Don't buy the USA argument. Football tried it in 94 and 25+ years later there's still been no revolution. Rugby won't have anything like the publicity that got either. As well as that, it's probably just too big as a country to be much fun for travelling fans (although that's not an insurmountable obstacle). If we're going for a time zone in the Americas, I'd much prefer Argentina, although whether that would be viable I'm not sure (any Argetines willing do discuss that further?).
I don't have any number to hand, but I'd have thought that soccer in America has come on leaps and bounds since the 1994 WC. If nothing else, it directly led to the establishment of MLS, which appears successful. It's the third best attended league in the country and the seventh best attended soccer league in the world. TBH I was ready for someone to hold up soccer as an example of why an American world cup
would be a good idea. I'd want to do a lot of research before construing this as an endorsement of following suit. It seems like FIFA managed to secure a huge investment in setting up MLS in exchange for the 1994 WC, even then, it nearly went through. Having a population of about 50 million soccer starved hispanics / latinos mush have been handy, latterly, so must the safety concerns with American Football.
Despite what the Marcator projection leads you to believe, the area of the contiguous states of the USA is about the same as that of Australia. I don't recall complaints about travel in 2003, although if you call Perth an outlier, it was only played in half the country, with the knockout phase confined to an even narrower area. As you say, a similar solution could be found in the USA. Afternoon games on the east coast would work for European TV markets.
I love the idea of a WC here in Ireland, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
I was as confused as anyone when 2023 went to France. Ireland was certainly third best in terms of stadia, but I'd have might have made up for that by being able to raise more per ticket and from hospitality. I'd be very interested to see how the financial projections stacked up against the other two bids. All I can imagine is that the numbers stacked up best for France, both in terms of profit and ticking the attendance box. Travel would have been a dream for all involved in Ireland and it would have ticked the box in bringing it to a country that had never hosted the tournament before. Would there be any enthusiam for a joint bid with some / all of the other home nations? I'd have thought that such a bid would be hard to defeat.
