Time For Gold Cup Rotation

Mexico won their seventh Gold Cup on Sunday night, defeating Jamaica 3-1 in the final and all I could think of as I watched that final was is it time for a Gold Cup rotation. Would the final have been the same matchup had this tournament taken place in Mexico or Canada or perhaps co-hosted by Costa Rica and Panama or Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago? Every Gold Cup has been played in the United States since the tournament’s inception in 1991, with Mexico and Canada playing co-hosts in a few editions, Canada’s first “co-hosting” occurred during this year’s edition. Perhaps it is time to consider rotating the bi-annual CONCACAF tournament to give other nations in the federation an opportunity to host and show off to the region.

The United States has hosted all 13 editions of the Gold Cup, with Mexico co-hosting twice and Canada co-hosting once. Before the Gold Cup, CONCACAF used to hold the CONCACAF Championships, which was rotated amongst nations. Ten CONCACAF Championships were held before the Gold Cup, eight of them had Central American hosts, with Honduras being the only two –time host during those years, while two of the editions weren’t hosted, and the winners of the World Cup Qualifying were named regional champions. The United States’ didn’t start winning CONCACAF championships until they began hosting them, with 1991 being their first region championship. The previous best result for the U.S. was being runner up in 1989 to Costa Rica in World Cup Qualifying, good for runner up in CONCACAF championship.

Every other region in the world rotates their confederation’s tournament amongst member nations, either on a set order by country process (alphabetical by country in CONMEBOL) or by a bidding process (all others). CONCACAF is the only region that keeps its tournament in one host country, and while it’s great for U.S. fans, it muddies the authenticity a bit by giving the home team the home field advantage. The U.S. didn’t start winning CONCACAF championships until the Gold Cup began, previous to that, the U.S. had never won any of the ten previous championships not hosted in the U.S. Confederation tournament hosts have won 45% of the tournaments, with the Oceana region hosts winning 57% of the time and CONCACAF hosts winning 52% of the time, that number increases to 54% during the Gold Cup era. There is certainly an advantage to being the host country in confederation tournaments.

Realistically only three or four countries in the region could actually host the entire tournament from start to finish, which is a big reason why the United States has been the permanent host for all 13 editions. The tournament could be hosted by Mexico or Canada, both countries have the infrastructure to host a tournament of the Gold Cup’s size and the stadiums to hold anywhere from 20,000 fans during group stage games to 100,000 fans for the final, Mexico’s Azteca Stadium. Allowing either Mexico or Canada to host a Gold Cup on would be a good start to rotating the tournament. Mexico has hosted World Cups in the past and can surely host this tournament and have the facilities for teams to be housed and practice. Canada hosted the 2007 U20 World Cup and just wrapped up hosting the Women’s World Cup a month ago, so they are more than capable of hosting this tournament.

Expanding outside of the three major North American countries, the confederation would have to begin considering co-hosted tournaments amongst at least two countries, however, most likely more. While a country like Costa Rica would be an ideal location for the Gold Cup due to their current success in the region, passionate fans and relative low crime levels, however, the country only has two stadiums that can hold more than 20,000 people, with the largest having a capacity of 35,000, the Estadio Nacional in San Jose. Costa Rica would have to co-host the tournament with regional neighbors such as Panama, Nicaragua or Honduras.

The largest stadium outside of United States, Mexico and Canada is Cuba’s Estadio Latinoamericano with a capacity of 55,000. It is hard to imagine Cuba being able to host tournament games in any other venue, let along any Gold Cup games in the near future. However, that changes if Cuba is amongst three or four countries hosting the tournament, perhaps a Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Jamaica hosted Gold Cup.

The ultimate decision comes down to finances. The United States provides the best opportunity to maximize profits for CONCACAF due to the United States melting pot of ethnicities from the region and the amount of disposable income that fans have and are able to shell out for tickets. The biggest financial decision is perhaps the media and advertising dollars that can be made in the U.S. during the tournament.

Former CONCACAF president, Jeffrey Webb, admitted in 2014 that “The decision to have it [Gold Cup] in the United States has been solely for financial reasons.” In addition, Webb was in support of giving other nations in the region a chance to host the tournament. This possibility may be on hold now that Webb is no longer the president for the region after being one of the FIFA officials arrested for corruption charges.

In order to improve the region’s integrity, on the heel of the FIFA corruption charges that pointed to many CONCACAF officials, it would be in the region’s interest to begin rotating the tournament and showing that while it is all about money, it really isn’t all about money.