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Portland and Seattle among host venues announced for 2013 Gold Cup

By VINCE MADURI

CONCACAF announced the Gold Cup host venues Wednesday and fans in the Pacific Northwest will be happy with the news.  Seattle’s CenturyLink Field and Portland’s JELD-WEN field will both host matches in the biannual tournament.

The Gold Cup is expanding its US footprint by going to several cities that have never hosted one of its matches, including Portland.  The other new hosts are Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, Hartford and Salt Lake City.

The tournament returns to Seattle after hosting in 2009 and this will be the third time overall the city has hosted a Gold Cup match.  Houston and Miami return as hosts, their 5th and 9th consecutive times respectively.

Here is the list of Gold Cup venues:

LIST OF VENUES

  • Atlanta – Georgia Dome (Atlanta, GA)
  • Baltimore – M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore, MD)
  • Chicago – Soldier Field (Chicago, IL)
  • Dallas – Cowboys Stadium (Arlington, TX)
  • Denver – Sports Authority Field at Mile High (Denver, CO)
  • Hartford – Rentschler Field (East Hartford, CT)
  • Houston – BBVA Compass Stadium (Houston, TX)
  • Los Angeles – Rose Bowl (Pasadena, CA)
  • Miami – Sun Life Stadium (Miami Gardens, FL)
  • New York- Red Bull Arena (Harrison, NJ)
  • Portland – JELD-WEN Field (Portland, OR)
  • Salt Lake City – Rio Tinto Stadium (Sandy, UT)
  • Seattle – CenturyLink Field (Seattle, WA)

The Gold Cup will take place from July 7-28.  Eleven of the twelve participants have already qualified: Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States.  The final spot will be decided between Guatemala and Panama on Friday in the fifth-place match of the 2013 UNCAF Copa Centroamericana.

What do you think of the venue selections? Which market are you most happy to see make the list? Which market do you feel should have been included?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

    • gotta go for it this time. With Mexico competing, and likely going deep into, in the confed cup USSF needs to win something the summer before the world cup to keep up. Im sure Mexico’s B team, Honduras, Costa Rica and whatever Canada puts out there won’t be easy but its an opportunity for USSF that they shouldn’t pass on.

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  1. Based on the USMNT venues from 2011 (Detroit, KC, Tampa) I’m hoping Hartford or NYC gets one of the USMNT games this time around

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  2. Maybe I am biased because I live near Philly, but am I the only one surprised that Lincoln Financial Field or even PPL Park was not picked as a venue?

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  3. Was hoping for Nashville to make the list but I guess USSF is still not ready to go back after the nashville nightmare last year. If some investors would step up I think that is a city in the south where an mls team could succeed. Nobody thought a hockey team would work here, but its been quite successful and led to a mini hockey boom down here.

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    • Nashville has been one of the best cities to see a game in over the past few years. I’m a little disappointed they weren’t included on this list as well. I guess it is time to give a few new places a chance.

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    • Yup although it possible that the US’s group does play in denver. I bet they want to do a game in the NW, Denver/Chicago and Hartford/Baltimore/East Coast. Just my wishful thinking.

      If its not a US group then id say denver is also a favorite for a game with Mexico which would be entertaining to say the least.

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      • As a Denver resident, part of me is almost hoping we get a Mexican game. I’d love to show up ready to boo my head off. And duck projectiles.

        I’m almost certain Denver won’t have a knockout game, and even more certain the group stage won’t contain the US. Mexico isn’t a bad consolation prize. If you can’t cheer the one you love, boo the one you hate.

    • Agreed. Bank of America already has the grass and has shown they can pack a stadium for games (heck it was almost a sellout for Mexico vs Iceland if my memory serves). My bet is they didn’t push for it.

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  4. Early indications are Jerry World gets the semis and the final will be at Soldier. Expect both Mexico and the US to play in all 4 time zones

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  5. It’s very disappointing that the San Francisco area was not included. Matches could be played in Oakland, SF or Palo Alto. Friggin’ ridiculous.

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  6. Think the final will be at Soldier Field in Chicago? Or assuming US and Mexico get to the semis on a course to meet in the final, maybe the semi-finals?

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  7. Baltimore and atlanta should be Mls in the future for sure and this seems like test for this cities, in order to gain attention and real Mls attraction. For denver,why not dicks park, dallas equals frisco, LA should go for home depot center,and chicago toyota park. No matter if its a knock out stage or group stage, mls stadiums should be the norm.

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    • I doubt it’s a test at all. We’ve seen one-offs successful in many cities that couldn’t host a team. We’ve even seen NBA and NFL games in England be successful, but we all know those leagues wouldn’t last half a season.

      Baltimore will only get a team if DC moves. And Atlanta will only get one if one of the Florida ownership groups give up.

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      • Baltimore will get a team after DC United gets its stadium at Buzzard Point. The City Council wants a team to anchor new development. They just need an owner. They can’t make any official announcements until United’s situation is officially settled.

    • More money (US), limited infrastructure (Canada), security problems (Mexico), and traveling country to country could cause problems?

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    • Sorta like how the Club World Cup is always in Japan. When the idea was initially floated to do this tournament alot of people werent really insterested in doing the whole lobby for hosting that the Olympics/World Cup/Euros has turned into.

      So they picked a developed nation with good infrastructure and good airports to handle everything for the forseable future. Once it becomes huge Im sure theyll start farming it out. But with FIFA as expected it’ll change when someone bribes someone.

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    • Who else is going to host it? You think anybody in Mexico is going to show up for a Guatemala vs Honduras game or Canada vs El Salvador or even Cuba vs Belize…and even better US vs Haiti…Canada maybe is a little more realistic but not sure they have enough stadiums that are big enough….

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    • the only “upgrade” from U.S. would be to move it to the winter, like the African Cup of Nations, and host it in the carribean on several islands, where it would be warm and pleasant…

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  8. I find it interesting Houston’s games are moving to BBVA and wonder if that means we will drop from knockout round games to group stage.

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    • Wondering the same thing here. I was there last year for the semis in Reliant Stadium. It looks like Dallas will be a good shot at getting the final with the size of that stadium.

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      • Could be in any of the big stadiums…..Rose Bowl again…Soldier Field like in 07….Dallas, Seattle even if they have synthetic grass but doubt it……I doubt Denver and Miami or even Baltimore gets the final but those are all big NFL or NCAA Football stadiums…..

  9. before everyone hypes up whoever looks good in these games, let’s remember:

    teams that a USMNT team of USL/semi-pros should beat: Martinique, Belize, Haiti, Cuba
    teams that a USMNT team of mediocre MLS’ers should beat: Canada, El Salvador, T&T
    teams that the best USMNT MLS’ers (standard B-team) should beat: Guat/Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras

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  10. Interesting but hard to read much into this without the draw. I assume the final will be at the Rose Bowl or TX. But you can’t even tell that from the list.

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      • of all the great rappers from Atlanta and you went wit Shawt-Lo?…besides we all know Bieber is going to lock that down

    • It’s not a first…

      “Natural grass will be installed at the Dome for the game. That was also done when the Dome hosted Mexico for exhibition games against Venezuela in 2009 and Bosnia-Herzegovina 2011. It also hosted a friendly match between A.C. Milan and Club America in 2009, and Club America and Manchester City in 2010.”

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