Raleigh Stadium/Arena/Sports Discussions

As cool as that would be, I don’t think that’s realistic. Final bid selections are supposed to be announced next spring. I can’t see MLS announcing a league expansion and/or an existing team deciding to move to Raleigh and have that stadium be ready to host this sort of event in the next 8 months. There’s a reason why FISU specifically asked to use existing venues.

The map on their flyer lists cities that will host each event. It doesn’t list specific venues, but maybe that’ll give us some clues -including how the Dail complex won’t be used. Duke’s track facility only seats 500 people permanently, but does seem to have plenty of room for temporary seats; the map makes it look like that could be the organizing committee’s game plan:

This also makes me wonder if the Games only needs big, dozen-thousand-seat stadiums for their opening ceremonies rather than actual events.


EDIT: Looks like FISU may have a reason to pay special attention to American bids: a desire to tap into the NCAA’s market. That’s another interesting narrative we could take advantage of, perhaps, once the competitive process starts this September.

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