Just reading the matchtracker from the DCU/Red Bulls game the other night. For an eight goal scorefest between one of the league's most established top teams in DCU and the team from the nation's most famous city carrying on some of the Cosmos spirit in the Bulls, a crowd of 5000 and odd turned up, despite the famed supporter groups of the Barra Brave and Screaming Eagles. This is not good and completely unsustainable. What's wrong and what can be done to improve matters?
The number for the most recent US Open Cup game is not at all worrying. These tournament games do not draw well historically, so a play-in game was only going to be worse. For example, DC United's home attendance for last year's US Open Cup is as follows: vs. Rochester (First Round, Soccerplex) 2,752 vs. Chicago (Second Round, Soccerplex) 4,118 vs. New England (Semifinals, RFK) 6,797 vs. Charleston (Cup Final, RFK) 8,212
Yeah, me too. Sad thing is, the USOC is real soccer history, and no one knows it. We're creeping up on 100 years of a real US soccer tradition. It's our FA cup, basically. And it's almost weird that no one has attempted to capitalize monetarily on it.
In this case it turns out to be a pity, 'cause a lot of fans missed out on a lot of goalmouth action...and lots of goals!! Sounds like a great time! Still, 5,000 for a "play-in game" (whatever that is) is better than 500 so it's all good...
Who's "they"? DC could hype the hell out of the game, but it's not going to generate a lot of revenue or casual fans. The USOC is simply too far off the radar to get much attention. That you can blame on the USSF. Why they don't advertise their own tournament more prominently is beyond me. They rely on MLS and its teams to do their job for them.
As far as i know and read that the USSF has a ton of money. They would only need to raise the premium bonuses for getting ther and more so for wining it. 1. The money talks( one cool million for the winner) 2. spot in the CONCACAF champions league 3. make a deal with a TV station to carry some of the games 4. be part of the day game program at MLS games Nats games 5.LINK on US Soccer web site( i dont think one can find it even if tries hard)
Since MLS teams share revenue, #1 is less of an incentive than you might think. I guess it might provide some motivation in a MLS vs. USL final, but MLS has already won every USOC except one since the league was founded. The USSF already does #2. #3: MLS is still struggling to get good ratings for its regular-season and playoff games (at least on ESPN), much less an additional tournament that's much lower-profile. You can't make people care about the USOC just by putting it on TV, assuming you could actually find a network to televise it. Don't know what #4 means. #5: http://ussoccer.com/teams/other/lamar/index.jsp.html It's under Teams and Events. It's not particularly up-to-date, though. If you can accept that nobody cares about this tournament, and then embrace it anyway, you shall be on the path to enlightment.
The US open Cup, is a competiton that only the hardcore supporters care about. If i go around Giants stadium tommorow, and ask the random fans if they knew about the during the week. Not many would even know a game took place.
It is not that people don't care, its that they have no idea what it is. It's up to USSF to raise awarness. If it ends up on TV it gets more exposure and give a chance to talk about it and educate people. If they dedicate one page of the weekly MLS game program ( FREE KICK ?) or whatever is called, that would be a good start. Truth is USSF doesn't respect it's own competition, so why would any other fan care !
Yea I dont really follow it until the semis or so. Im much or worried about DC in regular season play.
maybe instead of having just 8 teams from each level of the "pyramid" , every team should be involved, much like the English FA Cup, maybe having qualification games for the PDL sides with: -PDL and USL-2 sides enter in the first round -USL-1 and MLS sides not particpating in Superliga or Champions League enter in second round - MLS and any sides in Superliga and Champions League enter in round 3 Play games on a saturday, this would extend the season somewhat and enable fans to travel, something which they may not be able to do midweek, with replays mid week or weekend. That's my two cents anyway, feel free to critique
It was a Wednesday night US Open Cup play in game. It wasn't even officially part of the USOC competition. A little worrying? Only if you're a moron.
The problem is this year there are only 8 American USL-1 and 8 American USL-2 squads. Next year they will add 2 more USL-1 squads (in NY and Tampa) but given the instability in the league there's no guarantee that the current 8 will all make it into 2010 (Miami in particular), and 2011 USL-1 will lose Vancouver, Portland, and possibly Montreal. In comparison there are 60 PDL teams eligible for the USOC. So from PDL to MLS there are 90 eligible teams, but 2/3rds of those are PDL.