USA catching up

[Gullscorer]

New Soccer stadium deal agreed: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/may ... ml?hpid=z1

And the USA national team plays Panama on 28 July in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup (regional international tournament, a bit like the Euro finals). http://www.ussoccer.com/

Upstarts..!!

[usagullmichigan]

AS I am sure Happy will tell you, the foundations for soccer here are fantastic. They are way a head of the game for youth setup compared to England. The US is getting stronger and stronger and will win a world cup before England do. The sport here is getting more and more popular. The MLS is becoming more watchable. Sorry to say people but this is all true.

[Gullscorer]

All we need now is for them to start playing cricket..!! =D

[usagullmichigan]

No chance. They would be too scared of that hard ball.

[Gullscorer]

Well, er, um, actually, I've just found this: http://usaca.org/

[usagullmichigan]

I know it is played but that will never get popular.

[Gullscorer]

Would be great to see countries like US and China become more involved in Cricket and football (Soccer) and playing professionally in International competitions.. It may take a long time before momentum builds up enough to enable such sports to really take off there, but it's possible..

[Brightboy]

..and once they do really take off in countries like USA and China, with the population and finances the nations can put behind it they could become world beaters.

[happytorq]

MLS will have a game with a crowd of 70,000 on August 25th. Game is already sold out.

[DTUFC]

MLS will have a game with a crowd of 70,000 on August 25th. Game is already sold out.

Which game's that then? I think the All-Star game the other week got about 35,000 so it would have to be a pretty major game to get double that. Open Cup final?

[happytorq]

Which game's that then? I think the All-Star game the other week got about 35,000 so it would have to be a pretty major game to get double that. Open Cup final?

It's Seattle vs Portland.

Seattle has an average attendance of over 40k. All star game attendance would have been about 20k, but that was because the capacity at that particular stadium is..well, 20k.

Seattle just signed Clint Dempsey from Spurs ($9m transfer fee plus they're paying him $8m a year), which is a pretty big deal for the league since he's the US captain and still only 30.

Attendance is MLS are actually really strong; most of the stadia are moderate in size, but they're usually pretty busy.

e.g. Portland have sold out the stadium 35 times in a row, but their capacity is about 21k. Sporting KC (where the all-star game was) have sold out every game since it opened last year. There are a couple of teams struggling - e.g Chivas are only getting 9,000 a game, and they play in the same place as LA who get 22k (although Chivas are in deep trouble now anyway and I expect them to be sold or moved within a year)

attendance cf last year is down slightly, but that's probably explainable by some of the games that would be expected to have a big attendance (like Seattle/Portland, which is a genuine and fierce rivalry and has been for 40 years) haven't taken place yet. I'd expect attendance to very close to what it was last year, despite the drag factor of Chivas USA. all but 3 of the teams play in stadia designed for football, and of the remaining 3, only one - New England - won't have one pretty soon. (San Jose's new stadium opens next summer, and DC just announced their own stadium plan, as said in the OP. New England are owned by the same people who own the Patriots, and they play at the same place, which is a horrible place to watch football)

Actually, all of the stadia that have been opened in the last 3 or 4 years have a similar sort of capacity - because they're focusing on getting a committed group of fans each week. It seems to be working. I'd expect most of the teams to be looking at expanding capacity in the the next 6/7 years, which is something they had in mind when designing the places, meaning it will be fairly cheap to upgrade.

MLS is a really fun league to watch. Not La Liga or the Prem quality, but probably about Championship level, and improving every year. Expect quality to take another hike starting in 2015 when the new CBA is negotiatied, meaning minimum salaries go up (right now some guys are on truly pathetic money)

[usagullmichigan]

although Chivas are in deep trouble now anyway and I expect them to be sold or moved within a year

To Miami?

[happytorq]

although Chivas are in deep trouble now anyway and I expect them to be sold or moved within a year

To Miami?

nah. Miami will probably get their own team (almost certainly owned by a bunch of faceless businesspeople and DAVID BECKHAM SWOON SWOON HE's SOOO DREAMY BECKHAM).

If the League did move it, I think they'd probably go to Orlando first, simply because they're in a better state to go earlier than Miami. With that said, I expect Vergara (the lunatic owner) to eventually sell the team, probably for about $80m (he say he wants $100m, but Columbus was sold for $68m last week), and the new people will keep the team in LA but have a 'vision' - always a word to be afraid of - of building their own stadium actually within the Los Angeles city limits - StubHub Stadium (formerly the Home Depot Center) is actually in Carson, about 13 miles away. MLS has always said they want two teams in each of LA and NY (NY's second team comes in 2015, which I think I've probably mentioned elsewhere).

Commissioner Garber said at half time of the All Star Game that they expect to have 24 teams by 2020. They've not said exactly where that'll be yet - they probably want a bidding war of some sort - but if I had to guess I'd say they'd go to:

Orlando
Miami
and 2 of San Antonio, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Detroit, St. Louis, Atlanta

MLS has no teams in the south-east, so if you live south florida your nearest team is DC United, 1,000 miles or so away. The league pulled of Florida in 2002 but the league is way stronger now and they need teams in the tv market.

[usagullmichigan]

I used to drive past the Home Depot a lot and it's miles out of LA

[happytorq]

I used to drive past the Home Depot a lot and it's miles out of LA

yeah. 13 miles