Bristol City Council will decide whether to gamble £250,000 on England's 2018 World Cup bid – just two days before host city bids are due in at Wembley.

The carrot? A bumper payday of £150 million, 50 per cent more than previously predicted, according to chief executive of the England 2018 bid team.

Original council estimates pointed to an injection of £100 million for the local economy if successful but an economic report commissioned by the England bid team claims each candidate host city would benefit to the tune of £150 million.

Bristol's bid to stage World Cup matches at a proposed new stadium in Ashton Vale has to be submitted on November 26, but hangs on official sanction from the council at a cabinet meeting scheduled for November 24.

Next week the bid team's report to the council on the anticipated benefits and costs of host city status will be released to councillors, and the public, for consideration ahead of a live debate which will also be available live on the internet.

Last Wednesday the council planning committee agreed it was 'minded to approve' the new stadium in the south of the city.

The live webcast was watched by a local record of 5,000 people, although the decision was stated to be independent of any bid to host World Cup football.

Regardless, it means Bristol is able to submit its bid with possibly its greatest hurdle overcome, subject to certain conditions, and can more fully tout the benefits of a brand new World Cup worthy stadium.

However, the England 2018 team's campaign is suffering from a funding gap after the Government backtracked on initial promises to provide £5 million towards the anticipated £15 million cost of the bid, with the rest of the cash coming from football.

Now, only a £2.5 million loan is on offer from Whitehall.

The host cities chosen on December 14 will be asked to contribute £250,000 before March next year but this was already pencilled into the marketing budget of the bid from the start.

The bid team will now have to make up the difference from within football or through corporate sponsors if the Government's arm can be twisted no further.

A city council spokesman confirmed yesterday that the issue will be debated by the cabinet at a meeting that will be open to the public, a week on Tuesday - November 24.

He said all party leaders had agreed for the bid team to investigate a potential bid ahead of the deadline for submissions to the England 2018 team.

Bid chief executive Andy Anson said: "Hosting the FIFA World Cup in England would bring huge benefits to all parts of the country.

"Our initial financial study shows it would benefit the country's GDP by £3.2 billion and that locally, those cities hosting matches could expect their local economy to benefit by as much as £150 million each."

The 15 cities who have applied to be hosts alongside Bristol are: Birmingham, Derby, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle/Gateshead, Nottingham, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Sunderland.