Moncton and Halifax are both hoping to host events when the FIFA Women's World Cup comes to Canada in 2015. Many are excited at the prospect of such a major international sporting event coming to Canada, but wonder whether the smaller Maritime cities can live up to the challenge.

Tens of thousands of soccer fans turned out to watch the American and Japanese teams battle it out at the FIFA Women's World Cup final match in Germany over the weekend. The U.S. suffered a heartbreaking loss, the Japanese experienced a thrilling victory and people's Twitter feeds went into a frenzy as fans furiously typed out their take on the game.

That excitement could be matched here in the Maritimes in four years when FIFA comes to Canada.

"To get this big bid would be an amazing experience, not only for the girls but for the city as a whole," says soccer coach Katie Heckman. "I think it would rev up and amp up soccer in the province."

Canada was awarded the right to the host the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup back in March. Officials want to hold the international tournament in six different cities across the country and both Halifax and Moncton are in the running.

But even before Halifax has a shot, it needs to build a stadium.

A citizen's committee is currently assessing whether there is a business case for a new stadium in Halifax. The committee plans to release its findings to city council next month. Council will then decide how to proceed.

If city officials decide to go ahead with the stadium, at least 20,000 fixed seats need to be built, which would translate into the necessity of major ticket sales.

Trade Centre Limited is looking after the Halifax bid and the company's major events director says he isn't concerned about selling tickets.

"There's no reason to believe that Canada would see any less influence of international visitors than Germany did over the past number of weeks," says Director Grant MacDonald.

The chief executive officer of Soccer Nova Scotia agrees, noting the tournament will attract local soccer fans and non-soccer fans alike.

"The women have managed to elevate the game to such a level," says CEO George Athanasiou. "If you were watching the final game, you couldn't tell if it was played by men or women."

The cities of Edmonton, Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Ottawa have also expressed interest in hosting the games, making it a total of seven cities vying for the honours. Only six will be chosen, but regardless of which city doesn't get selected, the World Cup will surely be on its way to the Maritimes in 2015.

MacDonald acknowledges the city of Moncton has a leg-up on Halifax because it already has a stadium, but he believes both Maritime cities could easily co-host the tournament and open the door for more large-scale, co-hosted events in the future.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Garreth MacDonald