Red Bull Arena will play host to the 2011 MLS All-Star Game on July 27th, Major League Soccer announced on Tuesday.
No opponent has been identified for the match yet. MLS has used a format featuring a team of all-stars against international club teams in recent years. FC Barcelona will be on tour in the United States during the summer and could wind up being the international opponent.
What do you think of this news? Praying MLS can land an opponent like Barcelona? Want to see a return to the East vs. West format?
Share your thoughts below.
Wenger has always hated the tours of the USA. I can’t find any source, but I am positive he has stated his teams would never do it.
Barca would be amazing though. Guardiola always makes his teams play 100%. He never takes a game off and I am sure his stars – minus Messi and Alves – would play in an All-Star game and it’d be taken seriously.
Hell, even if Barca plays academy and reserve kids, they are sure to be stars in 2-3 years anyway.
Congratulations Garber for puting everyone on the edge of their seats for this earth shattering blatantly East Coast bias (notably NY/NJ) hype driven paparazzi type trash…No worries Toronto, Seattle and LA will continue to carry your league.
you get to be the first one to buy it
Regular season schedule please. It’s frakking February already.
LOL I love it when people try to call someone else an idiot and instead reveal what idiot they are (and what a jackass). The major announcement was being made at 10am, the press conference was scheduled for 3:30. So what big company do you run so I don’t invest in a company run by someone who’s illiterate?
Glad I have multiple season tickets since STH’s will get first dibs
im sure its been said, but why can’t we do the allstar game AFTER the season finishes. the schedule that time of year is too convoluted. plus, i’d rather be watching meaningful MLS matches than an allstar match.
Looks like there are a lot of morons that cant understand the meaning of 3:30 p.m.. there can be an earlier announcement, this wasnt the big anouncement.
(SBI-Way to throw around the “moron” label. MLS announced the All-Star Game at Red Bull Arena this morning. That was the major announcement according to MLS, they even promoted that as the big announcement. The actual conference call to discuss it is later today.)
Is it 3:30 p.m at your house or something?
The major announecement is going to be at that time. No wonder you don´t run a big company.
MAJOR BREAKING NEWS: don garber farted this morning. smelled like last nights taco bell.
you heard it here first.
What a waste of time. MLS All-Star teams prove nothing. It’s nothing but hype. Come on Don, let’s get busy with credible activities. We should be focusing on building better clubs, rather than show casing international clubs. We’d be better focusing on strengthening the league via better television contracts to pump so money in the league. Now that’s BIG NEWS. We NEED BETTER funding for the league. GO GET THE MONEY.
I think there is more to this announcement than the location.
I believe Accrington Stanley is coming…LOL
Ha, Ives: “MLS’s idea of a ‘major announcement’ has me wondering what they’d call an actual ‘major’ announcement. Titanic? Astronomical? Historic?”
How will they describe it when they announce that the opponent will be Burnley? Hoping for “cataclysmic.”
Garber is the Tom Biscardi of soccer.
The news conference hasn’t happened yet. 1230 PST.
Like the Super Bowl and the NFL. You host your major event in your own stadiums in your team’s cities. Otherwise we would be seeing the Super Bowl in LA, instead of BugTussel, Tenn. because they HAVE an NFL team.
And you can guarantee that the stadium will be sold out, as well as showcasing your new stadiums to the rest of the non-soccer watching US fans.
I HOPE they bring in an Arsenal or Barcelona. As the MLS all-stars pretty much took care of mid-level EPL teams or any Mexican team, they were pretty much handled by a Man U still in training. Any teams the All-Stars face should be, in it’s own right, another “all-star” team.
man I was hoping they were announcing when the catalina wine mixer is……
I don’t have the energy to start a debate on this but I think it’s been a grave mistake with national team games and this potential match-up to NOT…….showcase the SSS that the club/city & supporters help build.
Going forward and for the long term development of our league and it’s stadiums…more as.ses need to be in seats and actually know the location of said stadiums, some of which are extremely secluded and obscure.
I understand the “medium sized” stadium perspective but the sincere marketing of said club/club stadium & club stadium location is being vastly overlooked for the recognition and visability of our MLS clubs.
Basically, it’d be one or two steps backward from a financial/revenue standpoint to take a GIANT leap forward and more incentive for cities/clubs to build SSS’s that are of high standards (ie Red Bull Arena).
Borrowing a comparision in the NFL: if you build a new stadium or renovate it drastically, the league rewards you with a Super Bowl or primetime MNF/national tv games etc.
I want our MLS owners/city council and supporters to believe that if they continue to build better quality stadiums it’ll be worth it on multiple fronts. National team games and MLS All-Star games, etc.
So with season tickets do i get the all-star game?
Per usual for a league that, after all, calls itself Major League Soccer.
I’m not saying Garber hasn’t been good, if not tremendous, for the league but the Don King-style hype propaganda we seem to get from him and MLS execs has long ago passed reasonability and is fast coming up on “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” territory.
We all knew when we read “major” announcment, it’d be bordering on the complete opposite.
I love my domestic league and support it but the “Circus is coming to town!” style promotioning and the SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! Monster Truck soundbite style hype is embarrasingly contrived at times.
What a ‘big’ announcement Garber, you boob. What a joke.
Instead of building hype all they’re doing is pissing off their own fans. Total failure.
Yawn. That’s it? Thats the ” major ” news. Major lame. At least NJ metro bulls will get to see what their stadium looks like full for the first and only time.
Instead you get a pic of New Jersey on the MLS website 😉
John, perfectly said. I tried to convey the same thought above but you said it dead on.
+1
EVERYONE who does media and PR for MLS should be out of a job by this time tomorrow.
And DJ Solli and Partyboy Richards. Maybe Luke Rodgers can be the bouncer.
How have you ever heard of Tarcebona, the 5th division powerhouse of Catalia? Can’t wait to see their young star Lenny Messy light it up against the likes of Robbie Rogers.
put me down for two tickets!
How about a Rookie Game and a dunk contest? OH wait…
No way. Why should the New Meadowlands be rewarded with any MLS game after the way they handled fans in the old stadium? MLS should reward teams that invest in the game and build their own stadiums. Having a game at the New Meadowlands would be nothing but a cash grab.
You know what else would be nice, some pictures of all the new jersey’s.
Yeah but Barca would draw a HUGE crowd to the New Meadowlands. If you want to show off the nicest SSS East of Kansas City, just put the MLS Cup there and keep the All-Star game somewhere bigger than a mid-major college basketball arena.
probably Arsenal or Barca. arsenal hasn’t been over here for a summer tour, so it does make sense. also TH14.
Little biased as a New Yorker, but this means we’ll finally have a glamorous MLS all-star weekend.
I’m predicting an “Ives-Henry-Steve Nash” Blowout all-star party weekend hosted P. Diddy and Mario Balotelli
When something newsworthy comes along, please let me know.
Thanks.
Having an announcement to announce an announcement of a future announcement is completely ridiculous. Why does Garber have to drum roll every bit of news coming out of MLS like he is doing us a favor?
Ives you are now the official host of All-Star Weekend! SBI Party!
Yawn…..
This was the biggest joke in the world. Glad I got up early on the West Coast to hear about this. First announcing that the All-Star game in NY is not major news worthy. Red Bull Arena was by far the odds on favorite to get it. Secondly they made it sound as if you went to the web site you could hear or see the news conference. Maybe just me but I saw no link. Classic case of Garber just “not getting it”. Trying to make big news out of nothing.
They want to show off their first class SSS to the world. I can’t blame them. Plus, depending on who the opponent is, the tickets will be a premium. I don’t want to compare them to Super Bowl tickets, but they will be a hot commodity if a big club like Barca is the opponent.
+1
Wow. Very nice. Now let’s hope for an opponent from the Catalan region of Spain who’s name rhymes with “Marcelona”.
So how is that regular season schedule coming MLS?
RBS is great, but should be too small to host an All-Star game in this part of the country. Should. They should have held the game at the New Meadowlands and held a skills competition or something similar the day before at RBA.
This announcement was, as you put it earlier, “underwhelming.” Hopefully, they make up for it with a quality opponent. Barcelona would be great. I’m crossing my fingers for Arsenal, who are said to be pondering a US tour this summer.
I’d rather they had announced the actual season schedule and a TV deal. All Star game is pointless.
Ugh, why limit the game to such a medium sized crowd?
I guess the MLS isn’t bringing in a big-name opponent?
When can we get tickets? I have a feeling this one will be sold out.
Was that the “major announcement”? SRSLY?