News and Notes 1/12/10

A couple of interesting tidbits from today:

• Denver made the "final" cut for the U.S.'s bid to host the 2018 or the 2022 World Cup. Countries are submitting one bid for both as FIFA will choose the hosts for both at the same time (one last money grab for the older FIFA board members). 18 cities are in the bid, but only 9-12 will actually be used during a World Cup, so another 6 or so cities will be "cut" if the U.S. wins the bid. The cities I think are most likely to be cut are San Diego, Phoenix, Baltimore, Nashville, and Tampa. The 6th city is a toss up between Kansas City, Atlanta, and Denver IMO. Denver isn't near any of the other cities likely to make the cut and I'm not sure what FIFA will think of the altitude. On the flip side Colorado would be a good training base for teams with the number of complexes around here, and its a good mid-way point for teams that may have to play games on either side of the country.

• The Rapids will be removing the temporary bleachers from above the stage pad on the North end of DSG Park and replacing them with tiered terraces. The North end will become the new home of the supporters groups (other than Class Vi who will keep their spot in Section 108). This is a great move for everyone involved. It gets more viability for the groups, it gets them away from the "family-friendly" crowds that complain about their antics, and it gets them closer to the team, who enter and exit the field through that section. Honestly I can't figure out why they didn't design The Dick this way from the start.

• The MLS Superdraft is Thursday. It will be streamed on ESPN360.com. The Rapids hold two 2nd round picks, along with a 3rd and 4th round pick. A common target for the Rapids in mock drafts is Nick Cardenas, a Colorado native playing at San Diego St. He's a center back though and we already have 7 of those on the roster.

• The 2010 jersey designs were released by Adidas. There are no real changes to the Rapids jerseys, as expected since this is the 2nd year of the standard 2 year cycle for jerseys. The only noticeable change in the graphic mock-ups in the catalog is that the long-sleeve home jersey replaces the 5280 on the back with a Rapids in a script font and the road jersey doesn't show anything on the back. Since these are just mock-ups and not pictures of the actual jerseys I'm think they are just showing off what other possibilities could be added. I expect we'll see 5280 on the back of all the jerseys this season.