Hope everyone is doing ok.


Less then a month until we find out if we’ll host the World Cup.

how big can this be for football in the country?

Our bid sucks yet again. My money's on Brazil, the tournament has never been held in South America and it'll help justify all those stadiums built for 2014.

Not sure if you trying to be funny but 2014 springs to mind.

I think it's clear as day I'm not not talking about the mens tournament. 

I have as high hopes as I can have for a bid that includes a cricket oval in Launceston and an under criteria capacity Hindmarsh.

Only chance for it to be in Oceania though.

You've seen it?

Here's the bid book: https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/bid-book-australia-and-new-zealand.pdf?cloudid=fwtyuwa9pb3encyeqlwc

FIFA's bidding criteria: https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/guide-to-the-bidding-process-for-the-fifa-women-s-world-cup-2023tm.pdf?cloudid=gfuxttuixv3s10jvidbn

The key part, as far as I'm concerned:

If we exclude the two ovals (Launceston and Wellington), the under criteria Hindmarsh, the temporary stadium in Christchurch, the pile of dirt that used to be called the SFS as well as Dunedin and Hamilton (who are unlikely to meet the infrastructure criteria with 28 and 0 five star hotel rooms in each town respectively) we have *checks notes* six eligible venues in the bid.

If we add the two ovals back in we just scrape through the minimum criteria of 8 eligible venues, but getting a D instead of an F doesn't mean we're a better option than the competition.

It's a pity, because I'd say that the following existing stadiums would make a pretty compelling ten 20k+ seat venue bid, with the possibility of SFS and a fix for Adelaide's stadium situation able to be added later, and not having to throw our lot in with the Kiwis:

North Queensland Stadium*
Lang Park (Suncorp)
Robina Stadium (Gold Coast)
Hunter Stadium
Stadium Australia
Western Sydney Stadium
Canberra Stadium
AAMI Park
Kardinia Park
Perth Oval (HBF Park)

*Assuming Townsville has the required hotel inventory, which I assume it does as a strong tourism region, ditto Gold Coast. Canberra surely would with all the government business and Geelong can be considered part of metro Melbourne.

I imagine our problem was being unable to lobby for sufficient support from state/territory governments, with Queensland and Victoria only putting up one venue each, SA not willing to provide a compliant submission with an upgrade/replacement for Hindmarsh, a golden opportunity missed for Tasmania to invest in a modest downgradable rectangular stadium gone begging, Canberra not participating at all, and the absolute shitstorm with stadia in NSW, which is a shame because you'd think they'd all want to be seen to be walking the talk with women's sport these days.

We have done FIFA no favors 
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/australia-bid-fifa-events-reform-150609060937741.html

and I’m sure they have long memories 

Two years and a change of governance for FFA 
May change things. But has FIFA not had a revamp since then

Vote set for June 25th: https://www.fifa.com/who-we-are/news/fifa-women-s-world-cup-2023tm-council-to-select-host-s-on-25-june-2020

In the most competitive bidding process in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup™, four bids are in the race to host this showpiece competition:

• Joint submission by Football Federation Australia and New Zealand Football
• Submission by the Brazilian Football Association
• Submission by the Colombian Football Association
• Submission by the Japan Football Association

Word is main contenders.

My money was on Brazil, but their idiot president's management of Coronavirus won't have helped, whereas us getting through relatively unscathed would count in our favour, however it also would for Japan, especially after potentially pulling off a successful Olympics. Hopefully by 2023 it won't be an issue, anyway.

Colombia absolutely do deserve to host a WC of some sort, fair to say it's the most football mad country that has never hosted, but it can't be justified at the moment with their very outdated stadia.

Just for a moment  consider if we won... all the AFLers in panic over their WAFL... 

I still remember the story when Hal first started... a young mother with baby in pram was strolling by the Yarra ... it was a pleasant sunny afternoon, when all of a sudden a large Rottwelier broke free from their masters grip and charged towards the baby in the pram, it looked bad for the baby, the Rottwelier lunged at the baby the young  mother was screaming... out of the blue a young man in his late teens dives across and saves the baby and cheering by all those around at the courage and bravery of the young man.

By chance a Herald Sun reporter was there and came running over to get the story... in the struggle with the dog the Rottwelier had died.

The reporter says do you follow Carlton and we shall have ..heroic Carlton fan saves mother and baby... the boy replied I don't support Carlton... OK brave Richmond fan saves baby... I don't support Richmond..

OK says the reporter who do you support... Melbourne Victory...

Head Line next day '''''Soccer thug Kills family Pet""

Out of those four choices, Aust/NZ looks like the safest spot in the universe.
Japan will have their hands full with the Olympics, but who knows, that might count in their favour.
At the moment, I'd have Aust/NZ clear favourites by a country mile.

Japan probably a decent shot at it. 

winning this bid would be the start of the return of football. 

Choose your fighter:

Lol. Christchurch is pretty bad as well, their stadium is a temporary set up yet somehow it's going to host a world cup. NZ rugby refused to play a Lions Tour test match on the south Island and just had 2 at Eden Park.

Not to mention the infrastructure on the south Island is pretty atrocious as well, Christchurch is still sadly a basketcase 10 years after the earthquake and Dunedin might have a cool stadium but it is still a glorified village. I'm yet to learn how they are supposed to cope with their tiny airport and limited accommodation. 

According to our own bid book, there are only 601 hotel rooms in Dunedin. How's that going to work?

Repurpose University dorms and build campervan parks is how they do temporary accommodation for events, Dunedin is famous or infamous for their university and student culture. I'm surprise the number of hotel rooms is that low though.

From the bid book: Dunedin                                  
Existing and planned hotel rooms by 2023 
28       -  5 Star Rooms
496     - 4 Star Rooms
77      - 3 Star Rooms
2433 - Other Rooms
3,034 - Total 

From the bid book: Launceston                   
Existing and planned hotel rooms by 2023  
0           -  5 Star Rooms
1084     - 4 Star Rooms
832      - 3 Star Rooms
831 - Other Rooms
2,747 - Total 
https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/bid-book-australia-and-new-zealand.pdf?cloudid=fwtyuwa9pb3encyeqlwc

Does it say "Other Rooms", or "Other (Airbnb & cabins)" in your link?

There are 601 hotel rooms in total across the three classes in the bid book for Dunedin, and 2,433 "Other (Airbnb & Cabins)".

How many motel room's not mentioned, is that in others?

Dunedin has already hosted a group at the U20 football world cup back in 2015. So they must have the capacity to do it. 
I'm sure even U20 WC players and staff would demand a reasonable level of facilities.
Also alot of super rugby teams in the past, spend the lead up to Dunedin games based in Queeenstown. Plenty of hotels there.
Dunedin also hosted a bunch of games successfully at the 2011 Rugby world Cup. This included england with there big player and staffing contingent. 

yes Yes YES lets win the world cup!! Make it happen FFA !

Motels are just hotels with car parks, so they'd be part of the hotel room count, surely.