Faster

Just because of where rugby is strongest in the US, New York should host the final. Semis should be in San Francisco and Boston for the same reasons.

I am not sure I'd call Vancouver the frontrunner.

American venues are going to average 5 matches each. 60/11. 5 of the 11 will have 6 matches.

It is still gonna be 2. Its just like the current US situation where FIFA has yet to winnow the list down to 11 cities. The decision will come in May like with the US. I anticipate Vancouver and Toronto being selected. They have better more modern stadiums, they are larger cities. Have better international connections and are closer to other American hosts. Only way Canada will us all 3 is if FIFA changes the match distribution.

Canada's plan was only ever 2 venues. Especially after Montreal and Vancouver dropped out. It was suppose to be 2 in Canada, 11 in the USA and 3 in Mexico for 16 total.

Its a condition of Edmonton getting provincial funding. Has to host the knock-out stage matches and 5 matches total. Not a chance in hell Canada will go with 3 cities and have only 2 matches in either our 1st or 3rd city and 3 matches in the other and let the second city of Alberta take all the major matches.

Montreal was never a candidate. It was Toronto and Edmonton. Now it will be Toronto and Vancouver.

Had it in January. Super fun. Experience of a lifetime. Got to live history. 1920's all over again.

Yea, I've seen that mentioned before. Saudi Arabia being the only Arab country more conservative then Qatar. I'd never travel there.

My first complete watch through was Sydney. Still special, but it has a cheesy pre-bubble 90's vibe. Athens was beautiful and Greek. Also you cannot really compare the Russians going over their Soviet history to the Greeks not being comfortable with their Ottoman oppression. It would be weird, like it would be weird for any of the Baltic states to proudly display their Soviet occupation or Imperial Russian possession. Russians on the whole have a rather distorted view of their Soviet past, one of pride and admiration. The musical opening of London is probably the single greatest sequence I have seen to date. I don't remember Sochi well. I was well versed in my distain for Russia even then. The Georgian incursions, the Ukraine meddling. Baltic provocations, democratic backslide and more were already on full display. Oh and the anti-Gay ****.

I find this very troubling for Canada as a whole. The idea that because it is 'indigenous-lead' should not preclude it from public accountability. The cities of Vancouver and Whistler will still be the primary hosts of these Games. Metro Vancouver is only 1.9% indigenous. How is it in a democratic society those 11,000 people carry more weight then the 500k other Vancouverites? If this is the kind of optics this bid will have and have it push an agenda of minority rule. I hope the IOC picks SLC or Sapporo.

1) This de-russification of the sporting world now is going to have long term consequences for the power and influence of Russia within the world of sport. Russia and Italy have always had oversized influence in the sporting world. This will damage that. 2) Because of Covid, this is a major world championship year. Russia will not be at either of the marquee Worlds 3) The friendliest IFs have turned rather quickly on Russia (ISU, IIHF) 4) I guarantee broadcast and sponsorship partners have had a lot to do with this. Majority of the sponsorships come out of the West and with sanctions sponsoring events in Russia is going to be a hard pass.

Her entourage has already killed her career. How long has any of the others from her lasted?

It was made because the other contenders at the time made veiled threats to after after corruption in the Yeltsin family.

Maybe Xi can be the savior here. Because I don't think China wants to lose their economic markets to the destruction of Western Europe and North America because Putin launches nuclear weapons. How the **** has Ukraine wanting a European liberal democratic future devolved into threats of nuclear weapons use? Like WTAF.