The reason US Bank Stadium isn't hosting any World Cup matches actually stems back to 2018. At the time, Minneapolis was one of 18 U.S. cities in the running to host matches this summer, but just one day before the U.S., Canada, and Mexico submitted their final bid, the city pulled out, citing “unacceptable demands” from FIFA, which included having to spend upwards of $150 million to pay for the logistics, security and infrastructure required to host the world’s largest sporting event. And while some places, like Kansas City, spent over $86 million in taxpayer money to foot this bill, in Minnesota, state and local politicians were far more hesitant to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to host six World Cup games. Which meant it would have been up to corporations and private donors to come up with that money. The only issue was that, at the same time FIFA needed commitments to host the 2026 World Cup, Minneapolis was in the middle of raising $50 million from those same corporations and donors to host the 2018 Super Bowl, which it put on without any direct public subsidies. Not to mention, FIFA was reportedly requesting that a two-month “no-go” zone be created around U.S. Bank Stadium, where no other events could be held, meaning other massive sporting events hosted this summer, ranging from WWE Summer Slam to the Savannah Bananas, likely couldn’t have happened. Still, that hasn’t stopped state and local officials today from asking “what if?” In fact, two state legislators (one Democrat and one Republican) have even introduced a bill that would take the extra state sales tax revenue generated during sporting events and put it into an account that could be used to bid for future events, which they claim would help that state recapture an estimated $430 million in lost revenue from events like the the Men’s World Cup the state has missed out on hosting. I guess there’s always the 2031 Women’s World Cup…