World Cup 2022 Running Thread

@darrenrovell I hope FIFA picks Qatar for 2022 hoping it leads to a definitive pronunciation. My favorite? CUTTER!


@MikeVacc One of my favorite Yankee memories was listening to Roger Clemens try to pronounce "Qatar."


@TylerKepner @MikeVacc Clemens was the first I ever heard pronounce it "cutter". We all thought he was wrong, but I guess not. Hmm...

 

Exactly. Lake Placid, LA, Atlanta, Salt Lake City (and let's be honest, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver) all put the lie to the theory of anti-Americanism. Seven Olympics in 34 years either in the US or Canada, all in ideal time slots for US TV markets.

 

Someone needs to remake KISS' "Strutter" to stake a claim to that pronunciation.

 

Well, they can be anti-American & still want our money.

 

Maybe ESPN should turn of the spigot.

 

OK, then it puts the lie to the theory that anti-Americanism prevents the US from getting these events.

 

I fail to see how events in Canada count as U.S. events. They are the ideal dodge for international sports organizations, as they suit U.S. broadcasters, but there are fewer annoying Americans to deal with.
Chicago didn't get a sniff of the 2016 games. The World Cup looks gone for what is likely my lifetime, if 2030 is the earliest possible year. I think Salt Lake might've been our last international biggie for awhile.
Noted without comment: Iraq War began in 2003.

 

Qatar already hosts important sporting events, like the tennis tourney at Doha, as well as the F1 GP there. There's a lot of money there.

I watch the cycling tour of Qatar each year and you know.. it's nicely organized, but the public interest there is zero. It's only the princes who care. So yeah.. everytime they ride there there is no crowd near the roads, just empty desert roads. At the finish there is usually like 20 people max. It's pretty sad.
It will be different with the world cup with supporters from all regions of the globe, but still.. I don't know whether they will be able to create an atmosphere of their own.
It is a safe place to be though, very tidy too.

 

Too late.

Gene's already been on the phone with the Cup organizers pitching a licensing deal to make it the official theme song of the 2022 Cup.

 

The fact that England only managed two votes shows the voters were pissed about the BBC broadcast.

The fact that Russia and Qatar won shows which oil-rich countries could pay the biggest brides bribes to the most corrupt organization on the planet.

 

What do abnormally large brides have to do with this?

 

One of the voters is English, so they received only 1 of the other 21 votes. The US received only 2 of the 21 non-US votes.