I believe it should be if I ran the NCAA ... There has always been talk of moving the cup to coincide with Disney Showcase after Christmas and do the combine at the same time. NCAA is not having it. The NCAA wants the tournament wrapped up before the holiday in x amount of weeks since that is their policy, blah, blah, blah. It is not college soccer not having a knack, it is the NCAA. The first year at Richmond was one of the coldest College Cup on record other than the Rutgers in 1989 (FYI, 12,000+ at semi-final with Rutgers in the semis). Virginia being in the tournament certainly helped (by the way, the 4-3 win by Duke over UVA may be the best semi-final game ever ... before this years Gtown-MD) to attract the 20K+ fans but mostly it was the buzz created by the event. In the current format and time frame, the tournament needs to be in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic. 1/4 of the nation within driving distance, easy flights in and out. If there were only an SSS with a portable roof to take the weather out of the equation. They are hosting a Superbowl in New York in an outdoor stadium so why not a College Cup in Philly. Columbus, St. Louis ??? Small towns with limited population outside of their immediate area. Let's see what it is like when it returns to the Mid-Atlantic for the first time since Richmond. Anything over 40 degrees would be a bonus.
Speaking for myself, breakfast/tailgate strategy mtg at Embassy Suites, shopping at mall next to Galleria, lunch at Cajun Steamers (good!), nap, meet w/ about 60 other Hoosier fans at On Tap to watch IU vs CCSU, back to Embassy to hang out w/ players' parents and about 30 ex-IU players. Glorious.
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/12/will_college_cup_return_to_hoo.html More details on attendance are here. Indications are lots of freebies but that 11K+ were really there on Friday.
lol. we drove down to gulf shores after the friday games and back up to hoover sunday morning. yay for december sunburns. we couldn't have asked for better weather for the weekend.
I found Cajun Steamers also......great food drink and people.....surrounding sites were pretty good tooo....gotta love the south
I went to the 2010 College Cup in Santa Barbara. We did not have any connection to the four participants. Still a great success and we put people in the stands. Don't leave us out of the rotation! Personally, I'd prefer it to be held there every year but that's just the Gaucho and west coast guy talking.
Just because that's the way it is now doesn't mean that's the way it always has to be. The Frozen Four didn't always take a two-week break. The 1-AA championship game wasn't always played in January. If they could get the NCAA to agree to a change, so too could college soccer. The key to getting the NCAA to agree is showing the financial benefit of doing so and the key to that is a proposal that would get more fans in the seats. Which brings us back to my suggestions.