USA Men's Soccer Thread

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.

Here’s one scene within the first minute:

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.