 At FIFA's request, the tournament's organizers had originally planned to use five smaller college football venues on the East Coast located in a single time zone.The final match would be staged at RFK Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C.Following the success of the inaugural women's soccer tournament at the 1996 Summer Olympics, which had high attendances and culminated in 76,489 watching the gold medal match, the organizing committee chose to use larger stadiums instead and received 15 bids in 1997.