Arizona Sports Alliance to Assist USA Bid Committee in Bringing FIFA World Cup to United States

Arizona Sports Alliance to assist USA Bid Committee in bringing FIFA World Cup to United States Signature Campaign underway to build national support for the bid to host the World Cup  PHOENIX, Ariz. (September 17, 2009) - The Arizona Sports Alliance, in association with Global Spectrum, managers of University of Phoenix Stadium, announced today that it will lead local efforts to bring the world’s most popular sporting event back to the United States for the first time since 1994.  The U.S., along with numerous other countries, is vying for the rights to host the FIFA World Cup in either 2018 or 2022.  The Greater Phoenix/Glendale area is one of 27 potential host communities selected to advance to the next stage in the bid process, should the United States be awarded the event in one of these years.  The next bid phase includes live presentations in New York City in November.  A nation wide campaign, led by the USA Bid Committee, is under way to demonstrate the United States’ national support in landing the World Cup.   As part of the bid process, the USA Bid Committee is calling on local communities to assist them in gathering 500,000 online signatures from across the country.  The local goal for the Arizona Sports Alliance is to gather 50,000 signatures from within Arizona.  The signatures, and other local and national marketing efforts, are designed to demonstrate to the world that the support of soccer in the United States is strong enough to support hosting the FIFA World Cup.  Citizens can sign the online letter of support at goUSAbid.com.   “We are very excited at the prospect of being a FIFA World Cup Host Community and look forward to assisting the USA Bid Committee in their efforts to secure this great event for our country,” said Jon Schmieder, President of the Phoenix Regional Sports Commission.  The Sports Commission is one of five founding members of the statewide Arizona Sports Alliance.     In order to support the USA’s bid to host the FIFA World Cup, the Arizona Sports Alliance is asking Arizona residents to visit goUSAbid.com and sign the online petition.  The petitions are tabulated by zip code to ensure Arizona based signatures are properly credited to the efforts to bring FIFA World Cup matches to the Valley of the Sun at the University of Phoenix Stadium.   # # # Contacts:                                                                                                                                                 Jon SchmiederPhoenix Regional Sports CommissionArizona Sports Alliance(602) 258-6272jon@phoenixsports.org  Scott NortonGlobal Spectrum/University of Phoenix Stadium                                                                                     (623) 433-7108snorton@universityofphoenixstadium.com