Probably because the promoter is assuming the risk. They are likely paying for Chivas to come, paying the USSF dowry and handling some logistics. International club friendlies often have a promoter making things happen and paying the freight. Often it's two teams in a neutral site, but when one of the teams is the actual home team, it can appear more squirrelly than it actually is.
We had that recently here in Houston. A third-party promoter rented the Dynamo stadium for a friendly between Chivas and some other Mexican team. We have those games during most international breaks. I think there are 4 of them this year. Santos is playing Tigres here this Friday night. The other Mexican team pulled out of the Chivas game and the promoter invited the Dynamo to play in the game. The Dynamo didn't have a league game so they accepted the invite and got appearance money from the promoter. The promoter paid the fees, set the ticket prices which were high, and ran the event. The Dynamo were officially the away team in their own stadium. The crowd was mostly Chivas fans partly because of the ticket prices and mostly because we are terrible.
I wonder about the long term health of these three. OC may be better under new ownership but there are a lot of questions surrounding Charlotte and Harrisburg.
I agree. Hbg is a small market and they have always been subsistence farming, basically. And Charlotte has had facility uncertainty from the jump, to be fair. But there is, to this point, no clear evidence to point to that buttresses the original idea that because they ran a lacrosse team, they would be at an advantage.
NY Red Bulls II 1 Louisville City 1 (NY Red Bulls II wins 4-3 on kicks taken from the penalty spot) Goals: Valot (Bezecourt) 74; Craig (Quinn) 11. NY Red Bulls II -- Meara, O'Toole (Plewa 64), Long, Carroll (Simpara 120), Najem (Schmoll 105), Adams (Williams 97), Metzger, Bezecourt, Etienne, Allen, Valot (Bonomo 96). Louisville City -- Ranjitsingh (Dobrowolski 54); Smith, Reynolds, Craig, Morad; Abend, Quinn, Dacres (Kaye 71), Rasmussen (Newnam 105+1), Davis (Lubahn 81); Hoffman (Lancaster 64). Red Cards: NY Red Bulls II -- Williams 118; Louisville City -- Reynolds 104, Craig 120. Att.: 2,709. October 15 in Kansas City, MO Swope Park Rangers 3 WhitecapsFC2 0 Goals: Tyrpak 8, Tyrpak (Pasher) 32, Kelly (Pasher) 89. Swope Park Rangers -- Zendejas; Grant, Didic, Ballo, Pasher; Appiah (Molano 85), Duke, Gonzalez (Selbol 19); Tyrpak (Barrett 70), Kelly (Little 90), Ayrton (Granitto 72). Whitecaps FC 2 -- Richey; Chung (Diaz 67), De Wit, Seiler, Wynne; Levis, Baldisimo (Sanner 79), Froese (Frano 75), Haber (Safiu 55), Bustos; Greig. Red Card: Swope Park -- Selbol 90+. Att.: 2,922.
Oct. 23 in Harrison, N.J. NY Red Bulls 5 Swope Park 1 Goals: Etienne (Allen) 18, Allen (Najem) 39, Allen 85, Allen (Bonomo) 88, Bezecourt (Etienne) 90+2; Granitto 74. NY Red Bulls -- Meara; O'Toole (Plewa, 66), Long, Carroll, Najem; Metzger, Adams, Bezecourt; Etienne (Mines 90+), Allen (Schmoll 89), Valot (Bonomo 81). Swope Park -- Zendejas; Alvarado, Ballo, Didic, Grant (Barrett); Duke (Molano 89), Appiah (Granitto 46), Ayrton (Gonzalez 61); Pasher, Kelly, Tyrpak. Att.: 5,574.
final NASL/USL numbers: http://www.socceramerica.com/articl...nking-the-division-2-teams.html?edition=16662
@kenntomasch , I'm going to call it now ... this will be a record breaking year for D2 soccer attendance in this country. more people will go to D2 games this year than any year before. Thoughts? Yeah, I know ... 2 D2 leagues helps the cause! Joking aside. I am interested to see how Tampa and Ottawa do after their league change. Arizona and Rio Grande Valley have new stadiums (theoretically it should help attendance). Orange Country has a new brand and possibly focus on actually selling tickets. One anchor has left USL (FC Montreal). All of that should lead to a bump in average attendance for USL, but who knows!
The record for D2 is just over 994,000 (set by the A-League in 1999). I have no doubt the 38 combined teams will draw over 2 million. I do not believe a change in league in and of itself will drastically impact TB or OTT. TB is obviously trying to position itself as one of the next four and they have added more experienced staffing in an attempt to boost ticket sales and revenue. (If Bill Edwards' mortgage company krefuffle results in a potential $592M judgment against him, I don't care what he says about being able to pay that, it will sting.) Arizona does not have a new stadium YET. I have yet to see construction photo one. And they are <60 days from playing in it, supposedly. And Montreal only dragged USL average attendance down by 114 people a game in 2016.