US Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati revealed 70 stadiums that had been contacted but said the final list of cities probably would not be chosen until three-to-five years ahead of the tournament.

 

He said: "We no doubt will end up considering venues, stadiums, that don't exist today.

 

"Not in the same way that some of the other countries bidding are, because they're talking about building venues for the World Cup, but given the turnover with top NFL stadiums and top university stadiums that are likely to be built between now and 2018 and 2022, we think that eminently possible."

 

South Africa needed to build or rebuild every stadium for next year's tournament, and Brazil is contemplating a massive construction project before hosting in 2014.

 

England and a joint bid from Spain and Portugal are viewed as the favorites to host in 2018, with the United States more likely to stage its second World Cup in 2022.

 

FIFA's ruling Executive Committee is to decide both hosts in December 2010.

 

Gulati said: "We're not expecting people to spend, you know, $500 million or $1 billion to build a stadium for four, five, six, seven games if it doesn't make economic sense in the long term in the United States, nor would we encourage that.

 

"We are not asking, as will be the case in many places around the world, for cities and states to spend millions or tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure or venues.

 

"Given the nature of the United States, we're not going to need to build any hotels, any highways, any telecommunications centres, any training fields or any of those sorts of things to support a World Cup.

 

"Clearly, they'll be some modifications or upgrades will be needed in some venues, but that's eight, 10, 12 years from now."

 

 

Nine stadiums were used for the 1994 World Cup in the United States, including Soldier Field (pictured), which hosted the opening match and which would be the venue for the finals of the Olympic football tournament if Chicago is chosen to host the 2016 Games.

 

Gulati hopes there could be more venues in the next U.S. World Cup, especially since the tournament expanded from 24 teams to 32 for 1998.

 

He said: "The range I think people are talking about is nine to 12.

 

"I think in a country like the United States, it's possible that that could be a little bit more.

 

"That would ultimately be FIFA's call. But a number of candidate cities we would put forward to FIFA would be greater than that.

 

"It would be a continuing process in conjunction with them."

 

Apart from the US, England and the joint bid from Spain and Portugal, other formal expressions of interest in bidding for 2018 or 2022 have come from Australia, Japan, Qatar, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia and South Korea.

 
There is also another joint proposal from Belgium and Netherlands.