The only way to make the fans more interested in USOC is for the teams to be more interested in USOC. Other than NYRB, it sounds like most of the teams last night put out line-ups that were primarily starters. In previous years the quarterfinals would have involved probably a 30/70 split or less. Flipping that percentage is a huge shift for MLS and if the teams continue to show more interest in the competition, then the fans will as well.. Another thing that the teams need to do is advertise. Obviously there is a pretty quick turnaround between the third round and the quarterfinals, but the home teams need to start doing more than just putting a link on their team website saying tickets are for sale. One area the federation could help is to increase the prize money. It sounds like they are starting to get some significant bids to host the later rounds of the competition, perhaps if they funneled some of that money back into the competition via the prize money at the end, teams would take it more seriously as well. Right now I think the payout for winning USOC is $100k and second place either gets nothing, or $50k, I can't remember which. Bump that up and see what happens.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP6tXAotFFQ"]YouTube - Kings of the Cup: What Does It Mean To You?‏[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f7lrMsRSFg"]YouTube - Kings of the Cup: Chicago Fire 4-0 NYRB, USOC QF 7/12/11‏[/ame]
Wow, it's difficult to imagine a more complex question on a soccer forum; let me collect my thoughts and maybe I'll take a stab at it tonight. I can say this right now: our tournament will never be as popular as the FA Cup for a host of reasons. There's plenty of room for improvement though.
Great question. First off, I definitely didn't mean to make excuses for maintaining the status quo, I was just giving what I see as the factual reasons for why the attendance is rather low compared to regular MLS matches. So, to take a stab at responding to your question... Us. You are right when you say it starts with us fans. We have to assign the tournament importance by attending the matches and talking about it in social media spaces and not just on bigsoccer. Teams. I think it starts more with individual teams than the federation or even the league as a whole. I say this because the federation does not have any kind of budget to advertise nationally. Message. Building on the previous point, everyone from the FO on down to the players has to believe the tournament is important and play it up in the media as much as possible. Seattle has clearly done this. I feel like FCD and RSL both were saying all the right things heading into last night's match. The way RBNY approached this tournament, on the other hand, was a fricking joke. Kind of like baseball's All-Star game, if the players/teams themselves don't care about the game, why should we? TV. This is where the league would have to come in, but adding it into any future tv deal to make sure all quarterfinal and up matches are televised would show a commitment to making the tournament accessible to more fans and again assigning it importance as being more than a midseason distraction. Reward. The CCL berth is great, but what about letting the winning team wear a sleeve patch or something the following season? Is a financial reward like the SuperLiga had out of the question? Timing. I know the league calendar is already pretty packed, but having the final on a day when there are no other league games (like the FA Cup usually is) would help focus attention on the one match. Not sure when that would be. Traditional media. Bug the crap out of ESPN, the regional FOX networks and local tv stations/radio/papers to give it more coverage. Much to my shock and awe, one of our local sports talk stations gave FCD a little love this morning for the win last night. Modern media. Click every damn link referring to the USOC that you can find. E-mail popular sports-related sites (beyond just espn) and ask them to give it some coverage.
I just noticed that Richmond now has four straight wins. Even that epic Roma run in '06 was only three games. Richmond are now only one short of matching the Rhino's run in '99. If the Kickers won it all, they would do the Rhinos one better. It would take some hunting, but I'll bet that's a record that would be unmatched, and would stay unbeaten for some time. I know. Getting ahead of myself. But I do believe Richmond is in pretty rarefied atmosphere already.
I would love to see Richmond in the final if for no other reason than to give a sort of wake-up call to the MLS teams who don't take this competition seriously. It might not matter much to them, in the end, but I want the MLS teams to embrace the USOC the way the Sounders have. It might be the best way to expand the general interest in the Cup (i.e. get some serious sponsorship $$, legitimacy, etc.).
I would drive 2.5 hours to watch some CCL in Richmond. I'm afraid it might be more than they can handle. ($$$$) But who knows? Stranger things have happened.
They won't (Should not) make it pass Chicago, shit we the FIRE have nothing else going for us this year, the US Cup is all we got, so we are going to throw everything we got for this game. We will see.
Chicago are also 4 wins into this run. Defeating Colorado, San Jose, Rochester, and New York. For the storyline, it's a good match up. Two motivated teams out to prove something.
I'm guessing VC is not including the play-in rounds in his streaks. Otherwise the Sounders 6 game run in 09 would have been mentioned.
in 95 the Kickers won 4 games.. actually 5 if you count the game that had to be replayed because of a protest. So we've tied OUR all time record (or not depend on how you count things)
No, I wasn't. I was only counting the actual Cup games. However teams manage to qualify for the tournament is a separate issue, as far as I'm concerned. Which is why I don't consider Chicago as having four straight wins. Maybe that's a little unfair, but that's the way I was looking at it when I wrote what I did.
I was thinking a similar thing. But I saw somewhere that CONCACAF covers travel, so the only issue would be whether Richmond's stadium would be up to par for the tournament. And, honestly, with some of the stadiums that the games have been played in in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if it actually would pass. And if it didn't, I'm sure they could find something relatively close by that would. At the absolute worst, RFK. ...Well, there would also be that one other issue of, if they got past the knockout games, all the group games would be played after their season ended. So, yeah, there's a $$$ issue there in paying the players. And keeping them fresh between rounds. All that aside, I do think, at this point, the odds are against them. With both Chicago and Seattle taking the tournament very seriously, and Dallas taking it almost as seriously, they're at long odds at this point.
At Mikeyratt: Did you listen to the Quarterfinal review show last night or on archive at all? Leigh Cowlishaw was on the show.
USSF has announced possible finals locations. Sounders win, they host either Richmond or Chicago. FC Dallas and Richmond win, the FCD hosts FC Dallas and Chicago win, Chicago hosts http://t.co/n3n2Dfr
So, it's Seattle chasing the "first team to win three straight since the 60's", and Chicago looking to make it 'third team ever to win five'. Sorry, Fire fans, but as a Dallas supporter, I'd rather see Seattle win.
I would rather slash my wrists than watch either of them win another trophy, but since Chicago already has more hardware than us, I guess I'm a Fire fan for this one.
I would really like to see CenturyLink sold out for the cup final 67,000. I think would generate some buzz & more interest in the tournament.
I would really like to see CenturyLink sold out for the cup final 67,000. I think would generate some buzz & more interest in the tournament.