The United States Soccer Federation has proposed a new international men’s tournament to Conembol, Conmebol’s member federations, and Concacaf.
According to the New York Times, the tournament would be called Continental Cup 2020 and would mirror the Copa America Centenario which was hosted by the U.S. in 2016. All 10 Conembol countries would be invited as well as six Concacaf nations.
Each team will be guaranteed a minimum of $4 million to participate, while an additional $5 million will be given to the winner. Teams will also earn $225,000 per point earned while the USSF is willing to pay nearly $200 million to the participants, according to the report.
“We view this opportunity positively as it is not intended to replace or substitute any future editions of the Concacaf Gold Cup and it complements our vision to continue providing opportunities for our Member Associations to play competitive football at the highest level,” Concacaf said in a statement.
Both Concacaf and Conmebol have been in discussions in regards to holding another Copa America but have yet come to an agreement. The tournament itself is set to run concurrently with that year’s European Championships and would not have any impact on the Concacaf Gold Cup or the Copa America.
In the 2016 Copa America Centenario, Chile defeated Argentina in the final which was relatively popular across the U.S. The USMNT fell to Lionel Messi and Argentina in the semifinals of that tournament, which allowed the two federations teams to get a taste of one another.
U.S. Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro has invited the South American representatives to discuss the proposal next week in Miami, in hopes to strengthen the possibility of the tournament.
Whatever it takes to get rid of the stupid pointless “Gold Cup”…playing against Paraguay and Colombia is surely better for USMNT than playing against Turks and Caicos and Cuba…
Conembol?
How can the USSF afford to pay $200 million for this? Are the TV rights that valuable ?
Basically, yes. While data is not great for TV rights, Bloomberg reported that Univision paid $70 million for the rights to US Spanish-language broadcast of the 2016 Copa America Centenario alone (a bargain, as they reportedly sold $135 million in advertising). This excludes both English language rights and global rights, as well as other revenue such as ticket sales, corporate sponsorship, etc. Also, it’s important to note that USSF is not actually “paying” $200 million out of pocket, just backstopping if the numbers come in low.
Bring. It. On.
And please, do a better job filling stadiums and generating atmosphere. If it’s a small country against another small country, put it in a smaller venue where the fans can still take it over and they’re not just rattling around…
…and oh, yeah, KEEP IT AFFORDABLE.
Make sure the houses are packed instead of doing a cash grab. Look at what UEFA pulled off with the Euros, filling almost every stadium for every game, that’s the atmosphere you’re looking for.
But at the end of the day, the USA will only get better if we’re going head-to-head with the likes of Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia, instead of waiting for the odd match against Mexico or Costa Rica before we see anyone worth playing in CONCACAF.
I’ll get a world more excited than that than watching us kick Cuba off the field 7-0 in the Gold Cup after half their team defects.
Agree with pretty much all of this. However, in order to maximize attendance using the strategy describe, it’s important to note that this could probably only be done if the venues were set *after* the draw had been made. This of course presents a problem with competitive fairness, as one team will invariably claim that the venue selection is tilted/unfair. Maybe this is something teams are willing to live with though… either that, or we could just conduct the whole thing in Florida.
+1
Except Texas is better with so many nice stadiums.