The USA World Cup bid has a lot going for it. Stadiums in abundance. Infrastructure up to the task. The capacity to make enough money that even FIFA should drool at the possibilities. Aside from that pesky "just hosted in 1994" problem, there are no holes in the American bid. If FIFA chooses to go in another direction, it won't be because the United States isn't the best place to hold the 2022 World Cup. (Warning: lots of images below)
And with China stating a desire to bid for the 2026 World Cup (which would effectively eliminate Asian bids for 2022, should FIFA want to make sure China has a chance), there's every reason to believe the United States will be awarded another tournament.
But if there's any contender with a real shot of upsetting the USA, it might be Qatar. The tiny Persian Gulf nation has oil money to burn and plans for breathtaking climate-controlled stadiums.
Qatar is smaller than Connecticut, has a population of less than a million and has extremely hot, humid summers. To counteract the weather problem, their bid includes plans to build stadiums that use solar power to cool both players and spectators. They even built a small, 500-seat prototype to test the zero-carbon technology.
There are five planned stadiums in the bid. Today they presented the FIFA inspection team with models for those stadiums.
