9/20 Norway v France Lincoln Financial Field 13,486 Nigeria v North Korea Lincoln Financial Field (thanks for the catch DennisM) 24,347 Germany v Canada Cowlumbus 16,340
What is wrong with Columbus? Columbus is the 14th or 16th largest city in the U.S. Your posting from Kansas for heavens sake!!!!
I for one was disappointed with the Philadelphia turnout. 30 minutes before game time it hardly felt like a World Cup. There was a small contingent of Norway supporters who did well. The Nigerian group provided some spark when they arrived, as did 2 separate groups of Korean supporters. P.S. How do you get 2 different attendance numbers for a double header event that has a single admission ticket?
Just for the record, Columbus is the 30th largest metropolitan area in the the country. The City just annexed more of what would be suburbs in places like Cleveland and Cincinnati. And now a word about the makeup of the crowd. I make a practice of going for a walk during breaks, and the 50+ minutes between halves of the doubleheader was a great opportunity for that. I like to look at who is there, and what they're wearing. For example, I saw far more Manchester United logos at the USA-Mexico WCQ in '01 than I ever saw in ten days in England. There were a lot of people wearing Canada stuff, but relatively little of it looked soccer-specific. More of it was hockey-specific. There were a fair number of people wearing Germany stuff, and ALL of it was soccer-specific, lots of it kits for Bundesliga teams, mostly Bayern Munich. There were a few people wearing Japanese logos (they all looked Japanese) and maybe twenty in the whole stadium who sported Argentine jerseys or logos. There were exactly five ManU shirts, and one Arsenal shirt. I didn't count, but the proportion of Crew gear was less than 10% of what I see at a Crew match. But all of this added together (including Canada) was dwarfed by the high school girls soccer shirts. That's who attended this event, not regular soccer fans.
The crowd clearly was strange in Philly... The 13K for the 1st match, clearly was about right, meaning those in the stands and NOT tickets sold... then the 2nd match, a ton of Koreans and Nigerians showed up, and even where I was sitting, about a dozen folk showed up for the 2nd match.... I assume there were many who had obligations early Saturday, who made it for the 2nd match... From what I hear, 50K have been sold for USA on Thursday ...
so b/c you saw a bunch of canadians in hockey jerseys or high school/middle school girls in their uniforms mean they are not a "regular" soccer fan? what the hell is a regular soccer fan in your mind? someone who pays a load of money for some cheap-ass replica of a manu jersey? the people at the stadium knew soccer, even if they were young female soccer players. are they not fans b/c they don't watch FSW? i talked to a few of "those" canadians and they had on their hockey gear b/c they cannot get their hands on a national team jersey. they were all fans of the womens team and many of them drove down from canada, some as many as 18 hours to see the game yesterday... i don't get the knock on columbus. sorry if everyone has a problem with this city and want to call it "cowlumbus" but fifa/ussf thought it was a good enough venue and city to host first round WWC games and honestly that is all that matters.
So if the whole crowd was wearing Crew gear they would be regular soccer fans? Give me a brake!! Just like it seems like a lot of guys that post on the crew big soccer forum don't like women's soccer maybe some of the fans at the WWC don't like MLS. I personally am a Crew season ticket holder, but I don't think it has to be one or the other! Why can't you just enjoy the event? Why do you feel the necessity to tear down women's soccer?
Re: Re: Re: Attendance thread I just don't understand peoples need to put down Columbus by calling it Cowlumbus. There is nothing wrong with Kansas, but someone from Kansas has no room to talk about Columbus.
No, I don't think you are "either" a men's fan or a women's fan. I am mostly a men's fan, but I have spent over $300 on tickets to women's soccer this year. How about you? I do think that the crowd I saw in Crew Stadium yesterday was very disproportionatelty made up of people who won't attend six soccer matches as paying spectators in any year of their lives - high school matches involving their own children excepted.
Between the Bomba and the Korea supporters, it sounded a heckuva lot louder. My mother said she could hear the drums on TV. Reason? We were right under the concrete rim of the Upper Deck.
What about last night's games? I think Australia v Russia got 8,500. Sure sounded like a lot of people at the China/Ghana match.
If you are correct, I am ecstatic, I hope more will be sold, and I feel privileged to have tickets and am proud to say I'm going! What is your source, Adam?
Weather is supposed to be pretty good for Thursday - enabling the last minute walk up crowd. However, local coverage has been minimal from my perspective. Maybe we'll see and hear more before Thursday, since it's the US this time.
And the Eagles are, ahem, living up to the expectations of LFF stadium security. Docile, uninspiring, and flat-out lame.
The US game on Sunday has officially been declared a sell-out at Columbus as well as for the Sweden/Nigeria match.
Yup - that was our group. My daughter's team had a NJ State Cup game that didn't end until about 12:30 up by New Brunswick. Even though we left a trail of flaming asphalt on the way down, we still only managed to catch the last 10 minutes of Norway-France. As excited as I am about seeing the USWNT, Sweden-North Korea should be a great, great game.
Attendance for 4 double headers: 1) 09/20/2003 in Philadelphia Att: 24,347 2) 9/20/2003 in Columbus Att: 16,340 3) 09/21/2003 in Washington D.C Att: 35,144 4) 09/21/2003 in Carson Att: 10,027
SEPT. 28 FIFA WOMEN'S WORLD CUP USA 2003 DOUBLEHEADER AT COLUMBUS CREW STADIUM SELLS OUT U.S. Women's National Team to Face North Korea, Sweden Faces Nigeria in Final Day of Group A Play COLUMBUS, Ohio (Monday, September 22, 2003) - Columbus Crew Stadium became the first venue to sell out a session for the FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003 as the last tickets were purchased on Monday for the doubleheader that includes the U.S. Women's National Team on Sunday, September 28. That match will be televised live in the U.S. at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC and TeleFutura. Sweden will take on Nigeria at 1 p.m. that day, followed by the U.S. facing North Korea with a 3:45 p.m. kickoff. The U.S. opened with a 3-1 victory over Sweden on Sunday, while North Korea topped Nigeria by a 3-0 margin. Tickets are still available for all other upcoming FIFA Women's World Cup matches via FIFAworldcup.com or by calling 1-800-WWC-TIKS. A complete match schedule is available online at FIFAworldcup.com.
My 2 cents: In Columbus, the crowd seemed to swell at the end of the Ger/Can match through the first part of Jpn/Arg. In my section, many people came late because of afternoon obligations. A lot of people started leaving at the half of Jpn/Arg and they missed some of the best goals. The crowd seemed to be a good mixture of people that were there for different reasons: "fans" of national teams playing, Crew ticket holders, first timers to an international match, to show their kids how to play (?), some just to enjoy the games or the WWC, and then "the world revolves around my enjoyment of the game" people that seemed to be annoyed at their own obligation to be there(??). Most were not knowledeable about the better players or the teams, but a lot of the crowd responded to big names like Sawa, Prinz, Hooper, and Sinclair. The crowd was definitely soccer savvy, which was very cool. I was happy about the crowd size and the atmosphere and general reaction from fans. More spectators are certainly a welcome sight, but I thought it was a good crowd and I had an excellent time. Don't know if I felt safer or more threatened with the police copter flying around the stadium... like they knew something we didn't. Can't make the Wed matches, but will be going back next weekend! One more thing, who cares where you live or how people make fun it... I live in WI for crissakes. Attend the games, go home happy!