17 Stadiums Announced for England’s 2018 World Cup Bid

December 16th, 2009 | by: Daryl | View Comments

The England 2018 World Cup bid team has announced its 12 candidate host cities and 17 proposed stadiums. These are the proposed locations for matches should we win the World Cup hosting contest.

Ready to read? The list of 12 cities and 17 stadiums is below. Most are already existing, but at least two will be newly built. One of them is in Milton Keynes, so if we do end up hosting then good luck to whichever team gets to play there.

City: Birmingham
Villa Park (home of Aston Villa FC)
Proposed Capacity – 47,300

Bristol
New Ashton Vale (new build) (Bristol City FC)
Proposed Capacity – 44,000

Leeds:
Elland Road Stadium (Leeds United FC)
Proposed Capacity – 51,240

Liverpool:
Anfield Stadium (current or new build) (Liverpool FC)
Proposed Capacity – 44,000 (current) 72,334 (new build)

London:
Wembley Stadium
Proposed Capacity – 84,700

Emirates Stadium (Arsenal FC)
Proposed Capacity – 60,000

New White Heart Lane (new build) or Olympic Stadium (Tottenham Hotspur FC)
Proposed Capacity – 58,000 or 66,995 respectively

Manchester:
Old Trafford (Manchester United FC)
Proposed Capacity – 75,979

City of Manchester Stadium (Manchester City FC)
Proposed Capacity – 47,717

Milton Keynes:
StadiumMK (Milton Keynes Dons FC)
Proposed Capacity – 44,000

Newcastle:
St James’ Park (Newcastle United FC)
Proposed Capacity – 52,409

Nottingham:
New Stadium (Nottingham Forest FC)
Proposed Capacity – 45,300

Plymouth:
Home Park (Plymouth Argyle FC)
Proposed Capacity – 43,874

Sheffield:
Hillsborough (Sheffield Wednesday FC)
Proposed Capacity – 43,946

Sunderland:
Stadium of Light (Sunderland AFC)
Proposed Capacity – 48,707

Got to say, I’m pretty happy about this. I was fully expecting the England bid to trade on the Premier League’s pizazz and be nothing but Premier League stadiums. Of course there are plenty of big names. Old Trafford, Wembley, The Emirates etcetera. But the presence of Elland Road and Hillsborough are an excellent nod to England’s football history, and the presence of stadiums in Plymouth, Bristol and Milton Keynes spreads things around nicely.