A blessed embarrassment of stadium riches for World Cup 2022

I’m not much an activist, demonstrator or crusader, but I may become one today. I’m thinking of starting a movement based on a friend’s seemingly wild-ass suggestion: Let’s start a movement to host the World Cup in Texas!

Why not? There are a dozen facilities I can think of right off the top of my noggin that can host World Cup matches. Hell, there are four in Dallas alone, including one that hosted games in 1994 (and has since increased capacity), two others that have hosted separate NCAA Soccer Championships and one that very well could host the opening ceremonies or the final in 2022 (Jerry World, aka Cowboys Stadium.)

So, as the FIFA inspectors move around the country over the next two days, nodding and prodding and finishing in Dallas and Houston, let’s get the signs drawn up and stir up the greater media campaign: “Bootin’ balls Texas style in 2022!”

Obviously, this is tongue in cheek. No, there will never be a World Cup in Texas – just like there will never be secession here, despite the occasional populist rhetoric of a certain standing governor.

But this does illustrate a point, doesn’t it? If the wealth of available U.S. stadiums is so lush that one state could conceivably host a World Cup, then the awarding of a World Cup here is a slam dunk. In soccer parlance, of course, it’s a “sitter.”

I’ve written before that the United States will almost certainly be awarded the 2022 World Cup. I think we all know that 2018 is going to Europe, probably to England. World soccer’s power structure resides in the Old World. That’s just the way it is. I’ll wager my prized set of 70s Dutch soccer jerseys that I’ll be somewhere in Europe in the summer of 2018 watching the tournament. (As Jason Kreis coaches the Americans and as Freddy Adu twitters from Turkey about how he looks forward to working hard and earning his first World Cup cap in 2022 … but all of that is a different story.)

So the 2022 World Cup will land here. As I’ve said before, the unprecedented financial possibilities will be too hard for FIFA to ignore. The suits in Zurich simply will not miss the opportunity to generate $1 billion in ticket revenue.

And how is that possible? Thanks to an unmatched stadium situation. Specifically, it’s the collective capacity that is unmatched around the globe.

This is the best fact I’ll ever write in regards to the World Cup venue selections (and I’ve written it before, after talking to U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati): The United States could successfully host a World Cup in 2022 and not use a single stadium from the roster of 1994 venues. Think about that.

That’s where the embarrassment of riches in terms of facilities stands in this country.  That’s why this week’s inspection tour is really just a “check the box.” The 2022 World Cup is coming here.

Uh, to the United States, that is … not just to Texas.