Thanks to copy-protection measures, it’s not possible for me to do a screen-grab of the replay on my computer…but they can’t stop me from taking a picture of the display.
A couple of other camera angles in the first couple of minutes catch glimpses of lower-cost seats (upper levels, behind the goals) that were more populated.
Was it 5000? Hard to confirm just by watching the replay.
Towards the end of the match, the seats shown in the picture were significantly more populated, although many of the occupants of those seats seemed to be dressed in Mexican colors.
I found this photo that shows more of the stadium at the start of the match. Sad.
There are devoted American soccer fans on this forum but the broader US population is probably only interested if it is a “big match”? In contrast, a US-Canada consolation match in Toronto or Vancouver would probably have been a sellout.
It’s a consolation match in a competition that isn’t well known among average Americans AND it was being held at a time that directly competes with the first weekend of March Madness, which has a huge draw in the US.
It’s understandable why attendance wouldn’t be that great. Holding the match in a venue as large as that…
Football is maturing in the US (to the extent that I only get eye-rolls when I refer to it as football, rather than confused looks), but one of the things that has helped has been the move to hold matches in appropriately-sized venues, so that there isn’t the psychological drag of seeing empty seats, and to have supply/demand pressures help support ticket prices.
This would be a prime example of the psychological drag mechanic.
Thursday’s excuse was, “It’s a Thursday in SoCal at 4PM. No one’s gonna make that time.”
So, Sunday, um, well it was a nice day, why spend it indoors?
Again, I’ll say that the Thursday tix were priced way too high, and that the resale market (via TM) was doubly too high. I looked, and yeah, that would have cost me a day off to get there at that time. Plus parking.
Last year’s Copa is probably a better comparison for soccer attendance in the USA.
Currently, they only work when prices need to go up which is beneficial for the seller ( TM ). Nothing at all for dropping prices. Way too sticky.
Need a mechanism for buyers to bid a price.
Brian White is now the most popular American soccer player in Vancouver after his four goals yesterday. He has been a standout for the Whitecaps for a few years. We do not boo the US anthem here.
Gonna put this here, since the USMNT is under the all-spices of USSF.
New Referee Abuse guidelines. No, not “How to Abuse Referees.” The new penalties for abusing referees.
For USSF, it covers players and Coaches.
In my spare time, I volunteer as a Referee and a Referee Administrator (also a Referee Instructor) for an organization under the USSF. We will also be implementing this policy, and expanding it to include spectators (that will be harder, as ID’ing them will be tough).
My concern is more about how to make sure everyone knows the Speed Limit, analogously.
Bruce Arena thinks the US and USMNT has a “culture” but does not describe it.
“And I think when you’re a national team coach, you need to know your environment, you need to know the animals you coach, and we’re lacking that. If you’re an American coaching the U.S. team, you know the culture, you know the pride and how important the national team is. I think when you bring in somebody from the outside, they don’t understand it, especially in our country, because we’re so different.”
Huh.
“…and how important the national team is”? Is it? To the rest of America, or just to the folks in the USSF?
Or is he saying that Poch does know the level of importance the rest of the country puts on it, that Poch might be overestimating it since he comes from a different country?
The Canadian team will be without at least its three best players from various European teams. It will be primarily sourced from MLS teams. I don’t think many folks care about this competition.
In terms of selling jerseys? Sure. No one comes close to name recognition.
But, compared with, “Do other teams always have several players with an eye or two on Pulisic, as they do Messi?” No. Would be great if he were THAT good. And, you know, he is to the lower-level CONCACAF teams. But no team in the top 20 would focus that much on him.
Will be interesting to see how seriously Canada and the USA take the upcoming CONCACAF competition. I have zero interest as there have been so many CONCACAF competitions recently and the style of play is not always beautiful.
As someone noted, this was probably the ‘C’ team for the US. It definitely wasn’t the ‘C’ team for Switzerland. Realistically, we’re not going to have the ‘A’ team together until the first game of the World Cup and they’re going to have to throw it together in the camp before and have their shit together from the very start. That’s asking a hell of a lot from a group that, for all its talent, still struggles to edge most mid-level teams in CONCACAF.
The USMNT kick off the World Cup in 366 days. No clue who’s in our group, but saying “they’ll finish 3rd in the group and have to hope they’re not one of the 4 worst 3rd-place teams” looks like a realistic expectation even for the ‘A’ team.
