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David Downs Discusses U.S.'s 2018-2022 World Cup Bid
Goal.com spoke to the executive director of the U.S.'s World Cup bid to get his take on the Chicago Olympic bid failure.
Oct 7, 2009 7:18:50 PM
By Noah Davis
Last Friday, the United States Olympic Committee received the surprising news that Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics was the first of the four finalists eliminated during the vote to determine the site of the event, eventually won by Rio de Janeiro.
In light of the Windy City's failure, Goal.com emailed David Downs, executive director of the USA World Cup 2018 or 2022 Bid Committee, to ask how the news affected his thinking about submitting the American plan to host the world's biggest sporting event.
"The bids are extremely different in nature and from the beginning we didn’t feel impacted by the outcome of Chicago’s bid," Downs, who served as president of Univision Sports for eight years before joining the Bid Committee last February, wrote.
There are many differences between hosting the Olympics -- a multi-sport/single-city event -- and the World Cup, which would take place across the U.S., but Downs noted something to be learned from Chicago's unsuccessful bid.
"The biggest lesson for us is that even a technically sound bid like Chicago’s can lose in a vote; we must never rest on our laurels, but instead we need to continue to work hard to demonstrate our capabilities, our passion, and the benefits to FIFA and the rest of the football world of a second World Cup hosted here in the United States," the executive said.
One advantage of the 2018 or 2022 bid is that no major construction funding will be required, since the potential host venues already exist. Chicago residents protested the city's plan to host the '16 Games because it would cost the city a substantial amount of money. These objections reportedly swayed some voting members of the International Olympic Committee.
Downs said he didn't believe the failure of the Chicago bid resulted from any anti-American sentiment in the international community, nor does he think the World Cup bid will suffer. He did, however, admit that the Bid Committee is working hard to overcome the worldwide opinion that American citizens don't value soccer as highly as they do other sports.
"We do think there may be a false perception in other parts of the world that football (or soccer, or fútbol) in America is a secondary or even tertiary sport," he wrote. "We intend to quantify for those doubters the tens of millions of Americans from all backgrounds who are involved with the sport in some way, from AYSO players & parents to Latin American immigrants to MLS fans (they aren’t mutually exclusive groups but they aren’t identical, either), who would want the World Cup back in the U.S. and who would support it through ticket sales and Fan Fests if we are fortunate enough to win the right to host the 2018 or 2022 tournament."
With the deadline to submit full details of the bid not until May 2010, the organizing committee still has six months of hard work remaining -- "not the least of which is delivering thousands of pages of contracts with cities, stadiums, training sites, and hotels."
The man leading the U.S.'s quest to play host to the World Cup for the second time in 30 years, however, gives the impression that he wants to pause just a second to commiserate with the Chicago group.
"We were rooting for their success as fellow Americans and we are disappointed for them," Downs wrote. "We understand just how much effort goes into a bid."
Then, of course, it's back to work.
Noah Davis covers the United States National Team for Goal.com.
For more World Cup news stay with Goal.com's dedicated coverage.
Last Friday, the United States Olympic Committee received the surprising news that Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics was the first of the four finalists eliminated during the vote to determine the site of the event, eventually won by Rio de Janeiro.
In light of the Windy City's failure, Goal.com emailed David Downs, executive director of the USA World Cup 2018 or 2022 Bid Committee, to ask how the news affected his thinking about submitting the American plan to host the world's biggest sporting event.
"The bids are extremely different in nature and from the beginning we didn’t feel impacted by the outcome of Chicago’s bid," Downs, who served as president of Univision Sports for eight years before joining the Bid Committee last February, wrote.
There are many differences between hosting the Olympics -- a multi-sport/single-city event -- and the World Cup, which would take place across the U.S., but Downs noted something to be learned from Chicago's unsuccessful bid.
"The biggest lesson for us is that even a technically sound bid like Chicago’s can lose in a vote; we must never rest on our laurels, but instead we need to continue to work hard to demonstrate our capabilities, our passion, and the benefits to FIFA and the rest of the football world of a second World Cup hosted here in the United States," the executive said.
One advantage of the 2018 or 2022 bid is that no major construction funding will be required, since the potential host venues already exist. Chicago residents protested the city's plan to host the '16 Games because it would cost the city a substantial amount of money. These objections reportedly swayed some voting members of the International Olympic Committee.
Downs said he didn't believe the failure of the Chicago bid resulted from any anti-American sentiment in the international community, nor does he think the World Cup bid will suffer. He did, however, admit that the Bid Committee is working hard to overcome the worldwide opinion that American citizens don't value soccer as highly as they do other sports.
"We do think there may be a false perception in other parts of the world that football (or soccer, or fútbol) in America is a secondary or even tertiary sport," he wrote. "We intend to quantify for those doubters the tens of millions of Americans from all backgrounds who are involved with the sport in some way, from AYSO players & parents to Latin American immigrants to MLS fans (they aren’t mutually exclusive groups but they aren’t identical, either), who would want the World Cup back in the U.S. and who would support it through ticket sales and Fan Fests if we are fortunate enough to win the right to host the 2018 or 2022 tournament."
With the deadline to submit full details of the bid not until May 2010, the organizing committee still has six months of hard work remaining -- "not the least of which is delivering thousands of pages of contracts with cities, stadiums, training sites, and hotels."
The man leading the U.S.'s quest to play host to the World Cup for the second time in 30 years, however, gives the impression that he wants to pause just a second to commiserate with the Chicago group.
"We were rooting for their success as fellow Americans and we are disappointed for them," Downs wrote. "We understand just how much effort goes into a bid."
Then, of course, it's back to work.
Noah Davis covers the United States National Team for Goal.com.
For more World Cup news stay with Goal.com's dedicated coverage.
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