And how many people attended the Third place game in past Gold Cups? Two days notice, no advertising, most US fans ponied up to about $60 total each Wed., many pissed off fans from Wed. who missed most the game with ticket screwups. If the organizers had half a brain they would have cut ticket prices,to charge the same as for Brazil was foolish. That's alright, we had close to 50K for Brazil, South Florida did fine. BTW, plenty of empty seats for Bra-Mex on TV today.......
People have jobs, things to do etc. I'm not in Sam's Army, but I for one wasn't going to drive 13 hours or pay to fly to a 3rd place match. Priorities. The attendane wouldn't have been any better in Boston or hardly anywhere else.
Re: Re: Official pathetic attendance for 3rd place game thread [R] Florida is great, espicially South Florida (Go Dolphins!) but I don't like the idea of having US games there because we never get anything close to a home field advantage there. The fans are always in favor of the opposing team there, and because of that, we shouldn't play USMNT games there. As for MLS, if they had an MLS team playing in MIAMI, not Broward County, they would do pretty well in attendance. There are lots of soccer fans down there, they just had the stadium in the wrong place.
Where the f*** were you? Exactly. First off, the South Florida area is bush league for sports, no question. It is an area of frontrunners best illustrated by the surge in Marlins attendence now that they are winning. That said, there was ZERO promotion for this match. The US/Brazil match actually generated alot of media interest locally. Sports jocks who NEVER mention soccer were talking it up. Commercials ran just about every hour on Tuesday and Wednesday for the match. Sports updates on the local all-sports station, reserved for 'headlines' mentioned the game all day Wednesday. The papers hyped it up, getting front page Wednesday and post game Thursday...not too much mention of the third place match in those post game articles though. The die-hards were there, but the casual fan probably didn't know too much about this game. People can't attend a game they don't know about. And besides, most people ponied up $30 day of the game for tickets on Wednesday. And yes, I attended both matches (plus the other two held in the area in 2003).
Re: Re: Official pathetic attendance for 3rd place game thread [R] that is why half of the people where you live move here? i'd like to clear things up for outsides. florida does suck, it is way too country and a piece of crap, except for Disney, as Morpheus said. however SOUTH FLORIDA is the best location in the country.
I think this may have been the lowest attendance for any USA match, friendly or otherwise, in the last decade though a USA-Canada match at the Rose Bowl came pretty close. The 9,000 plus we got in Richmond for a friendly against New Zealand is starting to look OK. I would have thought there would have been 10,000 Ticos fans there myself--after all, they didn't pay any money to watch a game in Miami on Wednesday!
No Surprise Miami is the best city in Latin America, or the worst city in America. Take your pick. The USSF, in their infinite wisdom, will continue to hold matches in Miami. Expect even more w/ expanded CONCACAF qualification. Since we are going to have to pay for the airfare, not to mention salaries, of the pathetic islands we will have to play in the first round, Miami is likely the cheapest destination in the US. I'm sure the USSF is praying we draw Cuba so they can set up a combo US vs. Cuba, Elian Gonzalez fundraising match at the Orange Bowl. On the bright side, Miami will be burnt to the ground in the post-game riot after we slaughter them 5-0 again.
Time and again people lump Tampa Bay and South Florida in the same verse.... You could not be more wrong. It is 275 miles from Tampa to Miami. Tampa is closer to Georgia than Miaimi. Culturally, it is the difference between Boston and say, Louisville.... Miami consists of a lot of folks from Cuba, Haiti and New York/New England...Floridian do not live there. Tampa consists of native Floridian's and a lot of folks from the midwest such as Chicago, Detriot, and Indiana, and Tennessee. It has more of a southern feel to it... Think interstates. I-75 runs through Tampa, I-95 runs from New York to Miami.... Tampa has better support for it's sports teams...mainly because more people who live in Tampa are from there.... Most people who live in Miami, grew up elsewhere. Those who where born in Miami, moved to Tampa! The Bucs have soldout 48 straight games. They have 80,000 people on a season ticket waiting list... The Dolphins only sell out the Jets game, and most of them root for New York. The Lightning are 15th out of 30 in attendence in the NHL. This is after 6 years in a row of having the worst record in the NHL. This season looks to be a hard sellout, and so Tampa will finish 2nd in overall attendence in the NHL (second biggest arena). Tampa owns every NHL attendence mark. Miami's Panther's and Heat both rank toward the bottom of attendence. The Marlins, always at or above .500, and won a world series...will ONCE again draw less fans than the D-Rays, who have never finished above 29th in wins, and have lost 100 plus games every year... In soccer, pro soccer existed in Tampa for 28 straight years, until two years ago. The Rowdies averaged over 28,000 a game for two years back in the NASL heyday. Only the Cosmos did better. The Strikers did not draw much more than the Fusion. Miami sucks as a sports town. The Brazil game proved that no US soccer fans exist in any significant numbers... Maybe someone might consider coming to Tampa in January.... You might see a bigger, soccer educated, and Pro US crowd... But no, if they don't think of South Florida, they think of Disney, and Orlando, which is, and always will be, a minor league town...
The USMNT could play anybody with two days notice and get more than 6,000 fans in Columbus or Foxboro. Since that game might have included Mexico or Brazil as well, you'd have to think the Hispanic fans in someplace like DC or LA would have brought in a higher number than 5K and change. Had the game been held in any city with a MLS team, you could have a double header that would have brought in at least 10K. The Miami location was chosen to lessen travel distances and in the mistaken belief that the Hispanic population of South Florida would come out to see any game that had a Hispanic team. You get the home team and a Hispanic team and the game doesn't draw? Then play both the consolation game and the final in the same location. US v. Costa Rica will draw better then 5K in Mexico City.
Miami averaged More fans than Foxboro, even with their Triple header games with the Revolution. YOu can go home now, Florida bashers. We love it here. PS. We have had the US National team play in South Florida four times this year. How many times has the US national team played in your area this year?
Another reason Miami figures consistently into US Soccer's plans is that Miami is always warm. The weather is incredible and that's great for winter training camps, multiple game runs like Canada and Argentina, not to mention a short flight to Jamaica. Like it or not people, Miami isn't going away in regards to US Soccer. I know the HDC in LA will probably take some of that away, but I'd rather train in Miami than LA anyday, and I'm sure they would too.
What don't u shut the ****************** UP i live up here in DC so maybe u should get a clue that's like how many miles from miami?
Last time I checked, there is an airport in DC. Sorry, your little excuse is about as pathetic as the attendance. And for what is it worth, yes.. I WAS at BOTH games. Where there's a will there's a way. Cheers!
Alright, this is the last straw. Miami shouldn't be considered for an MLS franchise for at LEAST 8 years. I don't want to hear about this being an "unimportant game". What about an MLS game in early May. How important would that be? What about a game in September, pitting the Miami team against Dallas - two teams out of the playoff race? Would anyone show up for either of those games? Let the Miami pipe dream die. 5,000 fans for our national team is PATHETIC. Simply pathetic. And besides, it was against a good Costa Rica team with Sampson at the helm. I know I would have been there if I lived in Miami. I can guarantee if that game were held in KC then at least 15000 fans would show up, and probably more.
By this logic, we should strip Boston of the Revolution because they only had 7,000 turn out against Martinique for a game that technically meant more than this one.
Gillette Perhaps you are right, but I suspect if the game had been at Gillette is would have drawn much more than 5,093. IMHO, the matchup of Arena v Sampson should have drawn more than 5,093 in a major USA city like Miami.
Remember, the Martinique game was on a Monday night. It is hard to draw other than a weekend in this area. It was posted that Saturday is a hard draw in Miami. So what day is supposed to be a good draw in Miami? I'm not saying all the Gold Cup should have been at Gillette. It is good to spread the tournament around. The organizers were mistaken to think that good crowds would be drawn in Miami.
Re: Re: Official pathetic attendance for 3rd place game thread [R] Florida stinks (except for Disney Word, and the Keys) [/B][/QUOTE] Could you please spread the word, its getting a little crowded down here.
Jam-Col 15,423 Jam-Gua 10,323 Col-Gua 11,233 Bra-Col 23,425 Bra-US 35,211(paid) actually closer to 50,000 IMO US- CR 5,093 I really don't think this is bad attendance at all. Someone else do the work to compare with Boston. Also, didn't they also have the advantage of double/triple headers and counted the Rev crowd?
Ok, F***head...how many Sam's Army members do you suppose live in South Florida? Huh? I'd wager not alot. The lesson? The Sam's Army members from the area WERE THERE for both matches. If your ass couldn't travel to the game, chances are they couldn't either. Now, go home and get your f***in' shine box.
I'll accept the blame and say I should have travelled the 5 hours to this game even though I'm not even American myself. In defence of Miami, I think there is a great atmosphere down there for most US games. Yes, it doesn't seem very pro the US team but I still think they should play there. Since I've lived in the US I've gone to different cities to games and even though we are very outnumbered it's still fun at the Orange Bowl and has a great atmosphere. I was still kind of shocked that the 3rd place game was that lowly attended by people who lived near.