Tim Howard was a guest this afternoon on the local sports radio station, in Houston. He was obiviously called in to help hype the upcoming USA vs El Tri match in Houston, but getting an interview the afternoon of the announcement was pretty cool, considering these guys rarely mention soccer, not bash, just ignore. Howard answered questions about growth of the league, why people should get excited about an exabition match, and of course, Freddy Adu. I almost got in a wreck when Howard said that the Metrostars averge between 20 and 25 thousand fans a games (he was trying to show that MLS draws about a many fans per game as the Devils or Nets)! I guess the good part is that many listeners will thing, "Damn, I didn't know soccer drew that well" because none of them realize that his answer was totally wrong. That should be MLSs new media technique, just lie in interviews, because not many other people will know the truth. I was just glad to see that the sports station was up on the match and giving it some press.
In the Metro's defense. I think 20-25k ave in a brand spanking new stadium in Harrison would not be out of the question. As for now he isnt lying, he's just fudging the truth.
Back in 1996, the Metros averaged 23,900 a game, and in 2001 they averaged 20,800, so Tim's comments weren't totally out in left field.
fascinating mjtate, Just to clarify, I understand that it was a local Houston station (was it 610, btw?), but was it also one of their local shows (as opposed to a nat'l syndicated show)? I'm just curious how they got Howard.
Actually, if you're going to use baseball analogies, I would say that they are indeed out in left field. But, in his defense, they are at least in the ballpark.
Re: fascinating Yep, it was 610 and it was the drive time show (local) with Charlie and Rich. I have no idea how they got the interview, and why they picked Tim Howard (maybe their New York connections) but it was cool that he was on. Hopefully 610s relationship with the Texans will translate to some publicity for this and future soccer games.
oh yeah, Charlie and Rich... Very cool. I haven't listened much to them in a while (I've pretty much switched over to Radio Deportes on 920), but I recall that they were always willing to chat about things like hockey (there's that NY thing again) and Rice sports that don't exactly pull in massive numbers in Houston. I'm impressed with the amount and quality of the English-language media coverage that this announcement received. Lark has a post in a Houston thread in the Expansion forum about the local English-language TV news coverage last night - seems that some of it was downright excellent. Of course, much of that coverage probably has to do with McNair/Texans being involved and the instant credibility and goodwill that brings, but hopefully some of it will stick.