I've been to 3 games so far, each a home game that has been dominated by the away team in terms of fan appearence. Don't let me down Utah.
Utah doesn't have an NFL team but has some college teams that are locally popular. One of them is playing a huge game at the same time as USA-ES.
If there are only 3,000 tickets left 9 days out I don't see how it won't sellout. I also don't think there will be 10,000 ES fans but who knows.
I think there will be 10K El Salvador fans. There's a big El Salvador presence in LA and I can see them showing in numbers. And, yeah, I know that there weren't many CR fans at the game 4 years ago, but the population of CR ex-pats in the US is probably only 5% the number of Salvadorans here.
I attended the 2007 Edition of the Gold Cup and El Salvador was in the same group as the U.S. The two games the USMNT played @ the Home Depot Center were vs. Guatemala and Trinidad & Tobago. But the presence of El Salvador fans was everywhere and there fans heavily cheered against the USMNT both times. They will travel and the with the apparent apathy of some fans here in Utah this might look like we're playing in San Salvador. For this reason everyone needs to bring U.S. flags! We know that the supporters section is going to be very patriotic and there will be plenty of Red but we need others in the stadium to pick up the slack i.e. -"the casual" U.S. fans. Also does anyone know if Nike is setting up a booth before the game with the Don't Tread on Me t-shirts that they have handed out at previous games? I know they brought out a Nike trailor for the Mexico/U.S. match. Can't wait for next weekend!
You should've seen USA vs Honduras in Chicago. Chicago was literally invaded by an ocean of Blue and White-clad Honduran fans while the stadium itself must have been easily 90% Pro-Honduras. Any game against Mexico will have a similar crowd pro away team makeup. Anyway, play almost any Spanish-speaking country from this hemisphere [excluding those in the Carribbean that play baseball] in the US and expect it to be that way. It's been that way for decades. Accept it, as it won't change in our lifetimes; maybe in a couple of centuries...
Not even close. No more than 65% Honduran fans. I was there, I was at the US-Mexico GC in Chicago, US-Poland friendly in Chicago. Hondurans in no way made up close to the # or % of Mexican and Polish fans (which wasn't even 90%).
I sorta agree with Master O that Chicago was invaded by Honduran fans. Took the train from the North Burbs to the game and there were easily at least what seemed like 1K Honduran fans on that ride with us to the what... 25-40 US fans. Out of the 64K in attendance that day, I'd say that a good 40K were Honduran fans. Either way, that game was a blast. Looking forward to this game as well. I actually hope there are more El Salvador fans at this game. Adds to the atmosphere IMO.
I agree with that, but 40 out of 64 is not 90%. It's actually 62.5%. For there to have been 90% Honduran fans there would have had to have been 58,0000 Hondurans. There were more than 6,000 US fans sitting in the 4-5 sections around me.
how much of it is the ticket price (significantly more than for an RSL game)? how much have the tickets been for the othe WCQ's? have they been in the similar price ranges?
I was very surprised to see such expensive tickets. Are they trying to price out El Salvadorans??? Endline tickets at the HDC for friendlies have never been above $25. I can understand a price increase for qualifiers, but in a recession, double?
I agree. No reason to ask USMNT fans to pay for your new stadium. But it SHOULD discourage our ever-present CONCACAF opponent fans living here "in the shadows"
I can't believe people think $40 to $100 tickets for a WCQ in a 20,000 seat venue is too much. It's staggering really, and I guess tells you everything you need to know about the state of U.S. soccer right now. This is likely to be the biggest game on U.S. soil for the USMNT in quite some time. I suppose it's possible that the Costa Rica game could be bigger. Let's hope not. I just don't see how comparisons to a regular season MLS game, or a friendly, are even remotely relevant. These are our nation's greatest players, playing one of the only remaining two games on U.S. soil relevant to the world cup for the next 4 years. If $40 or $50 or $60 is too much to pay for this game, then I don't think it really matters what the price is. The price is not the problem.
Well said RegularGuy. For those of us who can't make it to South Africa, this is the next best thing. A bargain, really/
The price IS a problem if you're driving 11 hours each way to get there, spending money on a hotel, renting a car, and paying for gas. My tickets to the WORLD CUP in Germany were not more than this game, and I was not stuck behind a goal. For people on BigSoccer $40 as a cheapest ticket is not a problem. We are already the hard core fans. For the casual fan in Utah to try and get into the game, or take their family, that is a problem. There are not that many hardcore fans (like all of us) that are willing to shell out that kind of money. Especially when they could stay home and watch OU beat BYU by 30...
Again, I really don't think the price is the main problem. Would $20 tickets get more people to the game? Perhaps. But my point was that's not the issue. The issue is that the significance of this game is just not understood. If it were, the difference between $20, $40, or $80 even wouldn't really matter that much for a 20,000 seat venue. Utah sells out the Delta Center -- 17,000 to see the Jazz play more than 40 games a year where $60 barely gets you in the upper deck. I think the problem is that non hardcores do not understand the difference between the various soccer games that are played. I don't think there are enough people locally that really know what this game means. The "casual" fan, even if he pays attention to soccer, just doesn't understand the difference between a friendly, a confed cup match, the various "cups" scheduled for MLS teams, or the LA/Barca game. Throw in the gold cup and 2 games against Mexico in one month, one that was borderline irrelevant and a terrible game, and one that was enormous and played with completely different players that did matter, and I don't think the average casual fan can keep it all straight, making a game against El Salvador in Utah seem less than compelling. I think a chronic lack of understanding what this game means and how to distinguish it from all the other soccer that is a blip on ESPN is really the problem. If you could show the average Utahan who is sports minded to begin with tape of the Ireland/Italy WCQ, for example, so that they truly understood what it means to qualify for this tournament, and how this game is so dramatically different from all the other summer of soccer noise, I really don't think $20 here or there would matter at all. That's my only point. You could get another 3,000 fans in the stadium with $20 tix sure, but if they don't understand what they are seeing, and why it matters, it doesn't make much difference.
It is the last weekend of the summer and a three day weekend for most. People already had other vacation plans. For the diehards, this is our vacation, but not for the casuals. SLC is very out of the way and direct flights are difficult/expensive from many locations. Again, die hards will do it, but not the casuals. College pointy ball in Utah is going on at the same time, forcing the outsiders to choose between their preferred sport and the one we all love. Tickets are too expensive. Comparing the cost to pro-basketball is silly because the NBA has enough die hards to pay those prices. US Soccer doesnt. The value of soccer isn't there. For years the MLS, US Soccer and others have tried to brand soccer as a family outing and tried to build a fan base around that. These people think family entertainment=low cost. Plus they aren't sitting in the supporters section, but on the sides where it is ridculously expensive. If you want sell outs (or at least huge audiences in bigger stadiums than Rio Tinto) for WC Qualifiers with all of these conditions in play, you had better stage these matches in a major market and population center. This is a public relations nightmare, not being able to sell out a 20k seat stadium for a qualifier when we are bidding to bring the WC back to the US.
In all honesty, I think this is the biggest problem. College football in Utah is HUGE. It is much bigger than the NFL here. A lot of casual fans are choosing to stay home and watch the BYU/Oklahoma game which is on at the same time. Even fans of the University of Utah (who hate BYU) are interested to see what BYU will do against a power house like Oklahoma. Turn on any of the local sports radio shows and college football is all that anyone is talking about. Another problem is that there is not a lot of visablity about this upcoming match here. The local newspapers have finally started writing articles about it over the last couple of days, but before that, I would say the majority of sports (non-soccer) fans had no idea that this match was even happening until a couple of days ago. I don't think the ticket prices help out much, but I think the timing of this match is the primary reason why it has not sold out yet.
I've always wondered why the USSF doesn't create TV spots that play up the "support your country" angle. All it would take would be clips of World Cup games, US players in action (maybe a bloody Brian McBride shot), a voice over saying the players are giving their all for their country, an explanation about how winning the game at home is important to get to the dance, and an appeal to the viewer's sense of patriotism, i.e., Uncle Sam needs you. I can't believe that there aren't people on the fence in the greater Salt Lake City area that wouldn't show up out of a sense of fealty and patriotism even if they don't care about soccer. Of course, this is all theoretical because the USSF apparently has more important places to spend their money than selling a world cup qualifier.