An online petition circulating for two days and signed by 661 graduate and undergraduate students, post-doctoral fellows, staff, faculty and alumni has persuaded Giusseppe Carrubba, co-owner of The 750 campus pub, to broadcast all 64 games of the 2006 World Cup live, including games beginning at 6 a.m.

The only on-campus pub will offer special breakfast and lunch menus for earlier games. It has also obtained a sponsorship from Budweiser to offer promotions and discounts on beer for the matches.

Even as the World Cup coincides with finals and the beginning of summer break, Carrubba is convinced that students will come to the pub to watch, especially graduate students who don’t have as many finals and often stay on campus for the summer.

“I would be surprised if there were less than 100 people here for the major games,” Carrubba said.

The petition was organized by the World Cup at Stanford Planning Committee (WCSPC), essentially a makeshift group of students that came together to establish a central game-viewing location on campus.

Organizers first considered Bechtel International Center, but decided it was too small and fans would have to bring their own food and drinks. Going off campus would be a hassle as well. The 750 owners initially expressed skepticism at the demand for viewing the games, but were soon convinced by the surprising number of student signatures on the petition.

“You can’t say no to that many people,” Carrubba said. “Hopefully, people will come and have a donut and coffee and help us cover our costs.”

The petition was only open to Stanford community members. And according to Yosem E. Companys, a fifth-year doctoral student in management science and engineering and a leader of the WCSPC, 90 percent of the signatures came from students. Additionally, 167 people have joined a Facebook.com group for 2006 World Cup fans.

“I did not know many of these guys who helped organize the petition drive,” Companys said. “We have become friends through the process. It was really an emergent effort.”

Opening the pub earlier than its usual 5 p.m. time for the World Cup matches is contingent on turnout. Hoping to entice more students, there will be prizes and contests for the craziest fans and successful predictions of scores and winners. For especially popular games, the pub will broadcast matches with a projector unto a big screen in the Graduate Community Center’s Havana room.

WCSPC members have contacted Budweiser, EA Sports and Zazzle about possible sponsorship agreements, according to Companys. They also plan to contact Nike, Apple, Palm, Google, Amazon, VISA, SGuaro and Yahoo.

The Graduate Student Council (GSC) voted last night to give the group $500 to be spent on $2 tickets to subsidize the cost of meals for grad students. The GSC may authorize more funding at its June 21 meeting.

“The goal is to create a place where undergrads, graduate students, alumni, faculty and staff from diverse national origins, backgrounds and experiences can come together in a festive and exciting environment to cheer their favorite team and drink, eat and have fun,” Companys said. “The World Cup is all about fellowship, excitement, laughter and tears.”

The 750’s broadcast of the World Cup will begin tomorrow at 9 a.m., featuring host country Germany taking on Costa Rica.