It seems to me that in most important matches, particularly in the group stage, any home field advantage we might have will be very small. The local soccer aware communities of our various opponents seem to be greater that the rest of the soccer aware community. We will have the advantage of being able to eat exactly what we are used to but that is not, now days, as much of an advantage as it was years ago. Part of home field advantage is sleeping in your own bed but I believe that the USA team sleeps in dorms or hotels even in the cities of their birth. In most matches we will be outnumbered in the stands. If we are not outnumbered we, most probably, will be out-noised. I have more thoughts but I am posting this to see what others think as I already know what I think, subject to change if info warrants. I, probably, could glean what most folks think from other threads but I am a lazy bastard so I thought to bring it all together in one place. We will have to see if that works or if it fails miserably. I kind of bet on the latter.
I think games will be slightly tilted in our favor. I don't expect fans to be 90 percent in favor of the US, but more 60-40, which should give the players a boost compared to the more neutral crowds they would've encountered in Qatar.
I expect us to have numbers in every game. But I expect against Turkey for it to sound like it's not. The reality is that ESPECIALLY with these prices, other teams will have super passionate fans willing to spend 4 years worth of discretionary cash to go, where we'll have tech bros and M&A dudes talking about how they are acquiring a company and stripping it down so they can buy a boat. FIFA even ********ing split up the AO / Barra tickets. Say what you want about our supporters groups and their creativity, but it's insane that the supporters groups tickets came out and they are scattered across the stadium.
You think Australia is going to have 40% of the crowd in Seattle? No chance. There’s a short list of teams that might have more than 20% of the crowd against the US, and it’s Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.
Meh. With our three first round opponents, I think we'll have overwhelmingly positive home support. If we were facing Brazil or somebody, it might tilt in the other direction.
There's a crap ton of passionate American fans who have the discretionary income to buy and go to games. I'm not worried about it. Does anyone think there will be a problem finding 60,000 passionate American fans in Seattle and LA who can afford the tickets?
I think the crowd will be like any high priced crowd -- not particularly loud for the number of fans. Super Bowl crowds are never rowdy. The Warriors used to have the best home court in the NBA before they got good and then moved to Chase -- and ticket prices went from reasonable to $400 a game for nosebleeds. There will be passionate American fans there, but there will also be a lot of tech bros and finance guys who want to say they went, and they will be rooting for the US, but they won't be loud. They might even spend time talking about their app or next acquisition rather than cheering. This is LA we're talking about for two of the games. Home to people who want to see and be seen. The one edge LA has is that if there's a good contingent of Mexican Americans and other Latinos who are rooting for the US (or rooting for the US today -- and a LOT of Mexico fans who live in the US or are American absolutely pull double duty), we may be okay. Basically if the LAFC and Galaxy crew show up, great. Seattle has their Sounders folk, but there's a lot of Amazon there, and so on. It'll be better, but really loud? I dunno. Turkey will bring a loud contingent. Lot of Turkish people with money in the US. I think Paraguay will be fine. I'm not sure about Australia; I'm not sure that many Aussies give a shit. But with FIFA also breaking up AO and Barra, you also aren't going to get a mass of them being loud.
I think it's silly to look at from the "How many USA fans live in LA or SEA" perspective. Hardcore USA fans are going to be traveling from every corner of the country to LA and SEA for these games. I am one of them and I am not going alone. The notion that the games will be 60/40 against Paraguay or Aus is silly. Paraguay is a small and poor country with a small diaspora in the USA. Australia is larger and richer but still not big and very far away. Plus the game is in SEA which is one of the most soccer crazy cities in the country. In those two games it will be 90-10. Turkey will be different but that is more difficult to gauge. Still probably 80-20 USA. If you recall, we saw the USA vs Paraguay in the 2016 Copa America and more than 50,000 people showed up in Philly to watch the game... crowd was overwhelmingly American..
My guess is quite favorable, if not overwhelming, pro-US alignments in the group stage. And definitely inclined towards the tourist type fan, as other posters have mentioned above. Given the 2 month head start that the US had over opposing fans for ticket purchases (in terms of knowing which 3 matches would be our team's matches), it could have been 90-10 or 95-5, but that would have required behind the scenes US pressure on FIFA over ticket prices. This is something that would have been eminently realistic, given the fact that FIFA would previously have to act warily towards the United States given how we were once a country that would bring a sledgehammer down on its criminal officials. But that possibility is clearly dead and buried now with the FIFA and the US enmeshed together in corruption (for Peace).
We are going to have multiple NFL stadiums packed with overwhelming high numbers of USA fans. That is rare. If that does not count for something then I do not know what will. I think our team should feed off of it and get inspired.
I think against Paraguay, there are going to be 65,000 cheering fans in red, white and blue, and a jet flyover and Benson Boone belting out Real American in the pregame show, and we're going to go out and score in the first five minutes.
Shame on us for not supporting the national team if we don't have overwhelming numbers of fans at each of the first round games. Inexcusable. That would send the "we're not worthy" message to FIFA. We definitely can't let that happen.
It'll be fine. Americans love an event. Once this thing gets going, folks will be completely into it. I'm old enough to remember the 99 women's world cup. When that tournament started, nobody thought it was going to galvanize people like it did. Nobody. What's important is that we go out and win our first game and give the casual fan something to dream about. If we go out and lay an egg in our first game, the negativity will start. The talking heads on ESPN, etc. will immediately go into "Why do we suck at soccer?" mode.
I’ll be at the Australia game dressed in my centennial 2013 jersey with another American fan. I’m hoping for the USA supporters to be loud and omnipresent. It will be my first World Cup game I attend in person…
Man. This is so true. The narrative is going to be set by that first game. It pains me to think about how the casual fan and analyst will default to a negative narrative.
If today's match in Chicago is any indication (echoed in Charlotte last week), we'll definitely be the home team throughout the tournament. But FIFA's price manipulation might end up messing that up, I fear.
The last World Cup in the US was the most attended ever. More Americans bought tickets to the World Cup in Brazil than any other traveling fans, by a solid margin. This isn't qualifying, Gold Cup or Nations League. People will show up for the World Cup. Factor in explicit travel bans and the fact that many fans are just not bothering to fly here and I expect most matches to be comfortably pro-US.
Have you ever been to NYC? I think it’s the other way around. There’s a short list of teams that can’t muster 20%.
Yeah, but the fact that it's a WC is going to pull a lot of Americans out of the woodwork who aren't necessarily going to drop $150 a head to see a friendly against South Korea or whoever.