23,921 for the US vs T&T game in Cleveland. BTW the first ever Gold Cup match in Jamaica drew 17,874 - not particularly impressive. I think the Gold Cup will continue to be held in the US for the foreseeable future.
Ok here are some things I don't understand. We are always told about these soccer mad countries where soccer is life and all that, but yet... Average attendance in Brazil: 19,959, Argentina: 19,839, Colombia: 8,594, Chile: 7,212, Peru: 5,178. MLS: 21,873 and yet MLS somehow gets bashed for empty seats while the above countries are soccer mad? Hmmm... MLS is the 14th best attended (by average attendance) league in the world IN ANY SPORT! Another question: why is it that it seems that only MLS is building size-appropriate stadiums? Everyone else seems to be playing in gigantic stadiums that they never fill...
59,283 for the last Mexico game in Charlotte. Costa Rica's doubleheader got a bigger attendance in Dallas (20,500) than in Costa Rica . Not quite as many in New York with 17,554.
A lot of reasons. The first is that those stadia are pretty old, built in the days when football was not live on TV and the fans had to go to the games to watch, and people had less disposable income with fewer alternatives anyway, so cheap football tickets were what everyone spent their money on. They used to have 65,000 a game in the 70s, but now it's only 40k because it's more comfortable to watch on TV or you're just not into football like your granddad was. Secondly, they're municipal stadia, built for electoral as well as sporting purposes and those countries are pretty corrupt. Average attendance is 19k, but 30-35k for derbys and classicos? No problem, build it for 35-40k for a higher fee with more kickbacks. This factor is compounded by many stadia being shared by two or more teams (common in Brazil and Italy, though not in Argentina). AC Milan or Inter at home against Chievo or Bari will average, say, 35,000. But at home against each other, and there's two 80k sellouts a season, plus when Juve and Roma are in town. If there's three teams using the stadium, then there's six derby sellouts with a few classicos on top, but a shedload of half-full games as well. That's extra justification for an outsized stadium with a bigger budget, more kickbacks, but more empty seats on average. Thirdly, in politics money for adequate maintenance is the first item to be cut, so these stadia are usually dilapidated, rarely modernized (e.g. toilets), and sometimes downright dangerous. They're nasty places to be, stinking of piss, vomit and stale beer, which deters a lot of people. All of the above would bring attendances down quite a bit in any circumstances, but if you add in the fact that the ultras in these countries are usually a law onto themselves, controlling whole stands and the sale as well as distribution of tickets and the concession revenues. They're dangerous places that youngish men with families would go to alone but will think twice about bringing their adolescent boys along, let alone girlfriends or daughters.
Also the ticket prices in Brazil are astronomical (specially in the lower bowls). And with a Copa America seemingly every year the people grew tired fast. Next year there will be another Copa America hosted by Argentina/Colombia.. which it is stupid, a flight between Bogota and Buenos Aires is 6 hours. It the stupidest way to co-host, but we all already know that CONMEBOL is run by a bunch of corrupt headless chickens.
Wonder how they decide when they are going to have the next Copa? Looking back at the history there is no consistency. 1,2,3or4 years between each one. This one and the next 2: 2019 2020 2024
your guess is as good as mine. The "rationale" behind next year copa was to align it with a WC calendar so there should be 2 year gap between WC and Copa... they just should have moved this year's copa america into next year, but how are they going to steal more moneyt hen?
For completeness sake, Crew had 14015 for the SKC match on Sunday. Weather was beautiful. Sunny, mid 80's, a nice breeze. Probably about 12k in seats. Good representation by SKC fans, probably a couple hundred.
US Soccer fandom doesn't watch Brazil or any of the leagues you mentioned. Probably cant find them on a map. They do watch Top 4, Barcelona, Bayern, et al and just assume everyone else has crowds like that and we're garbage for not and if only pro/rel zomg! Etc etc. They're generally clueless and not worth listening to.
Also I forgot to mention.. those are soccer crazy countries but also poor countries. even with ticket prices nowhere close to US ticket prices, the money is simply very tight.
I never understand why Conmebol and Concacaf don't simply combine tournaments, then play every four years in the same summer as the Euro finals. The US is all for that, not sure what Conmebol have against the idea though, as the Centenario tournament was a major success.
Pride, greed, crime, connections...and the fact we locked up half their leadership probably makes the other half skittish.
Lots of reasons why it is unlikely but the biggest are these two: 1. What teams get in? In the Copa Centenario all 10 CONMEBOL teams participated but only 6 CONCACAF teams. The other 35 members would not be too keen on that on a regular basis. And remember that those countries are the ones that control the votes in CONCACAF. You could have some qualifying rounds for CONCACAF but those are not going to be the same as being in the actual tournament. 2. Who gets the money? The Gold Cup is the primary money-maker for CONCACAF. A combined tournament would make more money overall but how much of that would CONCACAF get? And you are cutting number of Gold Cups in half. Lastly, the Gold Cup makes a lot of money at least in part because it is almost entirely in the U.S. The Centenario was also here and that was a factor in the amount of revenue. Would a combined tournament always be in the U.S.? That seems very unlikely if it was a regular thing.
I agree with all those reason. However, I do think they will do other combined tournaments. I don't think it will ever become every Copa, but I think we will see more of it. Serious question: Do US and Mexico need CONCACAF approval to play in a Copa America tournament? Let's not kid ourselves...That is who they would be most interested in for future Copa America's.
Neither of those reasons seem insurmountable to me! A 24 team tournament (10 conmebol, 14 concacaf) could easily be hosted by the US, Mexico or Brazil, and others could co-host it. The money split doesn't seem like any sort of problem, surely?
They aren't insurmountable but those are reasons that exist. Let's say Mexico or Brazil hosts. How many people are going to show up for El Salvador v. Curacao? Or Bermuda v. Nicaragua? Those games don't draw big crowds in the U.S. but at least some people go. Would they in other countries? Have you seen the attendance for the Copa America in Brazil this year? That would just get worse with Central American and Caribbean teams playing. It is not a logistical problem, countries could do it. It is an interest problem. The money split doesn't seem like any sort of problem? You are cutting the number of Gold Cups in half and then having CONCACAF share the revenue with CONMEBOL? How in the world is that not less money for CONCACAF? Why would the bulk of CONCACAF members possibly be in favor of that? I'm not sure CONMEBOL would be interested either. A combined tournament that rotated back and forth would mean that South America would only get the tournament every 8 years or so. Besides all of of that, people always seem to have the idea that North America and South America are close together. I guess the fact that they both have "America" in their names causes that. They are not close together. The bulge of the equator means that it is quite far from a lot of North America to a lot of South America. I'm not saying that you are in this school of thought but why do you want to combine the two tournaments in the first place?
Organizers said Thursday the average attendance for the first eight games in Brazil was 29,500, compared to 25,000 for the first week of competition in Chile in 2015.
OK. I still believe that attendance would suffer if there had been Central American and Caribbean teams in the tournament.
Even Barca rarely sells out... I think they also watch the NFL, which is the most popular league of any sport anywhere.