just saw my first game at paetec last night (rhinos v. montréal) and was extremely impressed (been looking fwd to it all summer... that and a game at toyota park in chicago-- yet to come!). reminded me a lot of crew stadium, but smaller (more intimate, really), better sightlines (i was top row in the upper deck and still had an amazing view of the field), and actual seats across much of the stadium. i was really can't say enough good things about the stadium! as for the game, the standard of play was pretty damn good-- though the rhinos were (i think) a bit lucky not to lose to l'impact, who had the better of the scoring chances. good quality product. decent sized crowd (10k), but given the weather (absolutely beautiful out-- 70s and perfectly sunny), the new stadium, the opponent, and all i've heard about the rabid fanbase i might have expected close to a sellout (or a bigger supporters' section-- there were maybe a dozen people over there!). i had a great time though-- next time i'm in rochester i'll have to make it to another game! congrats on the stadium and i hope every crowd is 10k+ this year. **though i should add that the announced attendance (10k) was pretty clearly the real attendance (i might have thought there were MORE people there, actually)-- so there's no rbny-like attendance inflating, at least from what i saw..
That's interesting because the crowd felt smaller to me than the one that was at the Portland match. And the crowd versus Portland was announced at a little over 9100 fans. Maybe it was just my bitterness.............
aah maybe so... i was just in town for the one game, so i have no real basis for comparison. anyway, there were no free seats to be seen in the upper deck around where i was, and i was pretty impressed with the crowd and what i saw when i walked around before halftime. sure beats the hell out of some of the more craptastic mls teams (kc, rbny, dallas pre-frisco)
[snicker] C'mon, I'm happy for Rochester and would love for their owner to finally stop **********footing around and to finally pay the $$$ to move into MLS, but let's not go overboard.
I went to the friendly with Shef. Weds last Saturday. The stadium itself is nothing special. It's just new. But hey, it is a stadium designed to host soccer, so I am not going to complain. For a rectangular stadium that small, you would expect the seats to be good. As with most soccer matches, the higher you sit (without getting a bloody nose that is), the better the view. Maybe becuase its new, I was very impressed with how the field turf (is it field turf? or another brand) played. Very true bounces, wall sped up and slowed down as you would expect it to on a well maintained grass field. Absolutely puts the astroturf in disguise at Giants Stadium and Salt Lake City. Even for a friendly, there was far more hard slide tackling on that surface than you see in 3 MLS games at either of those two stadiums. Oh well, like I said its a soccer stadium, not the taj mahal. I'll be back on 8/18 for Red Osier beef on weck and JD Dundees when I'm in town again.