Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 Washington, D.C. (May 28, 2009) - D.C. United announced today that it will play host to an international friendly with legendary Spanish club Real Madrid. The match, to be held at FedExField, will take place on Sunday, August 9 at 3 p.m. ET. As a result, the previously scheduled Major League Soccer match against the Kansas City Wizards will be moved to September 9 at 7:30 p.m. ET. “This is an exciting opportunity for D.C. United and our fans,” said United President Kevin Payne. “We played a terrific match with Real Madrid in Seattle two years ago, and the largest soccer crowd in Qwest Field history watched us come from behind in a 1-1 draw. We are expecting a huge crowd at FedExField to see the most successful club in the history of world soccer take on the most successful team in the history of American soccer. It should be a great match.” Real Madrid currently boasts a roster laden with world-class talent, including the club’s all-time leading scorer and team captain Raul Gonzalez, Spanish National Team goalkeeper Iker Casillas and defender Sergio Ramos and Argentine National Team member Fernando Gago. In addition, any new summer player signings by the club will participate in the game. United planholders will have the opportunity to purchase tickets to this friendly before the general public sale at a reduced price. Ticket prices for planholders start at $50 for seats on the endline, $60 on the sideline, and $70 for midfield view seats. Club level seats will also be available to planholders at a discounted price of $80 for an endline view, $90 for a corner seat, and $100 for a midfield view. Special hospitality packages will also be available. Additionally, a special multi-game package for individuals and a two-game package for groups of 20 or more will be available starting June 8. Single game tickets for individuals and groups will go on sale to the general public on June 17 through Ticketmaster, with seats in the lower bowl ranging from $60 for the endline, $75 for sideline and $90 for midfield seats. United has played Real Madrid on one prior occasion - a friendly held at Seattle’s Qwest Field on August 9, 2006. Before a raucous crowd of 66,830 fans, United held Real Madrid to a 1-1 draw, with the lone goal for the Black-and-Red coming from former striker Alecko Eskandarian. Current United players Christian Gomez, Jaime Moreno, Bryan Namoff and Ben Olsen were among the starters that day. Based in Madrid, Spain, Real Madrid is one of the largest and most successful soccer teams in the world. Possessing more than one hundred years of rich history, they bring their storied tradition to Washington, D.C. for the very first time. Their numerous trophies include a record 31 La Liga titles (finishing in second place 17 times), 17 Spanish Cups, nine European Cups and two UEFA Cups. The club, founded in 1902, has played in the highest level of Spanish competition-the Primera Division of the Liga de Futbol Profesional-since its inception. Playing at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, which boasts a capacity just north of 80,000, in downtown Madrid, the illustrious club was named by FIFA as the Best Club of the 20th century. Timeline May 28 - Planholders may purchase tickets June 8 - General public may purchase multi-game package or two-game group package June 17 - General public may purchase single game tickets
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 9 ******** this shit. I lose one of my valued home RFK matches (which naturally gets rescheduled after I go back to Boston for grad school) for this piece of crap?
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 What the hell is up with those prices? Why would I want to pay that much to see my team play in a substandard stadium against Real's B & C team. Further more, supporters are relegated to the endzones... Call me selfish, but Payne and Co only have $ signs in their eyes.... I am all for a money grab, but do the supporters have to get the shaft on this one? If I have to sit in the endzone at least lower the price to something reasonable... I have one word for those prices, CRIMINAL... flame away...
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 id like to think that somebody not interested in the game would just skip over the thread but now we get to know that you dont care awesome good talk
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 Not to flame, but if you remember the last time we played RM they did play their best as they will this time. It's pre-season and they'll need the work. But, yeah, everything else, the price, location, etc.
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 Last time I would have complained about the distancce to travel to Seattle... My question, why make it more of an inconvenient to go when it is a "home game"... Had it been played at RFk, I would have complained about the prices... but I would also have my seats...... I hope you are reading Mr. Chang.... We are not baseball fans rolling in dough....
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 I won't be the one to wake you, as I'll be sleeping as well. PS By the way, the thread title needs to be changed. The game is on the 9th, not the 8th.
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 Actually, what they're doing is a very good money making strategy. Yes it screws the regular fans but it probably nets the team more money than at least 2 home games, probably more like 3 or 4. While "regular fans" make up a steady stream of income and are the team's "main audience", most organizations usually do a few "expensive" events that generate a huge chunk of cash throughout the year. Non-profits do this all the time. For example, take the opera. Season ticket holders make up only a small portion of an opera company's income. There will usually be a few opera balls, dinners, and other charity events aimed at the $500/plate crowd. One event will raise more money than all the season tickets combined. Yet the opera company wouldn't have much of an audience without season ticket holders. Think of the Real Madrid game as DCU's "opera ball". It gets the team a lot of cash and exposure so it can continue to play regular games for the real fans. I'll put up with moving a few games around if the team is making much needed money. Money that could go towards, say a stadium.
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 Well, I guess I won't be doing much of anything on the second week of August. Reschedule a league game for this? What a load of bull shit. And these prices???? WTF? Is the front office actively trying to alienate the hard core DC United fans?
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 its pretty reasonable price for including parking, fedex is normally what, like $20 or $25 to park at edit: but wait a minute, whats the point of including parking, what if 4 ride in a car, that's 3 wasted parking passes wtf?
Thread title changed. I'm guessing that Tommy wouldn't be able to get away with clearing out the bench for this one, huh?
To make things personally worse, they rescheduled the 8th's match to a day of the week that I can't make, since I'll be out of town, thus wasting my wife's and my Plan B tickets I'll be damned if I'll reward that by paying those prices. Guess we'll go to the Freedom game Saturday for our weekend soccer fix. I suppose that since the double header for the 8th is now history we'll be heading out to the Soccerplex for that game, not RFK.
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 fedex parking is onmly that much cause they can charge that much, its redskins there pay whatever.... so there only selling lower and club just like the chelsea match.....so why are we having it there? i thought the point was to pack the place, so wouldnt they be selling upper bowl tix?
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 I wouldn't be shocked if RM was the driving force behind this to a certain extent. Personally, I would be much more likely to go to this if it was at RFK, just for location reasons. I doubt RM management has any idea that there might be any negative perception of FedEx by fans in the area. They just know it as the venue where the Redskins draw 90,000. I'm sure they assume that fans love the place, and they may assume ticket sales will quickly push the second level open. I thought I'd heard that Peter Kenyon assumed he was going to get a bigger crowd in 2005 that what we ultimately got. Another factor may be the fact that they can sell suites and club seats at FedEx, along with a likelihood of more concession sales per spectator perhaps. Also, if RM plans to train at the venue the day or two leading up to the match, perhaps the quality of the locker rooms and/or weight-lifting facilities was also factor?
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 And what if you take Metro? It's only about a mile walk from the Morgan Blvd station. It also really sucks that the KC game is now on a week night. I'll probably go, but I think I'm going to call the team and try to get a refund for my wife's ticket, since she doesn't come to weeknight games. Actually, what the team should do is let people use their Kansas City season ticket to attend the RM game if they want to. IMO this is terrible terrible terrible decision by the front office. This REALLY pisses me off, and really makes me regret that fact that I participated in the "give us a stadium march."
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 i recommend emailing them, I just did. Their contact form is on dcunited.com towards the bottom of the main page
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 Don't you think it's a distinct possibility that RM only agreed to play this match if that particular idea were discarded? The only thing RM likely cares about is making money out of this, while giving themselves a good place to train while they're here. I'm sure the FO would love to make this event more of a "freebie" for season ticket holders than it is, but the consequence of that might have been a financial arrangement that RM wouldn't have accepted. We aren't necessarily talking about Blackburn, Tottenham or Celtic here.
maybe real madrid will sign some players we want to see before the game as it is right now, they arent that sexy maybe the scalpers will have good deals its funny when it might cost more to see united play a meaningless game as opposed to the redskins playing a regular season game (insert everybody clever joke about how redskins games dont mater)
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 Frankly, I don't give a shit what RM wants. They can rot on the same level of Hell as their biggest fan, Francisco Franco (who's still dead, by the way). This is the DC United front office screwing its fans, plain and simple.
Unless by "Real Madrid" you mean "Really Hot, Large-Breasted, Topless Chicks" I'm having a really hard time getting excited about this. Unless they're going to have some of the actual glasses of beer I keep hearing about for me to huck at someone's face. Then I'm down.
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 Well that's kind of my point here. The FO's choice was likely to either take the match on these general terms, or just not take it at all. It's fine if you want to disagree with their choice, but don't complain because they didn't give you something that was never an option in reality (getting the match but making it Special Event "_"). From the perspective of the FO, there are likely many upsides to this event. Even if the event doesn't appeal to me personally, I can see that, and I am not going to fault the FO for creating a minor inconvenience that helps the organization and its bottom line.
I guess I don't understand all the complaining (other than by those who can't make the moved game.) This is an exhibition match against one of the best-known teams in the world. DCU will make a lot of money on people who don't usually come to their games. Season ticket holders are being given more than a 20% break on the price of a sideline ticket. It's that whole supply and demand thing. This will be an in-demand game. Prices are higher than they are for a game against San Jose. Why is that a surprise? If you don't want to go the game for whatever reason - location, price, heat of day, whatever, then don't go.
Re: Goff exclusive: DC United vs. Real Madrid, Aug. 8 I realized that as soon as I had posted my message.