[slide]

Two items of interest:

One, I note with muted interest that the World Cup Finals kicked off in Russia today, with the hosts beating Saudi Arabia 5-nil.  As we discussed at length when it happened, the USMNT did not qualify for the Finals.

Two, I noted with slightly more interest that FIFA decided that having another World Cup Finals in a sparsely populated desert nation (Morocco) is probably too much, and as much as they may have been tempted to punish the US for blowing the lid on the massive corruption racket that is FIFA, they awarded the 2026 World Cup Finals to a joint US/Mexico/Canada bid, that is provided that we can stay out of a war with our Northern Neighbor (who, it is alleged burned down the White House during the War of 1812).

Now that we have a trackless field, there is no chance that Stanford Stadium gets to host again, and, in any case, a lot has changed since 1994.

But I do have fond memories of watching World Cup matches at the Rose Bowl.

BC

48 teams, existing venues and other infrastructure (final game at MetLife?) plus 11 billion other reasons evidently attracted FIFA's attention.  given FIFA's MO, the latter was probably highest on their list

[slide]

Two items of interest:

One, I note with muted interest that the World Cup Finals kicked off in Russia today, with the hosts beating Saudi Arabia 5-nil.  As we discussed at length when it happened, the USMNT did not qualify for the Finals.

Two, I noted with slightly more interest that FIFA decided that having another World Cup Finals in a sparsely populated desert nation (Morocco) is probably too much, and as much as they may have been tempted to punish the US for blowing the lid on the massive corruption racket that is FIFA, they awarded the 2026 World Cup Finals to a joint US/Mexico/Canada bid, that is provided that we can stay out of a war with our Northern Neighbor (who, it is alleged burned down the White House during the War of 1812).

Now that we have a trackless field, there is no chance that Stanford Stadium gets to host again, and, in any case, a lot has changed since 1994.

But I do have fond memories of watching World Cup matches at the Rose Bowl.

BC

48 teams, existing venues and other infrastructure (final game at MetLife?) plus 11 billion other reasons evidently attracted FIFA's attention.  given FIFA's MO, the latter was probably highest on their list