News: New US Open Cup Set-Up for 2012

Ah gotcha, that's lame. I wonder if it was cost/scheduling or the football/lacrosses lines that were the dealbreaker. Otherwise it would have been a good opportunity to promote the team within the city. I remember hearing that the Haiti national team fundraiser game drew around 11,000 last year (didn't hear about this year's attendance total.)

Ugh. Why promote your team by reminding potential supporters of a high school game atmosphere where you have to stand at field level for 90 minutes. Seems like a wasted opportunity.

Where would you rather they play the game?

I just don't think the average fan will want to watch a high school atmosphere game. There's tons of soccer fans in Boston, but they want a real product. Standing room only isn't going to lure them in. If they wanted that, Harvard, BU, and BC would sell out their soccer matches.

I have no idea what's available, but I'd love it at Nickerson or Harvard Stadium.

Nickerson can fit close to 10,000 I think, though I'm not sure if that's all stadium bleacher seating or not. At least it's not standing on the sideline.




Is Harvard stadium's field turf any worse than their soccer field's field turf? I honestly have no clue.

I was a season tix holder for the Boston Bolts in the late 80's...Liked the idea of going to Boston for games. Fun while it lasted.

This is all probably a moot discussion anyway. Long Island is a PDL team, and Harrisburg (according to their wiki page) is a USL powerhouse, undefeated against PDL teams in the Open Cup and frequently competitive with MLS teams (often winning) in the Open Cup and friendlies.

We lost to Harrisburg in the Open Cup back in 2009:
Harrisburg 2, Revolution 1 (AET)

The "average fan" has little interest in USOC and sees it as a minor event. Promoting the heck out of a Boston-area USOC match is a bad idea for two reasons: 1) other than real die-hard Rev fans in the area, no one cares about USOC and spending money promoting it will be mostly a waste of $$; 2) trying to market based on the excitement and atmosphere of a urban environment serves only to contrast the "regular product" - which is (and will be for at least the next few years) Gillette.

Nickerson would be far better for this as it would be closer to an actual professional atmosphere. The field is nice too.

The pitch at Harvard Stadium is an abomination, dangerous, and far too narrow.

5K at Soldier Field Road Stadium will be pretty good atmosphere and allows them to avoid the embarrassment of underselling at the big Stadium as well.

I don't think they want this to be a "test run" of playing in Boston. That would require a serious marketing push and there's no telling what sort of quality will be on display as it will likely be a Revs squad full of reserves against a 3rd division side.

I wish this was at Nickerson but it's better than New Britain, CT, that's for sure.

According to Kyle McCarthy:

Wow, you really DO work for the Revs. I know a lot of people have suspected it for a long time, but this is exactly the kind of utter claptrap rubbish that they would be spewing forth becasue they lack the imagination, the critical thinking, the effort, the vision, the anything to even attempt to turn something not-so-good into something better.

Your first sentence says it all. The Revs have made no effort whatsoever to reach their "average fan" beyond the usual stuff that works reasonably well (in their view) only for that particular demographic. No sense building "brand awarness" in no-cost or low-cost ways. With all the hype of Fenway's 100th birthday, the Revs could let people know that soccer existed long before MLS, and even before the Tea Men/Minutemen/Beacons NASL days. A permanent banner listing all the New England teams who have won the USOC over the years, with of course, the last one in 2007 tying it all up in a bow would be an easy way to do this. Even if we aren't the direct decendents of the Fall River Marksmen, JP Coates, or Punta del Gada, the Revs are at least the adopted sons and carry the torch forward.

And the other thing is it is the only competition that is still around that we have ever won.

Remind me please, how many "average fans that have no interest" show up at the late stage games in Seattle?

I don't know what rkupp meant by "average fan", but any USOC marketing push by the revs targeted at the majority demographic of a typical match at Gillette is not likely to succeed. But if you can target the people who turn up at Boston area bars to watch ECL, EPL and FA cup matches, you might catch the interest of a few of those folks, particularly now that we're playing more entertaining, if inconsistent soccer.

This should be the point of playing a match in Boston. If Fenway can bring in 30,000+ for a meaningless friendly between two teams from leagues which aren't even followed in Boston, the Revs should be able to bring in 3,000+ soccer fans who do not currently attend Revs games at Foxboro. If the Revs can't manage that, they need a new marketing department or there's no point in moving a stadium to Boston.

Not saying it isn't worth trying, but I can envision 2,990 of the 3,o0o Euro-team supporters after seeing Revs vs. LIRR saying, "That was a crap match, just what I expected from MLS" and they'd probably be right (if the lesser team in a match plays a cynical bunker style, the match is virtually guaranteed to be ugly). Many of the 30K who show up at Fenway are the same people who come to Foxboro only for the "Beckham match."

I see what you're saying, except Beckham is well known around the world. No one on Celtic or Sporting had any name recognition with 99% of American soccer fans. And most of those people haven't seen a single Sporting or Celtic match since.
The important part of bringing in fans is the atmosphere. If the supporters groups turn out in numbers, it will be a fun time for the new spectators. Sell them on the atmosphere first, the product second.