In the process of accessing the first matchday. In terms of crowd size, I wrote this earlier in this thread or the other CAN thread: for all the talk about the popularity of this competition, which I personally enjoy, the stadia are usually quite empty until the final (minus the home team, who sometimes also can have low attendance numbers until the 1/4 final). I just can't see how an every 2 year tournament is of interest to most people; the confederations ignore the economics of travel, the general interest in non-home teams, and overkill. Gold Cup is the same for most games that don't involve the US or Mexico.
Agree 100%. At very least, this year's version should have been played in June/July to minimize the disruption caused to clubs that pay these player's wages. Heck, half of Ligue 1 is in South Africa this month. Of course, the famous excuse for not playing this tourney in June is "weather". It's just too hot in most of Africa in June. But for South Africa, that's obviously not an issue.
Teams like Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala draw 20-30 K in places like Los Angeles, Miami, DC, NY. That attendance still makes money for the CONCACAF head honchos.
I attended the last group game of the 2011 Gold Cup at Soldier Field in Chicago. El Salvador-Cuba was basically empty and only started to fill up because the Mexico fans arrived early for Mexico-Costa Rica. Perhaps the low attendance during the El Salvador match was a product of Mexico fans buying up the tickets and obviously waiting to show up when Mexico played. My friend and I wanted to see as much as possible because we were neutrals and both big football fans.
Your theory doesn't hold much weight: These matches were Gold Cup double headers in Los Angeles, Miami and New Jersey that did not feature Mexico or the United States yet still averaged 21,521 fans. Los Angeles: Guatemala vs Honduras, June 6 2011 - Attendance 21,507 Jamaica vs Grenada, June 6 2011- Attendance 21,507 Miami: Guatemala vs Jamaica, June 10 2011- Attendance 18,057 Honduras vs Grenada, June 10 2011- Attendance 18,057 New Jersey: Guatemala vs Grenada, June 13 2011- Attendance 25,000 Honduras vs Jamaica, June 13 2011- Attendance 25,000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_CONCACAF_Gold_Cup
It's funny because I went to the same URL right after I posted because I wanted to see the listed attendance for El Salvador-Cuba; it's the same listing as Mexico-Costa Rica, which I can say from being there that the numbers aren't accurate. Probably closer to 15K. I don't distrust the numbers listed above and assume that Guatemala-Honduras in LA would be a sell out, or close to it. But Jamaica-Grenada was probably half that. New Jersey, who knows. There are probably equal numbers of Guatemalans and Hondurans in the NY Metro area. And there are obviously a lot of Jamaicans in the area as well. I would have to look back at my DVDs of those games to see crowd shots to gauge some sense of attendance for those games, but you know as well as I do that most folks weren't staying for both games in any of these matches. As I wrote previously, because tickets are sold for the double-header, that could affect crowds for each game (i.e., More Hondurans might have bought tickets to the game in New Jersey if Guatemalans hadn't bought up tickets because they wanted to see the earlier game). But, on the whole, when the US or Mexico plays the stadium is full during those games and I don't think that is the case for any other game except Guatemala-Honduras. Given the stats we have available there's no way to know for sure, but you and I both know that 25K were not present in NJ for both games. One more thing, Gold Cup is obviously more important than friendlies, but Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala often play friendlies in the US. They seem to play a lot at the LA Coliseum. Those games are often half-full at best. Mexico would fill the place. I'm not denying that Hondruas, El Salvador, and Guatemala have some pull in the US, but my original claim was that US and Mexico are the big sellers and that's simply a product of demographics--there are more Mexicans in LA than any other city in the world outside Mexico City. More Mexicans in LA than any city in Mexico other than Mexico City. So my original point was and is that CAN, like the Gold Cup, happens too often in effect draining the importance of the tournament. This is already too long so I'll stop there but Gold Cup has one advantage over CAN--economic status of residents who can travel and scheduling throughout the country to help draw the most fans. S Africa is not going to draw many folks from Ivory Coast, whereas Hondurans already live in the US.
U.S. and Mexico are sure sellouts almost anywhere in the U.S. Games involving El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are sure bets for 20k and above in L.A., S.F., Houston, NY and Miami. Filling half of the L.A. Coliseum is still 45k. But yes, it is a difficult predicament for the African Cup of Nations.
Yep if I'm a fan of one of the stronger teams and planning to attend I would probably skip the group stage altogether Sadly, the organizers would probably make more money if the tourney could be staged in England,France or Belgium - that Eng v Ghana friendly at Wembley last year was like a home game for the Black Stars.
Very well stated sir. It is a joke that this tournament is held every four years and believe i'm employing euphemism here. This in my view (like i've stated before) is a typical example of the greed and leadership failure abound in this continent. Minuscule and myopic minds in every aspect of life all over the continent. Bloody A-holes.
Is ESPN3 using a feed for English commentary or ESPN announcers? I'm running a day behind but so far have watched JSC HD with a single commentator for each match. He hasn't said his name, but he sounds a bit like the guy who is on World Football Phone-In podcast from time to time.
ESPN have put out an official announcement that the 2 semifinals and the Final will be available on ESPN Deportes on a delayed basis only! No matches on ESPN or ESPN2... SA www.soccertvblog.com
Here are the official broadcast times for the semifinals and Final on ESPN Deportes (ET): Thursday, February 7, 2013: 1pm Mali v Nigeria (Semifinal #1) Friday, February 8, 2013: 1pm Burkina Faso v Ghana (Semifinal #2) Monday, February 11, 2013: 1:30am FINAL The actual semifinals take place Wednesday, February 6th at 10am & 1:30pm, respectively; with the Final on Sunday at 1pm ET. SA www.soccertvblog.com
Deportes could have shown Mali-Nigeria Live. All they have scheduled are their crappy in studio shows in which the hosts talk about crap. As for the Second Semi... ... I understand there is a conflict between Holland and Italy. That Friendly gets priority.
Alternatively, maybe their intended audience of Hispanic/Latino viewers would rather watch highlights of their favorite teams and/or leagues instead of a delayed match from Africa? *shrug*