Why do you want it done every 4 years? Is there any benefit of having it every 4 years as opposed to every 2 years?
I don't have a problem with doing it every 2 years, but I wish they'd move the 2nd one to late 2017 or early 2018. Having it right in the middle of the hex and right after the Confederations Cup just guarantees watered down squads.
Every team is guaranteed to bring their best possible squads, and the Gold Cup title automatically gives you the Confed Cup ticket (which is the only important thing about the Gold Cup right now). This could improve the level of the tournament.
Using this logic, the CAN is a bad tournament as well because it is every two years. Not too sure if I buy that. Winning the gold cup gets you points for FIFA rankings. It gets a team competitive matches for the World Cup and its qualifiers. It brings money into the pockets of teams and organizers. It allows the footprint of soccer to grow in the US.
Using your logic, I could argue that the best national tournaments in the world are every 4 years (World Cup,, Euro and Copa America). It is not the only factor but it helps. Thanks for proving my point tho, the Gold Cup only real importance is a Confed Cup ticket, money can be obtained elsewhere and it doesn't translate into wins, FIFA rankings have only mattered once in CONCACAF's history: Mexico in 2006 and points can be obtained elsewhere. As far as "competitive matches", its too subjective to tell and there is no correlation that indicates the Gold Cup before the World Cup helps teams, as a matter of fact, teams often use alternative teams in that Gold Cup and use many players that won't participate in the World Cup so yeah, that's false.
The reason that the Gold Cup and the AFCON are every two years and other continental championships aren't is simple: it all comes down to getting games for the national teams in each confederation. In UEFA and CONMEBOL, everyone plays in the same round of World Cup qualifying (and Euro qualifying in the former case), so everyone's guaranteed around 20 games per World Cup cycle. In CONCACAF and the CAF, however, our WCQ takes place in stages; so having biennial continental championships is the only way to make sure that smaller national teams don't simply "disappear" for two years after their WC elimination. The AFC is a clear exception; but their national teams play in regional championships (e.g. the West, Arab, East Asian and Suzuki [SE Asia] cups) to add to the number of fixtures. And as always, the OFC is in its own category, being perfectly fine with the likes of American Samoa getting only three competitive games every four years.
Better said than I tried to say. Thanks. I think that the discussion is an academic one. As long as CONCACAF is getting money every two years, they will keep it going. Plus as UEFA teams in the future will not play friendlies anymore, these competitions become more important.
Here we go... Group A USA Panama Haiti Honduras or French Guiana Group B Costa Rica El Salvador Jamaica Canada Group C Mexico Guatemala Trinidad and Tobago Cuba Group Stage (all times EDT): Tuesday, July 7: A - Panama vs. Haiti, 7:00 p.m. A - Honduras/French Guiana vs. USA, 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 8: B - Costa Rica vs. Jamaica, 8:00 p.m. B - El Salvador vs. Canada, 10:30 p.m. Thursday, July 9: C - Trinidad and Tobago vs. Guatemala, TBA C - Mexico vs. Cuba, TBA Friday, July 10: A - Honduras/French Guiana vs. Panama, 6:00 p.m. A - USA vs. Haiti, 8:30 p.m. Saturday, July 11: B - Jamaica vs. Canada, 6:30 p.m. B - Costa Rica vs. El Salvador, 9:00 p.m. Sunday, July 12: C - Trinidad and Tobago vs. Cuba, TBA C - Guatemala vs. Mexico, TBA Monday, July 13: A - Haiti vs. Honduras/French Guiana, 7:00 p.m. A - Panama vs. USA, 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 14: B - El Salvador vs. Jamaica 6:00 p.m. B - Costa Rica vs. Canada 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 15: C - Guatemala vs. Cuba, TBA C - Trinidad and Tobago vs. Mexico, TBA Quarterfinals Saturday, July 18: A1 vs. B3/C3, 5:00 p.m. B1 vs. A2, 8:00 p.m. Sunday, July 19: C1 vs. A3/B3, 4:30 p.m. B2 vs. C2, 7:30 p.m. Semifinals Wednesday, July 22: July 18 winners vs., 6:00 p.m. July 19 winners, 9:00 p.m. Third Place Match - Saturday, July 25, 4:00 p.m. Final - Sunday, July 26, 7:30 p.m. Hot takes: Group A is as close to a Group of Death as we'll ever see in a Gold Cup, especially considering that this group would be impossible in the semifinal round of World Cup qualifying (with Honduras and Panama in the same pot). Someone got lazy and decided to copy Group B from 2009; and Mexico's going to have a soft landing from their Copa América participation.
Semis in Atlanta seems pretty cool. I think The Groups are pretty much even except Group C. Jamaica should have been in Mexico's Group instead of T&T. They almost never play Mexico in the Group Stage.
BTW on the CONCACAF's website they made a huge mistake. It says The last match in Group B will be played in Kansas City.
According to this "something has changed". http://www.concacaf.com/category/gold-cup/schedule-results
And this: The 2015 Gold Cup quarterfinals will be played in Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium and New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, on Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19, respectively. The victorious quarterfinalists then move to Atlanta for the semifinals, at the Georgia Dome on Wednesday, July 22, before the tournament’s Grand Finale weekend in Philadelphia. http://www.concacaf.com/article/2015-concacaf-gold-cup-groups-and-schedule-announced
Why not every year then? This tournament is played too often, it interferes with leagues too much, and is just too much. Every 4 years and they may even start moving this tournament around every once in a while. That is a plus.
The CONCACAF is just way too Greedy to hold it only every 4 years. It makes them way too much money. They can also justify it looking at it from a non financial perspective. Having it every two years does provide more official matches for the small teams that get eliminated quickly in World Cup Qualifiers.