CHICAGO (Reuters) – The World Cup would benefit the United States by at least $5 billion if the country is chosen to host the 2018 or 2022 global soccer tournament, the U.S. bid committee said on Tuesday.

The U.S. bid group, which called the estimate “conservative,” also estimated that between 65,000 and 100,000 total new jobs would be created in the various host cities during preparation and operation of the tournament.

“The numbers delivered by this study fully support our initial estimations,” David Downs, USA Bid Committee executive director, said in a statement. The USA Bid Committee paid for the study by a unit of AECOM Technology Corp.

Earlier this month, the English bid committee said hosting either tournament would benefit that country by the same amount.

According to the U.S. study — which looked at the potential impact of the games in the prototype cities of Atlanta, Phoenix and Washington — total economic impact for any one host city would range from about $400 million to $600 million in today’s dollars.

That range is based on 12 host cities staging five to six matches, as well as the creation of 5,000 to 8,000 jobs created during the event’s operation, the committee said.

The U.S. group is weighing 27 cities, including New York and Los Angeles, as potential host cities for its bid, which is due to the soccer world body FIFA on May 14, 2010. The next World Cup tournament, which includes 32 teams playing 64 matches, will be played next year in South Africa.

The United States is one of many countries hoping to stage either the 2018 or 2022 tournaments, with a final decision by FIFA in December 2010.

Other countries that have submitted bids or plan to include Australia, England, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Netherlands-Belgium and Portugal-Spain. Qatar and South Korea have submitted bids to host only the 2022 tournament.

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