Several weeks back, CONCACAF announced that Levi’s Stadium would serve as host of the Gold Cup final but it wasn’t until Tuesday that the federation confirmed the road that would lead to Santa Clara.
CONCACAF announced that Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia and the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona will host quarterfinal doubleheaders on July 19 and 20, respectively.
AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, and the Rose Bowl will each host a semifinal contest. Those matches will take place on July 22 and 23, with the final being held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on July 26.
“With the announcement of the knockout round venues, we complete the picture of world class stadiums for this year’s Gold Cup,” CONCACAF general secretary Philippe Moggio said. “We know these host cities and the stadiums themselves will provide the atmosphere and facilities to match the enthusiasm of the fans they will welcome this summer.”
The federation also announced that Honduras will be the seeded team in Group A. The United States and Mexico were previously assigned to headline Group B and C, respectively.
I can say that I’m not spending money to watch a Bruce Arena-coached USA team. And we drop points and fail to qualify for the World Cup, soccer in America will be all but dead.
HotTake:
I think that this is the year that the feeding frenzy for International soccer in the US dies down. The One Nation One Team hype train has derailed. USMNT crowds are dwindling, and US Soccer still charges $75 a ticket. I’d rather go watch the International Champions Cup exhibitions for $20.
This is a bad time to make that prediction.
USWNT are going to be doing the SheBelieves Cup with 4 of the current top 5 nations in the world, including the Olympic Gold Medalists. Those have already sold out. I’m not sure what they have lined up next though.
USMNT are just heading into qualifiers and will get the ‘new coach bump’ for at least the first two games. On top of that the friendlies before qualifying are going to bring in folks. Maybe you have a case with the Gold Cup, but I think with this being a qualifying year, people are going to be interested to see some of the alternates playing and/or just to see how the team is doing.
Now when you come to the euro pre-season games, who knows what the year will bring. btw I thought tiks for ICC and other games were more than $20, I thought they were just as much of a cash grab.
There are a lot of things that factor into the attendance of USMNT games…
1) Competitive match or friendly? The attendance for competitive matches are usually pretty good. Friendlies against obscure opponents not so much. Warm-up matches for the Gold Cup tend not to have great attendance in general due to poor opposition & because people would rather spend the money on a competitive match.
2) The competition. Playing against the big boys (Brazil, Germany, Spain, Argentina, etc…) will always draw a crowd, even for a friendly. Playing against St. Vincent, Haiti, Cuba, etc… not so much. We don’t really have any stars of our own….but when foreign stars can be watched in person it’s a major selling point.
3) Where/when the game is played. Playing on a weekday in a small college football stadium you’re going to have less attendance than at a Large stadium on the weekend. Additionally playing in a part of the country (city) that’s received multiple games the last couple years will often lower the attendance…especially if its against a crap team.
I’d expect that the competitive matches will be well attended this year (WCQ & GC).