I want to see what everyone is thinking on where the US should play there games for Qualifying. Give me your Top 10
Obviously Columbus Crew Stadium for the mexico game, but without the entire end behind the goal, it will be very difficult to fit the amount of Sam's Army in that stadium. Rice Eccles in Salt Lake City - the qualifier they hosted against Costa Rica in 05 was fantastic, and its just an awesome city , from the people to the stadium . LA- just give us one qualifier down here, I dont care who it is against. the HDC is too nice of a stadium to pass up for important games for the US. Thats just three im hoping will get matches.
Rentschler Field (Hartford) over Gillette Stadium or Giants Stadium as the Northeastern venue because it has grass, and is sized for soccer. Either LP Field (Nashville) or Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte) as a Southern venue. Crew Stadium for Mexico. UofPhoenix Stadium. Dolphin Stadium or Raymond James Stadium. If the Cowboys Stadium gets done in time, one there. Reliant Stadium is always a big crowd. The HDC. Possibley Lambeau or Soldier Field. Rice-Eccles Stadium.
I guess Columbus is a lock for the Mexico match, but I'm looking at things one round at a time. The US-Barbados/Dominica match will be taking place after the major European seasons are done and while European nations are preparing for Euro 2008, so all of our USMNT players should be over here and travel shouldn't be an issue. With that said, I think that PGE Park should get the first match of our qualifying campaign.
No, no, no. No warm weather sites and no venues in cities with big latin populations. Texas, Florida, Chicago are OUT.
Every city mentioned has a big latin population. Latin's are the most populous minority group in the United States (including black/african americans).
What we need is a Wembley-type stadium. As in it doesn't belong to a particular team, but it's the national stadium.
I'd like to see SAS in Cary get the Barbados/Dominica game, since there's no need for it to be in a bigger sized stadium.
Give us a game out here in LA. I don't care who it's against. I am dying to attend a WCQ. I will go to the Guatemala vs USA match wherever it is held with a bunch of family though. My family's pretty passionate about Guatemalan football and will travel the distance necessary to support our NT. I hate being stuck in between lol.
RSL Stadium should be ready for a 2010 WCQ match. Red Bull Park, not so much. It's been discussed before. There are countries much smaller than the US (Germany for one) that are too big for a national stadium. The final semifinal match and final hex match also draw small crowds. I could see Cary replacing Birmingham on the list of WCQ sites. I can't see a WCQ match ever being played in LA. The Home Depot Center seems to host a winter friendly every year and 4 Gold Cup matches every two years. A WCQ would just be too much.
I hope we get a game in Bridgeview. Obviously not for Mexico, but I would think we could swing most anyone else here. I think Salt Lake might be one venue able to swing the Mexico game if they did a really good job on ticket distribution. But it will probably be in Columbus again.
Have you ever been to Salt Lake City? Like anywhere but Alaska and Hawaii, there are lots of Mexicans in every US city. Mexican fans and other Hispanic fans, like socluis90's family, will travel vast distances to see their home countries play in WCQs. Aside from the Mexico game, which is becoming a Columbus tradition (tradition being something that USSF majorly lacks), every home WCQ should be allocated based on the ability to generate that magic mix of instant profit and long-term gain. These games are what ultimately sells the team to more American and Hispanic fans alike.
So, we need a very large stadium that has its turf ruined by gridiron lines and NFL behemoths tearing up the sod? We've already got 32 (oops, no, 31) of those here in the States! National stadiums don't make any sense for very large nations with many large metropolitan centers. Countries like England and France can get away with it because London and Paris dominate their nations in terms of population, politics, and culture. The USA is not like that; no one city is so dominant that it has the right to have the "national" stadium in the sense of being the place where the national team plays its home games. I don't think it would be a bad idea to have a national stadium, but it would have to be a different concept from that of the national stadium you are talking about; ie it would not be the home of the national team but it could be the home of national championships. It need not necessarily be in a large city, and it need not necessarily be a large stadium. It would be nice to have a single location for all of our existing, but sadly poorly supported, national soccer championships: NCAA, US Open Cup, etc. Think for example of how having the Little League World Series always be in Williamsport has helped promote that particular championship; same thing with having the permanent home of the College World Series always be in Omaha. Having a similar permanent national home for the NCAA soccer championship and the US Open Cup could help a lot to promote those particular national championships. But a national home stadium for the USNT wouldn't work so well. The national team needs to be seen in all parts of the country.
This is why now that we have small SSSs, the key to managing the Mexico game is more about ticket distribution than location. I'm not suggesting Chicago or LA, but I don't think it needs to be in Columbus. In Columbus, there were thousands of Mexico fans who came from great distances but couldn't get tickets. And that is a bigger stadium than what Salt Lake will have. I was thinking that SLC, with their new 20k seat stadium, could drive 15k tickets into USA friendly hands before the tickets were even for sale to the public. Then you will have a strongly pro-USA crowd.
Red Bull Park, according to the powers that be, say early 2009 completion, which would be able to make viable for the August and September qualifiers, provided we reach that far. Of course construction schedules are made to be broken for change orders and cost run-ups. I bet on a Seattle match, being a new MLS location. Drew will get some USSF love for that investment. Yes to Hartford, Chicago (Home of Soccer House), Denver, Nashville (if it ever rains again), RFK, Foxboro (Sunil wants to watch a game from his desk). Perhaps Philthadelphia if they are named for an expansion team.
I always thought HDC (or elsewhere in Southern California) would be perfect for a Canada qualifier. Mostly US support in the stadium and the Canadians would be well-behaved and quiet, like most US supporters, wondering when the pipe organ is supposed to play. Unfortunately, with Canada's draw, they may not be in the Hex.
Why? England is 50,346 sqare miles in area, which is slightly larger than the state of Mississippi. Having a "national" stadium in the USA would be stupid beyond belief.
I used http://maps.google.com to make a map with England off the coast of the USA for size comparisons.
Reallity is wherever you decide to play the games vs any latin country the fans will drive or fly out there to see the game. Look at the Birmingham game vs Guatemala or RFK vs Honduras as example. Even when we do start filling up the stadiums full of US fans something tells me it will never be a hostile environment for other teams. The US will definitely always be a hard place to play at but not because of the fans. US fans are just too quiet here in America. I'm only speaking on what I've seen at US games that I've attended. You get your rare Columbus vs Mexico crowd and the Italy WC game but rarely do I see US fans pressuring other teams players when they have the ball or pressuring the ref for calls. I try to get into the games I go to like I do for Guatemala games but the US fans just look at me like I'm stupid where as Guatemalan fans will start chanting with me and start a stadium wide chant. Anyone who attended the Gold Cup here in LA will know what I'm talking about.
And to think the "sun never used to set on the British Empire." Now it takes about an hour and a half.
In regards to hostile atmosphere, the reason the US/Italy game and the Mexico games in Columbus had this atmosphere is because all the passionate fans fly in from all around the US for these games. The Columbus game has become a tradition to be the one qualifying game where all the big supporters come in and chant/sing together. The financial costs and significant amount of time it would take to attend all the qualifiers is a lot of money for which only few can afford. Fact of the matter is we don't have the numbers (in terms of passionate fans) as do other nations. Compound that with the distance factor and it makes sense.