mrfunktastick

Choose the 10 to 12 stadia you would want for an England World Cup 2018 bid. I would want it spread around the country and you have to remember that only one city can have 2 stadiums.

My choice would be

London and the South

1) Wembley
2) Emirates
3) One of St Marys or Proposed New Pompey ground or Madejski Stadium or a new Britol Stadium (All would need expansion)

Midlands

4)One of Villa Park or Proposed New Birmingham Ground
5)Proposed New Nottm Forrest Ground

North West

6) Old Trafford
7) New Anfield
8) New Everton Stadium(technically not in Liverpool)

North East

9) St James Park
10) Stadium of Light

retired_traci29

hopefully the withdean and kenilworth road will form integral parts of the bid

retired_nini59

Old Trafford is technically not in Manchester so I'd include the CoM. So what you said plus that and a new Hillsbrough or Elland Road.

retired_DonWon

Withdean wont be a football stadium by then ofc, the new Brighton ground could be used, much better town for the hordes to visit than Southampton and Portsmouth obviously.

mrfunktastick

i doubt there will be the need to make the brighton ground big enough as they would never fill it after the world cup. it currently is being built to be about half the size needed of 40k

retired_nini59

oh and if I could I'd use 16 stadia, 2 in each locality for each group, thus allowing us to eliminate travelling before the knock out stages, plus keeping the pitches fresh.

Eg:
Group A, London (probably England's group)
Wembley
Emirates

Group B, London (2)
Stamford Bridge
Upton Park

Group C, South
New Portsmouth ground
St Mary's

Group D, Birmingham
New St Andrews
improved Villa Park

Group E, Liverpool
New Anfield
New Everton ground.

Group F, Manchester
Old Trafford
CoM

Group G, North East
Stadium of Light
St James' Park

Group H, Yorkshire
Improved Elland Road
Improved Hillsbrough

Could scrap the second London group for another midlands one of Nottm Forest's new ground if it emerges + another (possibly Walkers Stadium). Or have the Olympic Stadium and possibly Twickenham as grounds for this group if it's suitable. The whole plan would need a lot of grounds expanding though, certainly the yorkshire grounds which might not be suitable if they are still doing crap in the leagues, could always substitute Hillsbrough for a new Bramall Lane. Villa Park needs expanding, these grounds might only host 3 games each though so don't want to build stadiums that aren't needed just for the group stages.

2nd Round games would be:
Wembley
Emirates
Old Trafford
New Anfield
St James' Park
Villa Park
One in Yorkshire/Nottingham
Twickenham if available/another at Wembley

Qtr Finals
Wembley
Old Trafford
St James' Park
Villa Park

Semis
Wembley
Old Trafford

3rd place playoff
New Anfield

Final
Wembley

would be awesome, but it'd be very hard to get the stadia up to scratch for so few games at each. But most are in place already, and some are going to be built regardless.

retired_k_20_p

tbf, travelling around England much easier/quicker then most countries

retired_nini59

true, but our trains aren't as good as say Germany, if Aus or the US got it (or China) everyone would be flying everywhere, so the whole no travelling bit is a good environmental plus for our bid.

retired_k_20_p

True :thup:

cbhoyhern

Add Leicester's Crisp Bowl to the Midlands lot.