Chicago Shut Out Of World Cup Bid

By Marcus Gilmer in Miscellaneous on Jan 12, 2010 9:20PM

There will be no FIFA World Cup soccer at Soldier Field for a while. Chicago got dealt another international sporting event blow today when the U.S. World Cup bid committee announced the 18 cities it will include in its final bid as host cities and Chicago is not on the list. Nevermind that Chicago was a host city for the 1994 World Cup - not to mention host of the Opening Ceremonies (as well as several international friendly matches and World Cup qualifiers). Indianapolis and Kansas City were the only Midwest cities to make the cut. During the live announcement, "Olympic fatigue" was mentioned as a factor (ouch).

The U.S. is bidding for the rights to either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. So who did make the cut? In (sort of) geographical clockwise order: Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Indianapolis, Nashville, Atlanta, Miami, Tampa Bay, Houston, Dallas, KC, Denver, Phoeniz, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

Joining Chicago in the finalist discard pile are Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit, Jacksonville, Oakland, Orlando, St. Louis and San Francisco.