I wonder if the United States Soccer Federation should consider using Jacksonville's, Everbank Field for a future WCQ. The women's national team drew almost 19K for a friendly against Scotland on Saturday night. The men's team drew 45K for a friendly against Scotland last June. Those are very good numbers for a couple of friendly matches. I believe that if the USSF awarded a WCQ to Jacksonville,that it would be well atteneded. http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/article/297002/3/Fans-in-a-frenzy-over-USA-Womens-Soccer
Won't happen, not this cycle. I do, however, think that the USMNT friendly last year opened the eyes of USSF in terms of another location in the south that could host games/friendlies.
Heads up day for US Women's Soccer team in Jacksonville. http://jacksonville.com/sports/2013-02-09/story/heads-day-us-womens-soccer-team-playing-jacksonville
US women beat Scotland 4-1. http://www.news4jax.com/sports/US-women-beat-Scotland-4-1/-/475646/18484092/-/madg3mz/-/index.html
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...2Bpost&utm_campaign=Facebook-MLSsoccer%2Bpost Panama in Seattle Honduras in Salt Lake Mexico in Columbus Jamaica in Kansas City
Well they have been targeting those sites, deals just have yet to be finalized. If the USSF wants matches there I doubt they'll end up anywhere else. For the record I would have zero issue with Jacksonville I just strongly doubt it will happen
I would love to see the USA play Mexico in Jacksonville. I guarantee you that the game will sell out.
Certainly had a good crowd for Scotland last year, although it seems like the finalists have already been chosen.
I am not sure if the field is wide enough for official matches. By the next Hex a new stadium in Atlanta would probably be the better southern choice really. Gulati has already stated that the 2013 Hex venues are all MLS stadiums so that rules out Jacksonville.
US - Mexico would sell out in practically any venue in the country. The question has always been what proportion of those tickets are held by people who are actively cheering for Mexico.
Honestly, my experience at the Scotland match last year was phenomenal. I really liked the stadium and it was just a very comfortable experience. Florida obviously did a good job with attendance too. Dare I say, I probably enjoyed it more than matches at my birthplace (Tampa). I had "floor seats", if you will, for the Scotland match though so that probably had a lot to do with it. A qualifier probably wont happen there though. Tampa maybe but Jacksonville is pretty unlikely. I could see another friendly relatively soon though.
Judging by the crowd at the USA vs Scotland match last May,I'd say that the majority of fans would be USA fans.
I've seen the US men or women play @ almost every major soccer venue in the US, including Jacksonville (twice, Scotland and Germany friendlies). Only 2 or 3 venues IMO match the level of home field advantage in J'ville because 100% of a soccer wild (and knowledgeable) crowd in a huge stadium are routing loudly all game long and only for the US. The field's immaculate all the time and although an NFL stadium, it's crowned almost as shallowly as any soccer-specific pitch. No bad seats in the house, waterfront attractions a walk away, int'l airport, affordable city, great dining, etc etc. There's a reason I think visiting national teams get their rears handed to them regularly in Jacksonville.
Terrible comparison. Would these Jacksonville US fans be ready to buy as many tickets as they could get as soon as announced, pay over $100s per ticket, drive hundreds of miles? That's what Mexico fans do. Just because there are US fans who "would" attend an important US game, they're usually not willing to jump through the hoops to crowd out the Mexico fans to fill a US stadium of NFL proportions. The reason the US match has been in Columbus for a few cycles is that it's so small that the USSF has been able to drum up enough support and pre-sell to US fans to keep it sort of pro-US. And that's only about 15,000 US fans, not 70,000. In recent cycles, Mexico fans buy season ticket packages to Crew games so they have the right to buy US-Mexico tickets early. Many of these Mexico fans never attend a Crew game and don't live in Columbus, but it's an added cost they'll pony up for a right to see one game. I expect it to be closer to 50/50 in support this year even in Columbus. When you can think what it'd take to get a US qualifier with home support in a big stadium against Mexico, it's a pretty daunting task.
Sorry to be going a bit off topic of the thread here but I'd be curious to see if Century Link could come close. The Sounders draw huge crowds and the Cascadia Cup managed to sell all 67,000 tickets
I was at Jacksonville. Good crowd. 45k. EverBank Field was very nice. Didn't feel like a football stadium too much.
IMHO there are few US venues (i.e. w/in a 5 hour drive of the venue) with a more advantageous (for the USMNT) ratio of rabid/knowledgable US soccer fans versus fans chearing on the Mexican MNT (or, like most US venues, coming to chear on whomever's playing the US) as Jacksonville FL.