A Major game. A Home team. Plenty of time to rally support. Hardly any fans in the stadium. Why was there nobody in Crew Stadium to watch the home team bring home the hardware?
Same reasons I posted last season explaining why so few showed up for the Final in Fullerton. USSF runs the show and do a crap job.
the only well attended open cup final was in chicago i believe.....don't know where this one stands but without doubt, more work is required in getting the word out. i'm happier that the game was on live on fox sports world than i am depressed about the attendance. the good thing is that it was at crew stadium, where 6k doesn't look as bad as it would at giants or arrowhead stadium.
Simple answer. Doesn't every MLS fan here complain that the "sit on the hands" crowd, the soccer moms and soccer dads, are the majority of the attendance at matches, that the hardcore are few and far between? With scant few exceptions, that's been my observation. Moreover, having caught my share of MLB, NHL, and NBA games (I've only seen NFL games in the Kingdome, so I disqualify NFL), the thing I noticed most clearly on my first visit to Columbus Crew Stadium that was missing from the aforementioned- kids. You don't find too many at MLB games anymore, you're hard-pressed to find enough for all your fingers to count at NHL and NBA games. What this means is that MLS attracts families more than anything. That's both good and bad, bad if the MLS team panders to the family atmosphere, thus making it "uncool" to show up as a teenager. Those families, more likely than not, don't have a clue what happens in Europe. Therefore, they have no conception of what an Open Cup is. They expect a league to have a regular season and playoffs, and aren't surprised that more than half the teams make the playoffs. They expect what MLS provides. USSF isn't the problem here IMO, necessarily, if only because it's probably a nightmare to attempt to pre-schedule Open Cup matches on specific date, and subsequently get all the prospective teams involved to be able to adjust their stadium rental situation to it (many of the stadiums want to be more fluid, in case a good concert pops up). Only SSSs- or owners having primary control of stadia- can address that problem. However, being able to have the Open Cup matches in the pocket schedules and (less so) on the internet-posted schedules is probably the way to clue people in on the existence of the competition. I have noticed that many college sport schedules will list the prospective NCAA tournament dates. So having Open Cup- AND playoff dates, for that matter- on the schedule wouldn't hurt.
On October 20, 2000, around 20,000 people showed up in Chicago to watch the US Open. The USSF web page said that that crowd was one of the 6 best in the year in terms of fan atmosphere.
School night... Cold weather... Ineffective marketing perhaps... Lack of understanding... Could be any, all, or none of these reasons, but then again, how come the 61,000 showed up to see the Revs in the MLS Cup Final after attendance was poor for the playoffs? Hey, the Crew won... The Magpie
I refuse to point the finger at the USSF. This was a home game for the Crew, and they have known about it for weeks. I blame the Crew fans. Cold weather or school night? Too freaking bad. How come that doesn't affect any other sport than soccer in this country? Sad to say the reason might be there aren't as many fans as we like to think there is of our league and cup competitions. That attendance last night was horrible. A total downer after the MLS Cup.
Game was good, attendance was bad. However, it is possible they had the 6,000 or 7,000 that has been reported. Crew Stadium can be deceptive. Not sure why, maybe the yellow seating backs, but I have watched a few sellouts there (and been to one WC qualifier v. Costa Rica Oct. 2000) and it looks like there are many empty seats because you look across the stadium and see yellow. Not making an excuse, just saying 6,000 was possible. There were some shots were the stands looked full (as usual in MLS, behind the main camera) in that particular section. Like the Open cup. But until more people find out exactly what it is, attendance will lag behind MLS Cup games.
The Crew seem to have a knack for overstating their attendance. The crowd at last year's MLS cup seemed rather sparse compared to sell-out crowd that was announced. Maybe they gave away a few thousand comp tickets for last night and counted those as part of the attendance.
The Crew marketed this game as if they didn't want people there.... for the playoff game v. NE they plaster the campus area with flyers and was at least informing people that the game was being played... Their biggest problem is still that there is no mass transit from Ohio State to Crew Stadium, and while you can walk there (i did it a lot last season) there are certainly some neighborhoods around the fairgrounds that make it understandable if you don't want to walk there.
all it says is that there was pretty much no promotion for it, so most people didn't even know about it way to go ussf and crew
How to make the US Open Cup work It would take a major national sponsor getting involved, someone like Pepsi or Coke. And it would take that sponsor making a major financial commitment. By major, I'm talking money to promote it to amateur soccer leagues in all 48 (mainland) states, and advertise on national TV. Encourage people to enter teams and have promotional giveways for everyone who participates and prizes for each level of advancement. Think NBA Hoop It Up only you may get a chance to ultimately play against the pros. This means making the enterance fee cheap to get as much participation as possible. Then when you get the field down to a manageable number, bring in the A League teams and ultimately MLS. But it also has to be heavily publicized every step of the way to keep it in the public eye. I realize it would cost a ton of money, but it might work for the right sponsor and I think it's the only way to get this tournament to where it should be in terms of public awareness. But if you're going to continue do it the way it's been run, why bother?
The US open cup is not remotely an annoyance for the lower level and semi pro teams, which gives them a bit of a chance for some recognition. This competition has a storied past for the hard core, old-timer American soccer fan and player (I'm not one of them, by the way). If it's not for you, if you need Disney/ABC coverage, if you need sponsors like Snickers, if you need hype, then fine, stick to MLS and Euro leagues. But not everyone needs that. Don't dis this competition -- a competition that is the only soccer event with any continuity in this country by the way -- just because Columbus won't do a bratwurst night, or there won't be a post game fireworks show, or it won't be coupled with a Ecuador/Honduras friendly. In ten years time we may not have an MLS, but the open cup has proven to be a survivor.
I noticed on the Fox Sports World site that they offerred discount tickets. I also heard that they made it buck-a-brat night. But I didn't learn any of this until after the game started. I would think that at this time of year in Columbus they would have gotten more fans on a Sunday afternoon, like the MLS Cup.
I don't believe the Crew was allowed to market it. the USSF wanted a "neutral" field. Any ads about the game were "neutral", not marketing the Crew, but marketing the game. That's why you heard next to nothing about it...the Crew flat out wasn't allowed to do anything about it.
Re: Re: What does the Open Cup Final Attendance Tell Us? Listen to this guy. He may not be too bright, but he knows more than USSF does