It's also a great source of revenue, since 50,000 Mexicans will show up to all six of El Tri's games.
Maybe if we had a Gold Cup in Canada, the US could win again and we could have a post game ceremony in French and nobody would care.
^Nice one! No reason Canada can't host. This stuff you guys are talking about "developing" is nonsense. Canada has hosted u20 World Cup (most successful u20WC by the way ever), u19 Women's WC, and will be hosting the Women's World Cup. The infrastructure is there. There are suitable stadiums in 4 provinces and others that could be upgraded. But as the tournament is only 4 groups, only 4 stadiums are particularly needed anyway. Yes, stadiums are being developed and thus the "development" comment but the country is ready now. I am thrilled Montopoli wants to host and has discussed it. All I'd really think needs to happen is a joint-hosting venture. Host Canada's group in Canada, and the rest in USA. For example. I see no reason you couldn't host the games in a few Central America or Carribean countries as joint bids either. Only 1 or 2 stadiums are needed per country to host a succesful round of games. Canadian fans even suggest Canada's group could be held in 3 different cities for all 3 of their group games thus spreading it out.
Gold Cup has to become Regional Obviously I would love to see the Gold Cup hosted in other countries, but if they insist on having it in the United States every time, they need to stop spreading it out across the entire country and instead keep teams within smaller regions. Look at the "path" that the USMNT had to go through for this tournament: Detroit to Tampa to Kansas City to Washington DC to Houston to Los Angeles. Combined, that's over 6,500 miles traveled (an average of around 1,300 per trip in between games) and not one trip was less than 1,000 miles. For comparison, at Euro 2008 Spain traveled a TOTAL of about 300 miles for their ENTIRE tournament (they went from Innsbruck to Salzburg, then Salzburg to Vienna [they played 2 games in Innsbruck, 1 in Salzburg, and then their last 3 all in Vienna]). This is ridiculous. It hinders the level of play (the amount of traveling HAS to impact the players - from all teams, because they all have to make these cross-continent trips several times in the tournament) and it makes it impossible to follow your team. As a USA fan, how is anyone expected to be able to attend all of those games? That would cost several thousand dollars just for airfare. And, like I said, it's the same for all teams. An El Salvador fan would struggle to follow his team as well (going from Arlington to Charlotte to Chicago to Washington DC...). One of the groups actually had to go from Los Angeles to Miami to New York for their three games. That's absolutely ridiculous. Do you guys agree that it's stupid to be flying these teams all over the country during such a small span of time? Shouldn't groups be regional so that teams (and fans) can go to one location for the majority of their games?
Then why is the tournament limited to only 12 teams? There are 40 nations in CONCACAF, why do we have this ridiculous 3-group tournament where some third place teams advance and others don't? Why don't we have 4 groups of 4 (16 teams) like EVERY other real continental tournament (Europe, Asia, Africa)?
I won't say the overall quality of CONCACAF is "bad" but it's certainly not where it should be even with 12 teams. Imagine what it would be like with 16 teams. 'That being said, I would prefer a 16-team tourney just because I hate 12-team tourney formats.
Can't expand to 16 teams - you'd get even more 5(+)-0 drubbings! 12 is pushing it. As we all saw there was really only 1 fully competitive group and the rest only had 2 decent teams basically.
There are basicaly 10 teams that are "decent". Canada, United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica and TNT. After that there is a huge drop off.
how much money does the Gold Cup actually generate compared to say an Asian Cup or Copa America? I don't even wanna compare to European championship.
I'd really like to see Canada host. Get the country behind it and maybe a Costa Rica/El Salvador. Or as you said Jamaican led
A lot of it is demographics too. Many CONCACAF nations have a strong presence here demographically. Mexicans - 32,000,000 Puerto Ricans - 4,600,000 Cubans - 1,800,000 Salvadorans - 1,700,000 Dominicans - 1,400,000 Canadians - 1,000,000 Guatemalans - 1,000,000 Jamaicans - 1,00,000 Haitians - 830,000 Hondurans - 633,000 Nicaraguans - 350,000 Trinidadians - 250,000 Panamanians - 166,000 Costa Ricans - 126,000
I don't think it hurts the level of play and they schedule the games like this, so more people can attend. If you put the US on the west coast somewhere then people who live in California, Oregon, Arizona, etc don't have to travel quite as far to go to a game. Then when they fly to NY, or Boston, the people in the northeast don't have to travel far. Then if they play their final game in Charlotte, DC, or Atlanta the people who live in the mid-Atlantic don't have to travel quite as far to see their team play. If someone is that in to seeing all of the games then they can buy a plane ticket.
FOX is covering it like its some big deal. That shows you the lack of knowledge for the American people, they haven't a clue what is and what is not a big tourney for the most part. If the only prize is the Confed Cup, why even bother. There is no prestige with winning the tourney, so money is the only important thing. I bet Warner is salivating at the shot at having a random USA-Mexico playoff in Pasadena or Phoenix for the confed cup spot. Dolla dolla bills yall
How much cash is the winner given? How much prestige? The prestige needs to come before the money and the region needs to insure it's taken seriously. Almost akin to aspiring players dreaming of winning it, but I doubt that's likely.
Can they make it any easier for the yanks in Concacrap. When Mexico takes its Z team to the Cookie cup played in the U.S., Concacrap says half a spot is on the line to the Confed cup. What a joke
There's not really a way to just make the tourney respectable. CONCACAF is a weak region, so it's never going to be a gresat tourney. IMO the biggest issue is that its a 2 horse race. The tournament really just feels like US vs Mexico with 5 warmup matches . Go look at the tourneys in the past when it wasn't US vs Mexico in the final, with I think the exception of Canada upsetting Mexico in 2000 everytime the US or Mexico has been eliminated its been against each other or against invited non CONCACAF teams. The rest of CONCACAF needs to help make this tourney respectable, the US and Mexico have done their part
Great point. Need Canada to step up dramatically along with the Jamaicas, T&T, Panama. Costa Rica is doing their part. I just believe the Gold Cup needs better PR. Get the players out pimping it. Perhaps a name change for the tournament.
Out of the top of my head I'll give you three things that would go a loooooong way towards making this joke into a somewhat respectable tournament: 1- Have it every four years 2- Rotate the hosts 3- Have every participant qualify (no more direct tickets) As it stands today is as Mickey Mouse as it gets, and that has nothing to do with the quality of the participants.
100% agree except I understand the need for say qualification for the smaller nations. Don't think the USA or Mexico or Canada or even Guatemala need to qualify. They just need to expand it to 16 nations as well. 4 extra teams, even if they're Antigua, won't dilute the entire tournament.