/CEO of the GNOSF, “where it was really just a questionnaire about the size of your soccer community, the size of your corporate community, the support for soccer in your area. The population numbers.

“… We were hoping to get to the next phase where you’d actually receive the bid specs … (but) if you look at the host cities in the United States and Canada, they all have (Major League Soccer) franchises there. So they built this soccer community there and a level of professional soccer and soccer support over the years, and logically that’s why they were chosen to host these events.”

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New Orleans politicians + FIFA would have been a corruption match made in heaven.