Venezuela 2007 - Copa America - Resources Page

[Palermo10]

List what you found.

Hotel Altamir (Caracas) = $22.50 per person per night, double occupancy - can be found on all hostel websites even though its a hotel. Google search.

Rental cars - Orbitz.com, $280/week standard economy car.

[buckeye5]

Venue Speculation...

San Cristobal (27,500) (Group A matches)
Maracaibo (35,000) (Group B or C matches)
Puerto Ordaz (15,000) (Group B or C matches)

Caracas has Olympic Stadium (25,000) and Brigido Iriarte (15,000).

Venezuela LOC has confirmed that the host team will play their matches (their group matches, as the seed for Group A) at San Cristobal, which is the national stadium. In the past, Copa America has put all of the group matches for each group in one venue, so this may mean all Group A matches (even non-Venezuela matches) will be at San Cristobal. San Cristobal is all the way to the west of the country, in the northern Andes (although only at 2600 ft).

Brazil and Argentina will likely get the seeds for the second and third group. The speculation is that Brazil will be sent to the Maracaibo venue and Argentina possibly to Puerto Ordaz. Maracaibo is a likely pick, because of its size. Unfortunately however, Maracaibo, like San Cristobal, is near the Colombian border. Maracaibo is in the northwest of the country, just off of the Gulf of Venezuela.

Puerto Ordaz is in the east of the country, inland.

Here is a map: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ve.html

[Palermo10]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copa_Am%C3%A9rica_2007

Venues

Caracas Estadio Olímpico de la Ciudad Universitaria 25,000
Maracaibo Estadio José Pachencho Romero 35,000
San Cristóbal Estadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo Deportivo Táchira 27,500
Mérida Estadio Metropolitano de Mérida 42,000
Barquisimeto Estadio Metropolitano de Fútbol de Lara 40,000
Ciudad Guayana Estadio Polideportivo Cachamay 41,000
Maturín Estadio Netropolitano de Maturín "Juana La Avanzadora" 52,000
Puerto La Cruz Estadio Olímpico Luis Ramos 41,000
Barinas Estadio Agustín Tovar "La Carolina" 30,000

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/50/Mapa-vzla.gif

[Thomas Flannigan]

Thanks, Palermo. The CONMEBOL website is now saying that there may be a 4th group, increasing the number of countries from 12 to 16. So people in other threads saying that Costa Rica has the 12th spot and we are out of luck should look at this website. The red carpet is out.
Copa America will take place between June 26 and July 15, 2007, in Caracas, Maracaibo, San Cristobal, Merida, Barquisemeto, Ciudad Guyana, Puerto La Cruz and Bannas. The US always seems to be “randomly” drawn into smaller, less well-known cities, so don’t count on being in Caracas.
With all the political issues between the US and Venezuela now I would expect our national team to be safe. Venezuela is the only CONMEBOL member never to have hosted the Copa America, the oldest soccer tournament in the world. There is no way they would want to give the US an excuse to bomb or invade the country, so I would expect plain clothes police posing as street buskers and maids to be everywhere.
It is entirely possible our first game would be Wednesday, June 27, 2007, game 2 Sunday, July 1 (afternoon), game 3 on Thursday, July 5, 2007, with a quarterfinal on Sunday, July 8, 2007 (afternoon game) You could see 3 US games, missing only July 4 week and the following Monday. I think we would make it out of our group. I think Copa America is a much fairer tournament than the World Cup. That would not be hard.
Venezuela is a beautiful country. Crime is a problem, but not nearly as much as in Colombia and some cities in Brasil. The big problem is the awful airport. Most countries, no matter how poor they are, have a swanky airport. Not Caracas. The main road connecting the distant airport to Caracas was closed and finally collapsed, 2 weeks ago, causing chaos. Crews are working 24 hours a day to rebuild the old road to the city, This should be completed in a month or 2 or 3. Meanwhile thousands of people are camping out in the airport so they can make early morning flights.
Caracas is the most North American-looking city in South America. It has a lovely setting and a modern subway. My wife had her camera stolen in the first 30 seconds on the subway but after that we were more careful. A guy with a knife slit the bottom of her bag and took it. We stayed at L’Avila, in San Bernadino, a nice neighborhood not far from the city center. L’Avila used to be an estate for the Rockefeller family but they sold it long ago. The currency, the bolivar, has gone from 4.3 to the dollar to 2138 to the dollar in 30 years, so a nice place like L’Avila is luxury you can afford. We paid 68 dollars for a double room.
The food in Venezuela was great. You will be very pleasantly surprised. Ozzie Guillen’s favorite restaurant in Chicago is the Caracas Grill, at 6300 N. Western. It is a Venezuelan restaurant in an Indian neighborhood.

[Su-35]

The airport is nice and shiny now,

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y218/oilwars/aeropuerto44sd.gif
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y218/oilwars/airport2.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y218/oilwars/airport.jpg

Also the road linking the cities is finished, the whole highway should be repaired for the copa.

BTW here is a link about the stadiums

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=280106&page=5&highlight=copa+america

[Thomas Flannigan]

Beer is good in Venezuela. Good, not great. “Polar” beer, often in little bottles, is widely available. You go into your local tienda (store) and ask the clerk for cerveza fria. The guy will have a key around his neck and will unlock an adjacent room where the beer is kept at 2 or 3 degrees Celsius. I have never seen beer sold like this in any other place in the world. That door is opening and closing all day long….
Food is very good. There is a big Caribbean influence so you will find fried plantains, rice and beans and other island staples on menus. A unique dish is pobellon, a shredded beef dish something like what you find in Puerto Rico

[ussoccerFan12358]

Thanks, Palermo. The CONMEBOL website is now saying that there may be a 4th group, increasing the number of countries from 12 to 16. So people in other threads saying that Costa Rica has the 12th spot and we are out of luck should look at this website. The red carpet is out. Do you have a link for that?

[doogiemo]

Do you have a link for that?


It's in spanish, but here is a quick translation:

All this from the Venezuelan Federation President/Copa América Org. Committee, Serafín Boutureira.

Officially Venezuela will play in San Cristóbal and will be "head-of-group"

They're speculating that Brazil will play in Puerto Ordaz and ARG in Maracaibo. But not 100% sure, just a speculation. Both also "head-of-group"

The group "draft" will happen between Dec '06 and Feb '07" and there is still a possibility of a 4th group once they confirm all 16 teams.

http://www.conmebol.com/comunicados_ver.jsp?id=58947&slangab=S

[buckeye5]

English link: http://www.conmebol.com/comunicados_ver.jsp?id=58948&slangab=E

[doogiemo]

English link: http://www.conmebol.com/comunicados_ver.jsp?id=58948&slangab=E

arrrgg!!! :mad: I didn't even see the ENGLISH link!!! how dumb!!

[Thomas Flannigan]

Venezuela’s jewel box city is Santa Ana del Coro, located about 10 hours by road to the northwest of Caracas, directly south of the islands of Curacao and Aruba. Santa Ana is about 4 hours by bus from Maracaibo, also a site for the Copa America. Santa Ana has more than 600 colonial buildings, and its combination of styles makes it unique in the world. It has been in gradual decline since its glory days 200 years ago, but now, American retirees and others are moving there. The new construction if threatening some of the charm of the old city, but for now it supposedly still has a sleepy feel. http://www.coroweb.com/
It may be worth it to fly to Santa Ana from Caracas, This would save you the 1-2 hour ride each way into Caracas and then back out again to head to the northwest. The problem is the United flight gets into Caracas at night so you would have to spend the night at the not so charming airport. There are small hotels and guest houses near the airport. We stayed in one that had bars on all the windows and the owner looked out through a peephole before unbolting the door.

[MD_littlekeep]

when does the us have to give the final word on if they are going or not?

[The Wisdom Cube]

Looks like Gulati is moving this along:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=375834&root=us&cc=5901

From the end of the article:

The Copa America would be a better preparation for the U.S., and Gulati is attempting to work out the logistics of entering the tournament, scheduled to start June 26, two days after the Gold Cup final, in Venezuela.

We should know more by the end of the MLS season


I'm certainly not buying my plane ticket yet, but hopefully they work things out.

[Thomas Flannigan]

I agree with Ed’s post in the Mexico City Invasion thread that a qualifier in Mexico City is more important than the Copa America. But my guess is we will not have a qualifier in Mexico City until 2013 because we will host the 2010 World Cup. But we won’t know this until around the time of the Copa American because Herr Blatter stands for reelection in 2007 and he will not pull the plug on South Africa until after the votes are counted.
If we do get the Cup as I predict, that makes the Copa America loom even larger, because how else will we find competitive matches to get ready for 2010? Opportunities are slim. I think the Copa America is just as competitive as the Confederations Cup which we will probably host in 2009, if only because Copa America will be played in Venezuela.
President Gulati is probably struggling with the political issues of accepting the Copa America bid. Venezuela is high on the US enemies list and the US government is itching for an excuse to start trouble. Rep. Biden and former Rep Gingrich spoke with the same voice (surprise, surprise) on Meet the Press 4 weeks ago. They spoke of Venezuela in the same sentence as Iran and North Korea. The State Department may veto a US berth in Copa America no matter what President Gulati or Dan Flynn want to do.
The US blew it big time in 2005 by not accepting the invitation. Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo put the US invitation first on his agenda when he had a rare White House visit in February, 2005, personally asking for the US national team to come to Lima. Not to be. And we paid the price when we had warm-up games against Latvia and others.
I have been doing more research and hope to post as much in the way of Venezuelan Travel Trips as possible, including how to get in and out of Venezuela from all the neighboring countries..

[AndyMead]

I agree with Ed’s post in the Mexico City Invasion thread that a qualifier in Mexico City is more important than the Copa America. But my guess is we will not have a qualifier in Mexico City until 2013 because we will host the 2010 World Cup.

If the 2010 World Cup is moved, that will likely happen after the final round of CONCACAF qualifying.

[Thomas Flannigan]

Andy, I don’t think FIFA can wait that long. The hex and Euro qualifying will end in early November, 2009. After that, we will have the intercontinental home and away games, followed by the draw 2 weeks later. The USSF took ticket applications 3 days after the draw in 2005, long after FIFA ticketing had started.
Phase I of FIFA ticketing will open up around September, 2009. The last 2 Cups saw fans buy TST packages for national teams only to see that their teams did not qualify in the end. Air tickets open up 330 days before the departure date, meaning a flurry of bookings starting around July 1, 2009. I don’t think FIFA can sell tickets for South Africa and then tell the faithful to pay the penalties on those tickets, we are going to hold it in the US or Australia. Relationships with travel agencies are particularly important. Ad campaigns by major sponsors, who control much of the ticketing and some of the results, are geared up well in advance. These barriers to a last minute switch are even larger than awarding the Cup to a nation that is struggling to qualify (US every time except 2006, Australia, every time).
When FIFA pulled the 1986 Cup from Colombia and gave it to Mexico, I think it was done 2 years in advance. When the IOC pulled the Winter Olympics from Denver and game them to Innsbruck, that too was done well in advance.
But FIFA has an ace in the hole that no one seems to be talking about. FIFA has quietly announced that the next Women’s World Cup will be held in 2010, NOT 2011. With less than 3 years to go no host nation has been announced. Remember 2003, when the SARS scare booted China from 2003 to 2007 and no nation except the US made a credible bid to host the WWC. I assume the US will host the 2010 WWC because, once again, I don’t see any real competition to host the WWC.
The US can quietly prepare for the 2010 WWC and much of the logistical planning, including security, will be in place ready for a second use for the World Cup. This would reduce the necessary lead time to announce a switch to the US from South Africa. I can think of endless problems with joint hosting of the WWC and World Cup but from FIFA’s point of view, it is preferable to canceling the WWC. FIFA does NOT want to cancel the WWC. Future World Cup bids may include the WWC, whether the bidding nations want it or not.

[buckeye5]

For the record (did some research)...

Colombian Government backed out of the 1986 World Cup in October of 1982.

By May of 1983, FIFA had selected Mexico as the fill-in. Mexico was chosen ahead of the United States and Canada. Mexico was a lock though as FIFA only did a site visit there.

Henry Kissinger, who was spearheading the US 'bid' (if you can call it that), called his first attempt at soccer diplomacy ''dismally unsuccessful.'' ''The politics of soccer make me nostalgic for the politics of the Middle East,'' he said.

[bshredder]

How tough do you think it will be to get tickets to the Copa America? When would the draw be?

[The Wisdom Cube]

How tough do you think it will be to get tickets to the Copa America? When would the draw be?

Surely US soccer will be able to get an allocation. I'd definitely prefer to sit with the handful of Americans who go. If/when they announce that we'll be participating in the tournament it may be a good idea to immediately start bugging US Soccer about getting tickets.

[chancre]

I plan on attending Copa America 2007 and am hoping to enjoy the services offered by Venezuelan prostitutes. Thomas Flannigan, please tell me, in 10,000 words or more, everything you know about the whore situation in Venezuela.