I think a lot of the outrage was because Garber just made up fixture congestion as a reason for the pull out. Now it is somewhat an issue here, but it's nowhere near Europe. It doesn't help that Leagues Cup is still seen as a not serious tournament either, so he would have gotten bad press. My main argument against the fixture congestion idea is that LAFC was still able to make it to the MLS Cup final despite playing 55 matches. Also English clubs usually don't pull out of the FA Cup (except Man United during the 2000 Club World Cup, but even now Man City doesn't). People believe that if Miami had won, then Garber probably wouldn't have considered it.
So.... the tradition of an amateur tournament? For the majority of it's history the USOC has largely been an amateur tournament has it not? What did people think was going to happen when professional teams were told to participate? I wish all of MLS' American teams were participating in the USOC still. Maybe they will next year (probably not), who knows? With the increasing number of professional teams in the US, the increasing number of FIFA international dates/games/tournaments something is going to give. Players aren't robots. Even before Leagues Cup MLS teams were playing in excess of 40 games a season.
And the early MLS days where league matches served as qualifiers for the USOC, so not all top level teams played in it.
No. Fall River Marksmen, Bethlehem Steel, St. Louis Stix, St. Louis Simpkins, Philadelphia Nationals, Brookhatten, New Bedford Whalers and the rest of the top teams that played in the Open Cup from the 1910s to the 1950s were not amateur. They weren't a place to get rich. A lot of them would better be called semipro than fully professional, but they were not amateur.
And the reason why the National Amateur Cup was started in 1923 is that the amateurs were getting dominated by the pros in the Open Cup and needed a place of their own.
I think the Greek-Americans/New York Apollo were professional when the won the Open Cup in 1974, though I don't know if they fielded separate teams in the ASL and Open Cup.
Rapids' attendance tonight: 7,492— Braidon Nourse (@BraidonNourse) April 21, 2024 Before you ask it was 32 degrees, 100% humidity, and snowing after getting ~4" overnight. And bot the Rockies and Nuggets were hosting games at the same time (in the Nuggets case Game 1 of the playoff series with the Lakers). Also its 420 in Colorado...
Seattle's attendance has lost over 10 000 fans/game over the past 2-3 years- most MLS teams are going the other way... slowly
Dunno if its performance inconsistency or too pricey to go to games. Other Seattle teams have good attendance and Sounders have a very good fanbase.
Damn being from Houston this reminds me of those days. Youth soccer ended by May because everyone would have been hit by a laser should it go into June.
Attendances we still need: Columbus Montreal NYCFC Kansas City LAFC We will get Charlotte and LA Galaxy today.
These things can be cyclical. Houston and Vancouver's attendances fell off but seem to be recovering. There were a lot visibly empty seats in Chester for a couple of seasons but now they're tough to find Seattle probably need a new coach and a couple of star players.
Does the fact that Seattle's attendance has faded since its glory days beg the question of whether Atlanta's attendance will do the same at some point?
Yes, it seems they are on their way to lower attendance. They no longer get 60k+ every time they open the upper deck.
It has to be performance. Fans stop caring if team is bad. It's the "American way". It's one of several reasons why ProRel won't work.
If NYC can maintain 20k without a permanent home or any noteworthy players it bodes well for the new stadium.