USA - Mexico in Seattle or Salt Lake?

Same here. Of course I already booked into Columbus thinking there's no way US Soccer would be stupid enough to move the match away from CCS after our recent results there....

Shocked and chagrined!

 

It is a foolish choice. For one, you are adding another 3 hours onto the time difference that European players will have to deal with. The game will likely kick off at 8pm. This will then feel like 4am to those playing in England, Scotland and Germany.

Then you have to factor in the ability to get a large US supporting crowd. In Columbus, you had the advantage of selling tickets to Crew season ticket holders and US soccer fans first. In Seattle, you only have the US soccer fans to tap into as the Sounders do not have the structure in place to be used as such.

Thirdly, you have the mental aspect of the location. Mexico has never won in Columbus. This is a mental hurdle that they must overcome in the same way that the US has never won in the Azteca.

Lastly, you have the proximity to the east coast, which has a more entrenched support for the US national team than that of the west coast. You will be cutting off many of the more ardent fans.

 

What are you talking bout? The Sounders already have 16 to 17K season ticket holders to tap into then the US Soccer fans.

Problem is the capacity of the stadium. In Columbus the above is practically a sellout at that point.

In Seattle, there are still 40 to 50K seats left.

 

I'll be there regardless of where the match is, but I'm hoping for Columbus still. After watching the '01 and '05 matches I want to be a part of that atmosphere that can only be replicated by returning to the scene. Salt Lake wouldn't be bad and should provide an atmosphere similar to Columbus, but without the psychological advantage. Seattle would be perfect if they had a 20,000-30,000 seat stadium, but they don't and playing in Qwest would not provide us an advantage so I really hope they don't get it.

 

If they wanted Seattle and wanted to maintain a home field advantage, a solution would be to only sell the lower deck. You have the 16K season ticket holders, plus any USSF distribution scheme, which would probably limit the Mexican support to less than 1/4 of the stadium. I'm not saying this is ideal, but certainly within in the realm of possibility.

 

If they are looking at Seattle and SLC they gotten over their east coast bias. That also opens the door for Stanford.

-The Bay Area was listed by Gulati as one of the areas under consideration
-The Stadium at 50K is right sized - compared to Qwest
-Easy, direct flight access from Europe - 20mins from SFO.
-Natural Grass
-36K came to a meaningless US / Japan qualifier in Feb '06
-Stanford has great relations with US Soccer having hosted mens and womens WC games and recently the Olympic teams final US training.
-It's much closer to my house.


Stanford's a sleeper in this ...

 

You wont regret going to Seattle.

 

I don't see Stanford hosting the Mexico match and according to my sources, it isn't even in the discussion. That's not to say it can't jump into the discussion, but as of now, I don't think it's being considered. San Francisco has too large of a Mexican population and more importantly, you don't have a MLS season ticket base to sell to. I guess San Jose could work, but they have a small season ticket base that isn't right there and my guess is a lower percentage of Quakes season ticket holders would buy tickets as opposed to other MLS season ticket holders. I can't see any way in hell that Stanford hosts the Mexico match. I think it's a sleeper to get a different WCQ, but not this match.

 

In my own selfishness I want the game to be in Seattle.

The flight is much cheaper, I rather go to that city than any other city, coffee, wouldn't have to take a red eye in and could leave in the morning. Everything would be nice for Brandinho should the game be held in the Emerald City.

 

nothing sucks more than seeing a game where part of the stadium is empty or blocked off, ie: RES - the stadium we used to play at on the University of Utah, jacksonville NFL games. it looks especially embarassing when seen on TV - makes it appear to fringe viewers that there is not enough support for the team. would make US soccer look bad for such a big game.

 

id love it too. i much prefer seattle over columbus, i just dont see it happening. i think that it will end up in columbus when its all said and done....never underestimate the leverage created by a few viable competitors. just ask scott boras ;-)

 

The problem is the USSF can't bring the Yankees into the discussion to get what they want like Boras does...or maybe they can make the qualifier the first game at the new Yankee Stadium. Hmmmm.

 

Note, Sunil Gulati also said in a recent podcast that he'd be leaning towards an East Coast venue for the 1 game WCQ dates (as opposed to the home & home dates like Sat/Wed, which is most of the schedule), which Mexico is. Hopefully this article is just smoke.

Considering that the Euro players won't be released from their club teams until Sunday/Monday, it makes a lot of sense to lessen the travel for a Wednesday game. I think SLC should get a game, and wouldn't be against Seattle getting one either, but putting Mexico there is dumb. Seattle is super-far away from Europe, and SLC is both far away AND at altitude, which European players won't be accustomed to, but domestic Mexican players might be.

Just all sorts of dumb.

 

also, qwest field is fieldturf. can sod effectively be laid in february? and if so is it economically viable for 1 game? we went through all that in SLC when we hosted the WCQ in 2005 in RES, it doesnt seem like it ever works real well and it costs a ton.

 

thats exactly what the USSF needs!! ;-)

from everything thats been said the USSF wanted to have this match in C-Bus but there are issues with the negotiation and there are issues from the revenue derived in 2005. seems like if the USSF wants to up the pressure on C-Bus (which probably felt it was almost guaranteed the matchso tried to use that as leverage) all they need to do is leak a few stories about the match being held at this stadium or that stadium and all of a sudden, C-Bus loses any leverage it had....

 

They would pack 67,000 seats at Qwest so the cost of rolling in grass won't be an issue, but whether or not it can be laid down effectively in February is a good question. The average February high in Seattle is 51 with a low of 37 so it's not ridiculously cold. They do get a lot of rain though so it could be torn up rather easily and make it the match of poor quality.

 

Yeah, I'm hearing that it's a matter of negotiations with Columbus and not that the USSF wants the match to be somewhere else. It will be a game of who blinks first.

 

To be precise:

Nothing definitive.

It was probably written with best intentions with the information he had available at the time. But, his info could be wrong, or things could change.

Since it's easier and faster to get to Seattle and the Bay Area from Europe than to get to Columbus from Europe shall we rule out Columbus?

 

one thing to note, which i BELIEVE is the case but i dont want to state definitively. as part of American Airlines deal with US Soccer, players usually fly American Airlines to the matches. i know both Frankie Hejduk and Brad Guzan regularly fly American on USSF business. obviously this wouldnt directly impact WHERE the match is played, but american's routings are something that could be helpful in understanding travel time for European based players. that being said, most of AA's European flights go to JFK, ORD or DFW. all three serve CMH connections regularly (of course they serve SEA and SFO as well).

 

I think SLC would be the second best option after Columbus. The entire city in general was so pumped for the qualifier back in 05. The nightly news talked about the game for an entire week before, and the fans that came out cheered loud and proud for the US.

I think for the game against Mexico, if USSF handles the ticketing correctly, we could have a fantastic atmosphere in Salt Lake. The city is beautiful, the Trax make it easy to get to the stadium, and it will be cold. Which mexico will not like.

If the deal with Columbus falls through, i think SLC proved in 05 that they can host the US national team just as good, if not better than any city across the country.

 

Clearly I was unaware of Seattle's season ticket base. However, I look at it more as a historical note. Columbus has demonstrated the ability to get behind the US. Seattle is a new situation and their fans aren't exactly a known quantity for who their national allegience aligns with.

Of course, they could all be good old Americans, but you never know.

 

SUM and El Tri pwn the USSF (I think that's what they kids say nowadays), if they move the match out of Columbus. Sunil better get an ironclad deal that the away match will be in LA if Feb. 11 is anywhere but Columbus.

 

I would love the game in SL for obvious reasons. But where the team plays is not that big of a deal to me. We are going to win either way, so why are people so concerned about this.

Columbus average temp on Feb 11 - 38/23
Salt Lake City average on Feb 11 - 42/24

Really, this shouldn't make a difference between SLC and Columbus at all. Daily fluctuations make up for the difference in Columbus' "colder" temperature. Temperature can't be used for an argument until game day when we actually know what each locations temperature will be.