SO who is going? And guess on the attendence since Pittsburgh only seems to support the Steelers? PArk at Station Square and take the Gateway Clipper to the game.
Thanks for the parking tip. Yes, Joe Stoker & entourage plan to be there. Read that Chinaglia was in town promoting the match last month (I hear a resounding "Who?" from the Tri-state region). Expect to see at least 30,000. Be looking for the Stoker jersey.
My wife and I are coming from Hershey, PA; we're going with two people who have never been to a soccer game before. I'm looking forward to it. Any news on attendance numbers? I understand Pittsburgh area teams had great success in the Open Cup in the late 40s and 50s, but am unclear as to what kind of following soccer has there.
I cant imagine attendance will be spectacular. If anybody's interested, my 16 are going to the Hard Rock at Station Square at about 3.30 to get primed for the tailgate. We'll all be in Chesea FC Blue.
This will be interesting on how many show up. Pittsburgh is an American Football town. There are a lot of comments about attendence and the Pittsburgh Pirate games and the Pennguins struggle at times also. Soccer is an unknow for Pittsburgh, will be interesting. Hope the game is goes well and after I'm off to Toronto to see the 2 games at Skydome. Summer Soccer Tour 2004!
Chelsea and Roma are obviously big clubs, both with a lot of history. But in the general American sporting public, there are only a couple European teams that might ring a bell - Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool. For a market like Pittsburgh, I'm just not sure how many will turn up for these two teams. I could be completely wrong (hope I am), but Italian teams would probably only draw well in the northeast (New York, Boston, maybe Philly), while Chelsea isn't a team that's known enough for a city like Pittsburgh. I'm not sure about the drawing power of this matchup. Either way, I'm looking forward to it.
At one time, Pittsburgh had a sizeable Italian community down beyond the Oakland district in Panther Hollow (Bruno Sammartino's old neighborhood), but I can't speak for today. If two major Italian clubs played in Cleveland, it would probably have done much better than Celtic/Boca. A Catholic festival held in Little Italy annually draws about 100,000 participants. Last I saw in print (June), over 20,000 tickets were sold for Heinz. That alone beats Cleveland last year. Pittsburgh has a rich soccer history for adult participants rather than for paying spectators. Most of these were originally coal-mine and factory-sponsored clubs. As the mines & factories closed, so went soccer in Pittsburgh. Beadling and a few other old-time clubs carry on, particularly now in youth development, but pro teams attempting to appeal to the general public never have had much success there. As with most of the Tri-state area, pointy-ball is king. It's the center of social life throughout one's schooling. IMO it would take generations to change that mindset, both in Cleveland/Akron and the Pittsburgh area.
I Agree I doubt the Passion for American Football will change in this area but can Soccer out do Baseball or Hockey? 12 years of losing and mismanagement of Baseball has sour most to the game. Doubt Pittsburgh is too high on the MLS map but a packed Stadium for Chelsea & Roma may get some attention.
i live in pitts but from sheffield..would like to meet up for a few beers before the game if you wann.i support swfc but hey its football thanks tom
I believe, on occasion, pro soccer has outdone baseball. I think immediately of Seattle during the mid '70s. The Mariners were brought into existence primarily to appease local politicians & for the American League to avoid a lawsuit for allowing used-car-salesman Selig to move the Pilots to Milwaukee. The Sounders were fan-oriented from day one & generated genuine public enthusiasm. Trouble was, such instances where the soccer team outdrew baseball, per game, never lasted. The NASL clubs always managed to sooner or later shoot themselves in the foot. For me, pro baseball died with the '94 strike. I believe they knew that they lost us oldtimers for good. Thus, they appeared to change their sales techniques when they reappeared. All flash, dash, Jumbotrons, juiced-up equipment and players (now five strikes and you're out), and everything builds up to a game-winning home run. MLB now appears to be using the same marketing techniques as the Dick Berg-inspired NASL sideline circuses. Lost sight of the game itself. The NASL target audience grew up or grew tired & moved on to something else, and, well, you know the rest. Could it happen with MLB? Maybe in Pittsburgh or Detroit? Miami? Possible. Yea, I can see pro soccer-done-right knocking hockey out of the headlines in places like Pittsburgh or Baltimore or Cleveland among others, since hockey is currently shooting itself down. The trick is in keeping it going. NASL & MISL owners had a lot of fun creating success (for whom or what, it could be argued... Wolstein, Foreman, Lee Stern come to mind here), but showed little interest in maintaining it regarding the sport or team itself in their particular town.
I dont't want to take this off-topic, but I'm the same way. Haven't watched an MLB game since that strike. And being raised in South Jersey, I always followed the Phillies. I was on a real high after the 1993 season, but that strike just did it for me. Back to Pittsburgh, how is the game being promoted? Is there any kind of talk about it? When are the teams arriving?
I agree with many of your points. Even Former Baseball player and now broadcaster Steve Lyons stated Baseball is no longer the National Pastime. Soccer just like American Football is more of an action game and works well on TV. Baseball has kicked their fans around over and over but yet some how they state this could be the largest attendence ever this year. When I see the stadiums they look empty. Then again when I look at MLS stadiums they look empty too. I travel 3 hours to Columbus to see MLS soccer but gets to be a bit much. Soccer could be a big deal in Pittsburgh right after the Steelers.
I have seen a few ads on TV talking about it. Pittsburgh Sports Talk Show host Mark Madden has talked about it. It's not unlike Mark to fly to England to watch EPL games on the weekends so he is a big Soccer fan. I heard Chelsea is using the Steelers pratice site as a base in the US but I imagine they will not show in Pittsburgh until after they match in Seattle. I've heard nothing on AS Roma arriving.
Pittsburgh Roma/Chelsea ticket sales Looks like at least 30,000 for Heinz Field this Thursday. Not bad for the Rust Belt. Far better than last year in Cleveland anyhow... although neither club apparently will pull out on short notice this time. www.post-gazette.com/pg/04199/347924.stm
Just merging with old thread. BTW, here is the list of Roma players coming to the US: BRIOTTI CANDELA CERCI CORVIA CUFRE' CURCI DACOURT D'AGOSTINO DELVECCHIO DELLAS DE MARTINO GRILLO LANZARO MEXES MONTELLA PANUCCI PIPOLO ROSI SCURTO SIMONETTA TOTTI VIRGA ZOTTI
Re: Pittsburgh Roma/Chelsea ticket sales Read that this weekend. Better sales than I anticipated. However, I worry that the last sentence Is a bit optimistic. I don't see how the atmosphere for these games is going to be all that electric since it's a pre-season exhibition played in front of American fans who usually aren't that demonstrative. But hey, maybe I'll be wrong again.
Roma/Chelsea musings Couple o' things (new to the board...so gots a few things to say)... My cuzzin and I are gonna be in attendance on thursday with a big a$$ Italiano flag s'pportin the roman lads (though me heart bleeds Liverpool red for sure...)...and I thought a great locale for the ROman crew to assemble and prep would be the Strip District of the burgh...quite an Italian presence for sure (also noticed a lot of the storefronts had posters up supporting the match). But aye, we'll prolly be snoopin round that area in the afternoon. But aye...nother idea...figgered it would be great to gather a bunch of fans (chelsea blues and Romans) outside of KDKA's tv station (located 'cross the river from the pitch) prior to game in order to coerce them into sendin a camera out to tape us (we 'burghers know the station does the 'hometown hello' deal often enough). Never hurts to try But aye, organize, organize. Let the voices be heard, let the colors be flown. Aye, I think our plan for thursday is to be conspicuous...the bigger turnout the better. 2. Is there a Liverpool contingent in the burgh? Any lads/lasses gather for games durin the season? Jes wondered. 3. (not related to this post), but aye, kinda wonderin' of the integrity of Celtic fans when all i see are Irish flags for the Glasgow team - where are the scottish ones?...no complaints, jes wondered about the phenomenon...YNWA all the same 4. oh ja, nother thing...not too organized tonight...concerning the crowd for thursday...what percentage of the crowd do you think will be hard-core and what percentage of the crowd has no clue who the heck these teams are? Jes wondered. 5. 'Nother thing. The pirates have a day game at 12.45 at PNC park (in the burgh)...I thought'd be cool to get a crew on the R. Clemente bridge during the game (the stadium looks out onto the bridge)...free advertisement/airtime to those fans with flags and the like! well, we'll see...jes don't want my flag floatin' down the Allegheny River. Ok...I think that's it. I think Til when ever, keep the faith, keep up appearances, make your voices heard, and your support visible...g'luck and cheers to both the Londoners and the Romans and their supporters. And lets see some goals. I still h8 MANU...'Pool Rocks...Roma is okay for one day i guess (feel kinda dirty) JUSTICE FOR THE 96...YNWA Rock on.