CONCACAF Gold Cup not likely to move out of United States any time soon

HARRISON, N.J. — CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani held a press conference with reporters at Red Bull Arena ahead of the opening night of the Gold Cup. As often happens at events like these, there were as many questions about the future as there were about the present.

One of the bigger questions on the table is when CONCACAF will next move Gold Cup games out of the United States. This country has hosted all or part of every Gold Cup ever contested and has shared just three. Mexico hosted some games in 1993 and 2003, and Canada — Montagliani's home country — got one doubleheader in Toronto in 2015.

There's no doubt that having the tournament in the United States is a cash cow for CONCACAF as expats from Mexico and a swath of Central American nations fill stadiums from coast to coast.

But for sporting purposes, Mexico and Canada have plenty of venues to host the tournament. Costa Rica has a modern national stadium plus a few older stadiums that are big enough for the occasion. Or what about a pan-Caribbean Gold Cup? Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados all have venues that could do the job.

Montagliani said he hopes to see the Gold Cup move around some day. But it was hard to avoid getting the impression that such a day might not come for a while.

He spoke at length on the subject. Here are his remarks in full:

"I think it's something we need to really look at. We have played [abroad] in previous versions [of the Gold Cup]. Two versions ago, we had a match day in Toronto.

"But I think it's an opportunity with the Gold Cup. Obviously, I think the core will probably still be in the U.S. for obvious reasons, but I think there's an opportunity with the Gold Cup to have venues in the Caribbean, and venues in Central America. Not only to bring the Gold Cup to those regions but also use the Gold Cup as an opportunity to develop not only football in those regions but a possibility to develop infrastructure in those regions with investment into stadiums and so forth."

Montagliani was then asked what the requirements — or at least the ideals — would be for countries wishing to bid to host. His answer:

"A lot of that is technical stuff. I'm not a technician when it comes to infrastructure. So we would obviously put out a RFP [Request For Proposals], with standards whether it be lights or field conditions or security or all those kinds of things. It's no different than what we do now when we send out RFPs for other Gold Cups to cities. There are certain things that have to be provided.

"We would use the same standards, being cognizant that if we need to help in those areas, we probably would. But I think that we can't lower standards. We need to just help people get to the standards."

Another talking point has been whether the Gold Cup will remain a biennial event or move to a quadrennial format, like the European and South American national team tournaments. The conversation has been fueled in part by the success of last year's Copa América Centenario, which combined six teams from CONCACAF with 10 from South America.

That spurred CONMEBOL, the South American confederation, to make the "traditional" 2019 Copa América a 16-team event. Though the six teams to be invited aren't known yet, if all or most of them come from CONCACAF, there will be serious momentum to make a combined tournament a regular occasion. And if that happens, the Gold Cup might have to become a quadrennial event.

For now, Montagliani said, that isn't on the table:

"Obviously, we're here for the 2017 [edition], and I'm pretty excited about that. We know that we have 2019 around the corner as well, and we're already starting to work on that in terms of looking at the format as well.

"I've been clear that we're looking to expand the format to 16 teams. I don't think anybody is looking [at] a quadrennial cycle here. That's the reality.

"I think we're always reviewing our tournaments. We just did that at FIFA. We increased the World Cup to 48 [teams]. So obviously, we're very committed to our next two Gold Cups. But we're always reviewing, not just the format but also how we can make things better, not only for the confederation but for the members within the confederation."