NSR: US Rugby vs Italy - June 23 at BBVA Compass Stadium

What a crowd, but it was very very humid.

Rugby is a great sport that I wish there was more of around here.

Reason #1 why Sunil and the geniuses at USSF HQ are idiots.

It's not about crowds, it's about playing in places not likely for the USMNT to be overrun by opposing teams fans. We will never play a qualifer/competitive game in Houston vs. a Central American team. Maybe someday we'll get a Caribbean team here in a meaningful game.

USNT Group Stage Opponents, WCQ 2014

A&B, Jamaica, Guatemala

So youre saying we would have been overrun by Jamaicans and A&B fans?

You're right. It's a missed opportunity for us.

Did you read my post? We could get Caribbean games. They went to Columbus & KC. Two other SSS and likely better weather for the US team in those months.

The bonus here, is that the US rugby fed knows that they can make money in Houston. We should see them move some of the future world cup qualifiers here, from those 5000 seat places in Colorado and California.

Excellent news. Here is a good article.

YES! Now we need the London Wasps to come over on a tour!

USA Rugby surely will host games here in the future, but we should hasten our excitement. A lot of that crowd wanted a whiff of the new stadium smell, and tickets appeared easier to come by than Dynamo games. Combine that with the "hey, America's playing a physical sport against another country that my parents are not from!" factor, and replicating that crowd proves difficult.

Any thoughts about the state of the field from anyone who was there? I realize that the grounds crew have about a week to get things back into shape, but it's not like the grass had completely "taken", as they say, as of even the TFC game.

Blue nations you are correct-El Salvador, Honduras n Guatemala
Red nations no, we can have a tremendous atmosphere-Panama n Costa Rica.
U.S.A. vs. CR in K.C. in the hex in '01 at Arrowhead was magnificent. So would home ground love for U.S.A. in Houston.
For travel time logistics for our Euro based players, our Fed tends to stick to east coast or central locations in WCQ. Houston and K.C. appear the edge of that concept. I will say/remind the U.S.A. vs. CR hex match from ''97, Portland earned another WCQ out west.

This has the answer - at least from the team perspective: http://www.chron.com/sports/dynamo/...ting-BBVA-Compass-Stadium-to-test-3668416.php

Everybody was worried about football lines all before the stadium when we should have worried about Rugby lines.....

How many rugby matches would you expect to take place at bbva in the next ten years? 5 tops? I think youll get over the lines.

Also im not sure this is an indicator that Eagles matches should be prioritized at bbva. Soccers had decades of marquee matches filling out stadiums much larger than this to get to where its at. We all know how strong the bandwagon/theatre pull is, and how quickly the crowds disappear.

What I would like to see is a bid for a rugby world cup. bbva would be a better bet than reliant stadium. unlike soccer, we're a good bet to win with the game looking to expand here.

Thanks. The comments from Griffin are pretty informative. But I swear Canetti sounds more and more like Tim Liewicke every time I read something he says.

...are you purposely trying to strike fear into our hearts?!

Wow, totally overlooked this link when I posted. Didn't realize we hosted well-attended USA rugby in the past. That's a great omen then. I did not mean to be anti-rugby earlier, just cautious of getting ahead of ourselves.

I'll be interested to see how the field holds up. I doubt the Single rugby game damaged the field more than the summer heat and league/ CONCACAF play will.