In reply to Rudyjax

Rudyjax said:

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Not sure LA Seattle LA gives us the home soil advantage.

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We obviously don't like it for selfish reasons, but this makes a ton of sense for geographic reasons.

All of our games in the same time zone at sites that are virtually guaranteed to be mild that time of year. This choice maximizes the chances that our guys will be fresh for knockouts.

Our group is gonna be like Kuwait, Venezuela, Slovakia and we'll have a 2/3 chance to go through by finishing third...so I hope "home soil advantage" is not a critical factor.

Everyone has two years to get their powder ready.


Dre_mod has spoken!

europeans landing in newark, new jersey for the world cup final pic.twitter.com/WbPbVFKPXc

— chris✌🏼 (@sonohedman) February 4, 2024

Lol. They're renaming AT&T temporarily.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2024/02/05/att-stadium-will-change-its-name-to-dallas-stadium-for-world-cup-not-everyone-is-happy/

In reply to jeffk

jeffk said:

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Lol. They're renaming AT&T temporarily.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2024/02/05/att-stadium-will-change-its-name-to-dallas-stadium-for-world-cup-not-everyone-is-happy/

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That's hilarious.

In reply to byfLuger41 Don't think I won't bookmark my post for 2 years just to say I told you so.

That's what fifa always does. Any naming rights deal for a stadium gets changed for world cup purposes. If England had the World Cup, games wouldn't be played in Emirates Stadium or Etihad stadium but North London Stadium or South Manchester stadium.

In reply to ChipFTAC01

ChipFTAC01 said:

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That's what fifa always does. Any naming rights deal for a stadium gets changed for world cup purposes. If England had the World Cup, games wouldn't be played in Emirates Stadium or Etihad stadium but North London Stadium or South Manchester stadium.

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They're disgruntled because it's not Arlington Stadium or DFW, etc.

Dallas refused the stadium and Arlington raised sales tax for it. That's why they're not happy.

Right, I understand. But that's just the reality of being a suburb. They aren't going to rename Gillette Stadium "Foxboro stadium" Metlife won't be called East Rutherford Stadium and Levi's won't be called Santa Clara.

In reply to ChipFTAC01

ChipFTAC01 said:

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Right, I understand. But that's just the reality of being a suburb. They aren't going to rename Gillette Stadium "Foxboro stadium" Metlife won't be called East Rutherford Stadium and Levi's won't be called Santa Clara.

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So you're saying they should be gruntled.

In reply to jeffk

jeffk said:

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Lol. They're renaming AT&T temporarily.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2024/02/05/att-stadium-will-change-its-name-to-dallas-stadium-for-world-cup-not-everyone-is-happy/

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FIFA would be happy to call it AT&T stadium as soon as the check clears.

In reply to ChipFTAC01

ChipFTAC01 said:

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Right, I understand. But that's just the reality of being a suburb. They aren't going to rename Gillette Stadium "Foxboro stadium" Metlife won't be called East Rutherford Stadium and Levi's won't be called Santa Clara.

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No. FIFA doesn't recognize any named stadium as no one paid them naming rights. If someone paid them $20MM to call ATT the DeathStar they would.

I don't doubt that Fifa would cash the check but I can't recall there ever being a Pepsi Stadium or a Coca Cola Park foe the world cup. This isn't any different than all of the German stadiums will be called by their city's name this summer rather than Allianz or Red Bull or Veltins.

In reply to Mathguy64

Mathguy64 said:

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ChipFTAC01 said:

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Right, I understand. But that's just the reality of being a suburb. They aren't going to rename Gillette Stadium "Foxboro stadium" Metlife won't be called East Rutherford Stadium and Levi's won't be called Santa Clara.

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No. FIFA doesn't recognize any named stadium as no one paid them naming rights. If someone paid them $20MM to call ATT the DeathStar they would.

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They've never done this.

Which is really saying something, because if they didn't take naming rights on all the temporary stadiums the Indonesian slaves built in Qatar, why on earth would they start now?

(I suppose the cynical take could be that they need to make up for all the lost bribe money for this WC, but either way, this would be an unprecedented first for them if they took money for naming rights).

In reply to JJxvi

JJxvi said:

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KC getting a quarterfinal seems dumb. (Would rescind this opinion if its a set up for the US to potentially play there)

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Not dumb. Arrowhead Stadium is huge and the soccer connection of Lamar Hunt is there. Lamar was the primary benefactor in the 94 World Cup bid. He led the whole damn thing. Clark (Lamar's son and KC Chiefs chairman) led the Kansas City bid. Dan (the youngest son and FC Dallas chairman) led the Dallas/Arlington bid.

Both got thrown bones with KC getting a quarterfinal and Dallas getting the most games.

In reply to deadbq03

deadbq03 said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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ChipFTAC01 said:

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Right, I understand. But that's just the reality of being a suburb. They aren't going to rename Gillette Stadium "Foxboro stadium" Metlife won't be called East Rutherford Stadium and Levi's won't be called Santa Clara.

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No. FIFA doesn't recognize any named stadium as no one paid them naming rights. If someone paid them $20MM to call ATT the DeathStar they would.

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They've never done this.

Which is really saying something, because if they didn't take naming rights on all the temporary stadiums the Indonesian slaves built in Qatar, why on earth would they start now?

(I suppose the cynical take could be that they need to make up for all the lost bribe money for this WC, but either way, this would be an unprecedented first for them if they took money for naming rights).

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They can't. It's not their stadium to name.

I have a feeling there are clauses in at least some contracts that don't allow temporary sponsorship names. Like, if I were AT&T I'd make sure FIFA or someone can't temporarily rename my stadium T Mobile Stadium in the future.

In reply to Mathguy64 I'll make it more specific:

Never in their history have they taken money from the existing naming rights holder…

And the last WC provided them ample opportunity to get creative with the Qatari about naming rights since so many stadiums were built and destroyed just for the WC… and they still didn't do it.

So while I'm sure they absolutely have a price, I don't think it's likely they want to do these deals.

In fact, I think it's probable that many of their TV deals around the world prohibit it… to your point, I'd like to think they'd be happy to take someone's money, but I suspect they can't… or rather… there's no way that someone is gonna outbid the TV providers.

FIFA will force these stadiums to switch to natural grass for the tournament. It should give the NFLPA leverage to get all the NFL stadiums to do it.

In reply to ChipFTAC01 Arlington is a lot closer to Fort Worth than Dallas. If they can't call it AT&T or Arlington, they should call it Fort Worth Stadium.