Bluth Corporation World Bowl VII Host Bid
Bluth Corporation submitted a bid to host World Bowl VII, its first time bidding to host a major international sporting event. The bid was ultimately rejected, mostly due to a controversial proposal for the scheduling of the preliminary-round games.
Contents
Bid Details
Preliminary Round
Although the Bluth Corporation bid included a major innovation of hosting all preliminary-round games within the host country, its scheduling formula proved to be its most controversial aspect. Teams would be drawn into groups at random and would be ranked based on their pre-World Bowl ranking, would play every other team in their division once, and then would play inter-divisional games according to the following formula (assuming 4-team divisions; had the number of entries necessitated larger divisions the specifics would have been altered accordingly):
- Highest-ranked team in a division would play the lowest-ranked team in each of the other divisions
- Second-highest-ranked team in a division would play the second-lowest-ranked team in each of the other divisions
- Second-lowest-ranked team in a division would play the second-highest-ranked team in each of the other divisions
- Lowest-ranked team in a division would play the highest-ranked team in each of the other divisions.
Many national representatives objected to this formula, on the grounds that it would make playoff entry unreasonably difficult for newer teams that had not had an opportunity to earn a decent ranking; the Bluth Corporation bid team argued that this was as it should be, reasoning that new teams or teams that had previously performed poorly should have to demonstrate that they could compete with the powerhouses before taking a playoff spot that might otherwise have gone to a team that has historically already proven its mettle.
Playoffs
Playoffs would have consisted of all division winners plus enough wild-card entries to arrive at a multiple of two (or, if that proved to be infeasible, some other number to be determined before the beginning of competition). The tournament would be single-elimination, and re-seeded for each round. Tiebreakers for playoff entry and playoff seedings would have been, in order:
- Head-to-head record
- Point differential
- Record vs. common opponents
- Total points scored
- Total points allowed
Two-way ties remaining after the tiebreakers were all applied were to be settled through head-to-head playoff games. Three- or more-way ties would have been settled through an ad hoc decision made in consultation with all involved parties.
Stadiums
The following stadiums were to be used to host the games of World Bowl VII:
| Stadium | Location | Capacity | Surface | Championship | Third-Place | Semifinals | Quarterfinals | First/Early-Round | Preliminaries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanguard Memorial Stadium | Newport Beach, Shostakovich | 108,536 | Natural grass | 20px | 20px | 20px | |||
| The Stadium at Khlysty | Khlysty, Wagner | 97,435 | Natural grass | 20px | |||||
| Solzhenitsyn Field | Markov, Puccini | 92,144 | Artificial surface | 20px | |||||
| Farnsworth Field | Farnsworth, Albeniz | 89,690 | Artificial surface | 20px | |||||
| Titan Bowl | Titan City, Mahler | 77,143 | Natural grass | 20px | |||||
| Meerschaum Memorial Stadium | Hary Janos, Kodaly | 75,662 | Artificial surface | 20px | |||||
| Watchman's Memorial Coliseum | Unitas Valley, Kodaly | 74,100 | Natural grass | 20px | |||||
| Roderick and Hargrove Field | Attenborough, Albeniz | 72,388 | Natural grass | 20px | 20px | ||||
| The Royer Coliseum | Trapper John, Rachmaninoff | 70,000 | Natural grass | 20px | |||||
| Lipscomb Bowl | Alameche, Rachmaninoff | 57,980 | Artificial surface | 20px |
Reception
The Bluth Corporation bid was the first bid to be submitted, and it immediately drew criticism for its preliminary-round scheduling formula. Many found this objectionable enough that they suggested that if the bid were to be the only one submitted, it should be nonetheless rejected and that the bidding process then be re-started; this ceased to be an issue once the Dancougar bid was submitted. The concerns with the scheduling formula remained, however, and once the two submitted bids were put to a vote the Dancougar bid won in a unanimous decision.
