3 main revenue generators: TV revenue, ticket revenue, sponsorship http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONCACAF_Champions_League_2008–09 316,448 (5,188 per match)
i don't think is profitable i don't think it will ever be, at least not in central america and the caribbean due to their economic problems. people love their teams, they'd love to go to the stadium they just don't have the money to do it. as the tournament gets closer to its final stages the average attendance in north america will increase.
Its going to take time. The currupt runnung the central american feds primarily ES and Guatemala need to stop funneling money to their pockets and actually invest in the sport and infastructure. better competition is better money for everyone.
It's not profitable, but it's a step in the right direction to conform the region into a better organized soccer region which should theoretically in the future lead to profit.
Also, it needs to be remembered that CONCACAF stated that they pay a portion of the travel costs for teams during the Champions League, so if it isn't profitable its not as big a deal as it could be. Although having said that many teams in the Caribbean still can't afford to participate in the CFU Club Championship.
Does it really matter if its profitable? If CONCACAF didn't have a club championship, could they expect to get any respect in the rest of the world?
My apologies, but I have a correction. As of today there's "over 35,000" according to the newspaper. I got that 45k number from a another forum and it seems that it's not true (yet!... there's still 2 weeks of ticket sales to go)
It's up to over 42,000 now! Already a CONCACAF record. Damn, I wish Montréal was still in the running for MLS expansion in 2011...
As great as that is, let's hope all those ticket sales can translate into goals. They're going to need them for the 2nd leg in Mexico.
That's still an amazing number. They're obviously really pushing this game as a "big-league" contest and something important to sell so many tickets. Kudos to them.
Canada could be the sleeping giant of CONCACAF, I think they deserve, and hope they get, their own league eventually. They could do 8-10 teams just fine. Play 4 times each. I'm not saying kick anyone out of MLS, just eventually, I think: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec seem solid prospects to me. And Hamilton, Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg are all over 500k. London, Halifax, Windsor, Victoria, and St. Catherines-Niagra Falls might be able to support a team as well. The enthusiasm shown by Toronto, and Montreal has been off the charts.
I don't see a secondary league, but more of an NHL arrangement. Provided Canadian teams did better in CONCACAF competitions, they might earn an extra spot.
Hopefully they can put some natural grass down before that game, it would be a shame to have such a match on thet awful turf.
Doesn't Montréal Impact normally play their matches at Stade Puto or something like that? If so that wouldn't be much of a home field advantage since Montréal isn't used to the green rug either. It's a shame a match with so much expectation won't be played on a proper pitch.
The turf (Same turf used in the grey cup 2008), has been installed. The team is practicing on it until game day:
I know it's Saputo I was simply making a joke man. That doesn't look too bad. I suppose it could be worse like when they used that big green mat for stickball games back in the day.
Is that the field turf stuff that's used in the NFL now? I know its a huge improvement over Astroturf, but will we see those litte black bits come flying up every time someone slides?
The Impact have prepared on artificial turf since January and will have had a solid 10 days of practice on the Big O's pitch, as well as being used to play competitive games in the USL on the surface. That won't be the case for Santos.
I'd also imagine that the turf isn't the craptacular rug that was Philly's Veterans Stadium back in the day. With as much publicity as this game has been getting, I have a hard time believing CONCACAF (let alone the Canadian Soccer/Football organizing body) would allow a subpar pitch for the most attended international club match in CONCACAF history.
It's FieldTurf. Rather than a solid surface like the old stuff, FT has "blades" that attempt to mimic grass. The biggest issue with FT is that the surface isn't always even, so a home team can have an advantage if it knows where the "dead" areas of the pitch are. Since the Impact are using FT that was designed for the CFL, expect the ball to be a little bouncier than you would see on soccer specific FT, which has longer blades.