World Cup hype building in Geelong
Courtesy: Geelong Advertiser Author: Jeff Whalley
MORE than 100,000 people will be able to party at World Cup live sites along the Waterfront and Eastern Beach under plans to bring the event to Geelong.
The Geelong Advertiser understands a series of venues is being considered for the Fan Fest sites, which need to cater for between 20,000 to 50,000 people and provide live broadcast of all 64 World Cup matches.
Areas around the Kardinia Park precinct are also being considered.
The news comes as the public yesterday threw its support behind a new Facebook group ‘Let’s Bring the World Cup to Geelong’ which garnered more than 1100 members in 24 hours.
High-profile sign-ons to the site, run by Lara MP John Eren, include Melbourne Victory players Adrian Leijer and Nick Ward.
Mr Eren yesterday said the group was about showing Football Federation Australia and FIFA how much support there was for the State Government’s push for Skilled Stadium to be a venue.
The 24 members of the FIFA Executive Committee will decide who hosts the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup in December this year.
“Hopefully this will snowball. In only 24 hours we’ve already captured the public support,” he said. “You read some of the comments and people are saying ‘is this possible?’ You have to believe you can do it, everything is possible.
“We need to say to the world ‘here you have the perfect mix, alongside the MCG in central Melbourne, you also have this great venue in the second largest city.”
The Lara MP also said the debate over where to have live sites would help regenerate Geelong’s public places.
The FIFA is yet to decide its preferred venues for the World Cup and are yet to respond to the State Government proposal.
The Football Federation of Australia will have to present its bid to the FIFA executive at the end of November.
There are eight other bidders for the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals including Belgium/Netherlands, England, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Portugal/Spain, Russia and the United States.
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