How Salt Lake City — twice an Olympic host — got snubbed for the World Cup

• That was decided in 2018, when FIFA eliminated Salt Lake from consideration, along with 16 other U.S. cities that wanted to host matches.

Friction point: Our proposed venue was Rice-Eccles Stadium at the U — by far the smallest U.S. arena to be considered, with 45,800 seats at the time.

• America First Field, Real Salt Lake's home stadium, is even smaller, with 20,000-25,000 seats.

By the numbers: Of the host cities, only Toronto is using a stadium that small.

• The smallest U.S. stadiums — in Miami and Boston — seat 65,000.

Zoom out: SLC is in decent company, with some of America's biggest sports cities watching the World Cup from afar, Fortune reports.

• Chicago, Detroit and Phoenix also are sitting out the World Cup.

Yes but: Salt Lake's exclusion may sting a bit more because none of our hometown heroes made the U.S. men's national team roster.

• The omissions of Diego Luna and Zavier Gozo are particularly disappointing for RSL fans.