Philadelphian WCQ in '05

I'm still holding out a little hope for a qualifier in Philly. The best chance would seem to be the game against T&T and maybe Costa Rica. No chance for the Mexico game. It's too bad the Panama game will be during football season, that would have been a good one for Philly also.

 

I think I remember reading somewhere that it's never going to happen, because the field at the Linc is too narrow.

 

The Linc has hosted WWC games. I don't think width will be too much of an issue. The standard layout is two yards too narrow. I think they can get the extra width if they needed to.

 

The field is too narrow and it is a problem.

When they have widened it, Philly will get its consideration.

But not until then.

 

the pitch can be widened by several yards on both sides....

and ussf can be assured to get more $$$ here, than at the older venues who've been sued over and over and over...

 

yes RFK has been used many times for WCQ's, but i believe there is only one lawsuit (regarding ticketing discrimination) in its history.

 

That is good news. I wonder why the same field was never widened for the Man U friendlies, though.

How about this? If they promise that would widen it, they'll be considered. If not, forget it.

 

Good one. FIFA ruled out the LINC before the women's World Cup...wait. No they didn't. Wow, you can play a FIFA championship event there, but not a WC Qualifier.

I think Chowderhead is worried that Philly is going to steal some games from Foxboro.

 

If they held a WCQ at the Linc, I would predict a sellout! Think of the draw that Philly has. Nestled in the biggest soccer hotbed in the country without a professional soccer team, this area is starved for high level soccer. The federation would have to do very minimal marketing for the game. It would be a very hot ticket in Philly. Plus the draw of US fans from NY and DC, this would be the perfect place for a Qualifier.

As for Foxboro, they should get all the cold weather qualifiers for Mexico. But a major problem for Foxboro is their fan base has been dwindling like crazy over the years, and they are so isolated in the far Northest. I like Boston as a city, but it is no where near as cool as Philly is for feastivities both pre-game and post-game events.

 

You know, I've heard Cincy has the second-largest youth soccer population next to Kansas City. Think either of those cities will be getting qualifiers at this point?
Actually, I'd bet more money on those two getting it before Philly. And you know C-bus should get Mexico.

 

Yeah, except that there's no weather advantage because it's Labor Day weekend and OSU has a home game that weekend too which will take a lot of local attention away. That's the cash cow game and it would not surprise me if it went to Foxboro. Though I think it would be best suited for Seattle as far as big stadiums go.

 

If you want to go on the youth soccer perpective, Eastern PA is definitely much more of a soccer hotbed than Cincy or KC. FC Delco, FC Coppa, PDA, Hockessin and a number of incredibly strong clubs surround Philly. Sorry. I don't know where you get your facts. Just the population density of the East Coast puts us ahead of those other areas. You have to look at the surrounding areas in PA, NJ, Delaware, Maryland, New York and Northern VA as draws for this game. What does Cincy have? Kentucky? Ye haw. Kansas City. How far is that from Chicago? Philly is 2hrs from NY and DC which is perfect for those fans. The last 2 times the Men's national team played in Philly against Sheffield Wednesday (at the Vet) and Dynamo Kiev(at Franklin Field) in the early 90's, the games were sellouts.

Plus look back to the Man U games, Chelsea game and the Women's World Cup at the Linc, and Philly had a great crowd. (Granted the second ManU game was not a sell-out, but smart Philly sports people were turned off by the high ticket prices for reserve/preseason soccer). The Linc would be an awesome venue for a Qualifier. Sir Alex Fergerson and the ManU players loved the city, the stadium and the pitch so much that he brought the team back here as their North American headquaters. Not Chicago. Not New York.

The goal here is to get the Federation to put a game in here that would draw extremely well and hopefully catch an investors eye to see Philly as a good expansion city for MLS. Have some faith and support the City of Brotherly Love! Plus you can party pretty hard in the city before and after the game. And the tailgating at the Linc is the best.