I'm in Cincinnati for one night, so it's a good excuse to wonder about football in this city. The other kind of football was on tonight, and we came across a lot of glum looking Cincinnati Bengals fans leaving the Paul Brown stadium after a comprehensive defeat. But it's only pre-season. Pre-season. Another American thing. They even keep track of pre-season win/loss records as though it's an actual league.
The city has a new football team, FC Cincinnati, that plays in the United Soccer League, a step below Major League Soccer. And the Paul Brown Stadium is one of 49 stadiums across the US that has been asked to declare whether they would be interested in being a host city for the 2026 World Cup as the US, Mexico and Canada prepare their joint bid. There is no shortage of massive stadiums here. This one has a capacity of 65,000. Sure, it was an 11 hour drive (with stops) but it makes me excited about how accessible a North American World Cup would be.
Half way to Cincinnati I was happy to get a few minutes of WiFi to check Aston Villa's result today. I was only happy because they won 4-2. If they'd lost I'd have been cursing the WiFi. The joy of a bit of internet reminded of days long gone by when I'd be desperately hoping I would get the BBC World Service signal on the radio on a Saturday afternoon so I would get the day's results. New medium, same nervous expectation.
Tomorrow, Louisville, Kentucky. Any football there, I wonder.
No comments:
Post a Comment