Gold Cup 2007 - Resources Page

[Palermo10]

I might be doing this instead of Venezuela, so why not put some information together for everyone to find good deals.

When will the dates and venues be released?

[Atouk]

When will the dates and venues be released?The dates were released back in October '05:
http://www.concacaf.com/view_article.asp?id=3204

The twelve-team event will kick-off on Wednesday, 6 June and conclude with the final game scheduled for Sunday, 24 June 2007. Cities across the USA are expected to host the 2007 edition of the bi-annual event, which will once again crown the national team champion of the CONCACAF region.According to the same article, the venues were expected to have been made known by now. The article says, "Details on the specific venues that will host Gold Cup games in 2007 are expected to be announced in early 2006." However, there has been no word yet from CONCACAF on sites.

[dfb547490]

My guess is the usual suspects...some combination of NY, LA, Miami, and Foxboro, with Dallas and Chicago maybe thrown into the mix as well

[Atouk]

My guess is the usual suspects...some combination of NY, LA, Miami, and Foxboro, with Dallas and Chicago maybe thrown into the mix as wellSeattle and Houston were also venues in the 2005 Gold Cup. I'd like to see the US placed in Seattle again.

FYI, for the 2005 Gold Cup, the groups and schedule were announced on March 2, 2005 (http://www.concacaf.com/view_archive.asp?id=2964), so it's possible we'll know the venues sometime in '06 (and will be able to guess where the US will be placed), but may not know the dates/locations/opponents until early '07.

[dcsundevil2002]

Damn, I am hoping for some matches in DC. FedEx should be able to hold some, or Philly?

[Galaxian]

I would love the US to be in LA and put Mexico in Houston or something . I might be heading back east next summer so hopefully I could catch a couple games while im out there .

[Palermo10]

If you guys have stayed in any hotels near the possible venues (Giants Stadium, Reliant in Houston, Seattle...) could you post what hotels they were?

I was more asking when theyd put out the dates for the actual matches, and in what cities, so that I can at least see if there will be any I can make. We may not know that until next spring, eh..

[Thomas Flannigan]

Palermo: I can tell you about where I stayed in Seattle, Houston and New York City:

Seattle: The HI youth Hostel is right on the water near the Pike Place Market. A private room with kitchenette and bath was $80; beds in nice dorms were $26. I walked to the stadium to see the US Honduras friendly in 2002, just before the World Cup. It was a very pleasant 40 minute walk. The hostel was a 3 minute walk to the Irish bar where fans gathered. The airport bus stops 100 yards away from the hostel. The bus is expensive, about $15 one way, but what can you do? The kitchen in the hostel is incredible. All new appliances and so big you could play soccer in there.

Houston: I stayed in the youth hostel. It is no longer affiliated with HI but is nice, clean and cheap. I took the bus to Reliant Stadium for the US Mexico game in May, 2003. I think they have the tram finished by now and the tram runs very close to the hostel. Rice University is nearby. The hostel is in a residential area that used to be a bad neighborhood but is really coming back. The neighbors don’t allow there to be a sign out so you can’t even tell it is a youth hostel unless you have the exact address. Call it Houston’s Secret Youth Hostel. The hostel itself is beat up, funky but nice. I had my 1 year old daughter with me so they put us in a private room on the second floor that had a busted radiator out in the hallway. The airport bus is cheap but you have to transfer in a bad neighborhood. Going back to the airport I figured out a way to avoid the bad area by transfering at another spot.

New York City: I stayed in the HI hostel in Spanish Harlem. It is an old brick settlement house that has gone through a gut rehab. Great facilities with big spotless bathrooms. To get to Giants Stadium I think you take the subway to the Grand Central Station area and a shuttle bus from there. Metroflip described how to get this bus in another thread. The cab driver from LaGuardia Airport seemed reluctant to drive into the neighborhood but the neighborhood is fine. New York is weird and wonderful.

[Gioca]

What's the age limit on staying in a youth hostel? I've never stayed in one. What are the rules?

[Thomas Flannigan]

There is no age limit for youth hostels except in Bavaria. Hostels that are part of the Hostelling International (HI) network require a membership card that is valid all over the world. Guests who don’t have this card are usually charged a little more. I know most American avoid youth hostels like the plague, especially since Hollywood told them to do so with that stupid movie.
The big problem with the Gold Cup is not travel arrangements. Boston, Seattle, Houston and New York are all user-friendly cities with competitive air fares and lots of places to stay, including good hostels. The problem is the same one you always get as a national team fan; Getting The USSF to Sell You a Ticket.
A few years ago the Gold Cup was operated by Inter-Forever, a private company with ties to Latin America. Fans who like to do the Sam’s Army kind of thing called the USSF and were told (surprise, surprise) that the USSF would not be selling tickets and that people should call Inter-Forever. People reported that Inter-Forever bounced their calls around and didn’t seem to have anyone who spoke English. A Spanish-speaking US fan called and somehow got them to sell tickets in a “block” for US fans at the Rose Bowl. Some block. The section was interspersed with fans from other countries at the double-header. Fans who tried to wave US flags were harassed or thrown out of the stadium, although Mexican fans seemed to have no trouble with their flags and Rose Bowl security.
Inter-Forever, like Champions World and just about every other pro soccer enterprise in the US, went bankrupt. I believe the USSF was more directly involved in the last Gold Cup, which comes as no surprise since it was the sponsoring FA. It is my understanding that US Supporters/Sam’s Army tickets were again not offered. I read here that Jamison, a big national team fan from New York, bought a block of 30 tickets to distribute to other US fans for the Final in East Rutherford, just sound of the border, down New Jersey way. I admire his dedication but it really is too bad the USSF could not offer a block of tickets behind the goal for US fans. The benefits are so obvious: Segregation of fans from a security perspective, building a fan base, helping the team win and helping the image on TV. The Gold Cup final was not broadcast on ESPN (the USWNT-Iceland friendly was broadcast instead), but that game, and the thrilling semi-final against Honduras, got good ratings on Telemundo. The casual fan tuning in sees a game on US soil with a stadium half-full of fans for the foreign team and little or no US fan presence. This is hardly the way to build TV ratings and assure the survival of MLS and a national team fan base...

[Palermo10]

I think tickets will be easier to come by than Copa America tickets. Last year we played in big football stadiums and never sold them out.

[MetroMLS]

We've could have used some US fans at the USA-Honduras Gold Cup game at Giants Stadium last year, I think there were close to 100 US fans at that game, and 29,900 rooting for Houduras.:)

[jamison]

Yeah, the '05 gold cup was a bit of a joke from the fan perspective, at least the semis & finals at Giants Stadium. In both cases, the USSF said that they weren't handling tickets because it wasn't a USSF game (? they were playing in the fooking thing, no?), the whole MLS/Sum thing seemed awfully confused, and I was only able to get enough tickets for a US section through the contacts at the metrostars front office I had.

I had to go through a fair amount of wrangling to get even that done, and it required me buying $ 3k in tickets out of pocket and then "selling" them to US fans from Boston, DC and other places. It was our confederational championship, and I have a hard time believing that if Euro2004 was in England that the English FA would require some ManUtd fan to buy out a section at Old Trafford just to get an area of home support for the national team (England is such a place that it wouldn't come to that, but still.) Also, our ticket rep was going on vacation that weekend, and I had to have all of my orders in by 1pm on Friday before the game in order to get them done, meaning that everyone who was going had to figure out a way to commit to me that they would be there between our semifinal win on Wednesday and 1pm on Friday. And then, of course, when we get into the section and the security started moving everyone around and being tools, just to seat a family of 7 panamanians, etc. They went after US fans and left the minorites alone because they couldn't speak spanish, etc.

It was a total joke, and I can't figure out what the point of the MLS/Sum partnership is if they are going to have MLS teams responsible for selling tickets to these games and then drop the ball that profoundly. I even offered to work the ticket booth myself for both games, and they wouldn't even go with that. Seriously, you have to be some sort of wacked to have someone say "I'd like to support my country and your product, and I'm willing to do all of the work myself and give you all of the profits", and you tell them 'no'. :rolleyes:

If the final is at GS again, there's going to be a pretty serious ultimatum to the USSF/MLS/SUM/RBNY front office. They either run this the right way, or their ineptitude goes public. We can't, as fans, put up with such incompetence.

[JBigjake]

I was only able to get enough tickets for a US section through the contacts at the metrostars front office I had. I had to go through a fair amount of wrangling to get even that done, and it required me buying $3k in tickets out of pocket and then "selling" them to US fans from Boston, DC and other places.
As always, Big Ups to Jamison.
It's hard to believe that one person literally has to take matters like this into his own hands & then reach into his own pocket, in order to get anything done. I recall the USSF personnel wandering through the parking lot at Giant's Stadium, asking people if they knew who (Jamison) was! IIRC, he had to buy the tickets in the parking lot & then track down all the people on his list to resell & distribute the tickets. You can't make this stuff up!

[jamison]

It happens a lot though. Monty has done the same in New England multiple times, and others elsewhere. It would be great it the USSF didn't put the fans in this position, but apparently that's not in the cards, as we saw again in Germany. Anyway...

[scaryice]

Hopefully Sunil Gulati actually knows what the ******** he's doing.

[tedwar]

Isn't it CONCACAF's thing, not the USSF's. I think the blame goes to our wonderful organizing body and whoever they worked with, not the USSF, in this case.

Tony

[dirk diggler]

Yeah its CONCACAF's tournament, but I find it hard to believe that the USSF has absolutelty no leverage or political pressure they can place on the Jack Warner. USSF is simply lazy and greedy, it doesn't care about TV coverage or supporters sections unless they are making a dime off of it.

[studloans]

I would love the US to be in LA and put Mexico in Houston or something . I might be heading back east next summer so hopefully I could catch a couple games while im out there .
No disrespect, but we in Houston ALWAYS get latin american matches (mexican league matches) and teams and I feel it is time to change. I understand that the population in Houston dictates such a match, but I want the USMNT again. I was at the US v. Mexico match back in May of 2003 and Relient was a sellout. Yes, there were lots of Mexican National Fans, but there were tons of USMNT fans too.

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myspace.com/brokelegmountain

[Bruce Lee]

I would just like to say that I consider it a positive that teams like USA cannot play in the EURO championships.

Otherwise it would just be any another footballing platform for them to play shit, and have everyone laugh at them for lack of skill and heart.

Maybe one day, they might make it into the top 32 footballing nations in the world. Then again, maybe not.