The final vuvuzela has only just been blown in South Africa, but already, football followers are looking forward to Brazil in 2014, and beyond.
Next week, FIFA will start evaluating bids for both the 2018 and 2022 events, with an announcement expected on the 2nd of December this year.
Australia has lodged a bid for 2022, and assuming a European entry wins the right to hold the 2018 Cup as expected, then Australia would find itself in a five-way race to host the spectacular. Qatar, along with previous hosts, USA, Japan and South Korea are also interested.
Business researchers IBISWorld has been on the World Cup bandwagon recently, and its latest projections sees $36.56 billion in spending across the local economy, if Australia's 2022 bid is successful.
That would dwarf the $9.1 billion of spending generated by the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
Investors may find opportunities on the sharemarket with those stocks linked with these economic benefits.
IBISWorld predicts the construction industry would be the biggest winner, with three quarters of total spending at almost $27 billion.
Major infrastructure projects like the building of new stadia, especially in Blacktown, Canberra and Perth, along with upgrades to other stadia, rail and road links would drive that spending.
Licenced venues are predicted to be the second largest beneficiaries with total spending of around $2.8 billion expected as Australians head to their favourite bars and clubs to watch the games.
A rush on new televisions and related home entertainment equipment would see consumers spend 1.9 billion dollars in retail outlets.
IBISWorld says anything draped in green and gold would see a pick up in sales, and interestingly, it also sees a big rise in online and digital subscriptions to paid media content.
Australia's 2022 bid features cities in six of its eight states. That would lead to a dramatic increase in demand for travel operators as players and a projected half-a-million fans criss-cross the country to follow their teams.
As a result, rail and air transport companies for example are expected to see spending of $1.5 billion dollars.
Speaking of international tourists, IBISWorld expects they'll spend $9,000 each during the event.
For now though, all this is just wishful thinking until early December when we find out who will win the right to play host to the FIFA World Cup.
And speaking of winners, well done to Spain for a great game against the Dutch….even if the team did knock out Portugal in the round of 16.
