US organizers sharpen pitch for World Cup return

The Associated Press, New York, U.S. | Tue, 05/11/2010 7:09 AM | Sports

 The hopes of the U.S. football community were shipped to Switzerland in two packing crates, filled with 30 five-volume sets of the official bid plus 94 binders containing contracts and copies.

Those 1,940 pounds (880 kilograms) of documents will be handed over Friday to FIFA president Sepp Blatter ahead of the Dec. 2 vote that determine whether the World Cup returns to the United States for a second time in 2018 or 2022.

Each five-volume bid book totals 1,250 pages. The colorful photo and graphic filled-set lists the 18 proposed host cities announced in January, plus 64 base camps and 54 venue-specific training sites.

Stadiums, mostly built for NFL teams, average 76,000 in capacity. Organizers project record attendance over 5 million and revenue in excess of $1 billion.