ozzieeagle

It's actually a UK colloqualism... and I did get the wrong team... twas the Seattle Sounders with the 4th biggest attendance in the world last year.

Seattle Sounders FC 2 1 San Jose Earthquakes 64,140 15 October 2011 [14]

kimilseung

A match I was at, Kasey Kellers farewell match, (well not actually his last game as there was a Champions League game later that week and they played away the next week and a couple of play-off games, but his last home regular season game) and they made a big deal of it. Local lad made good. As I said in the earlier post, it was a good attendance boosted partly by fans wanting to bid Keller farewell, but mainly by those who got a deal on the Manchester United friendly tickets. Still not bad. But if you considered that Barcelona, Real Madrid Unitd and Bayern often get more than that then the Seattle attendance would not be in the top 50 for 2011.

Giving any credit to Portland is frowned upon in Seattle, even if it is just how many went to see a game.

Why do some people say home-and-away-crowd rather than just attendance?

Bob

Don't know about your way, but out here, you don't need any kind of coaching certification to coach under 18s, just a criminal background check. A cousin in Maine is coaching middle school aged kids and she's never even played the game, got the job based on playing basketball when she was in highschool as they thought it was close enough

Southy_SWFC

Coaching is something I'll be looking into doing when the season starts back up in Autumn.

I'd be interested in going to the Oxford game in Maine if I get a chance. Looks like its Tuesday the 24th of July which isn't ideal but it might work.

HarryTheSpider

Like Rounders.

Which looks suspiciously like baseball...

Bob

Saco, that's about what, an hour from you? The other matches are in Exeter, which is probably a fair hike for you.

I think the tickets are $10 a pop? Last year I got them for free from a mate, but he isn't working for the Boston club any more. If you do go, watch out for the team charging you $5 to park at the school grounds, it caught us out as we usually don't have cash on us and there wasn't mention of parking charges and it was miles away from anywhere else to park the car

Sheepdip

the club he coaches for does require them to get their badges and he also did high school coaching which he really preferred.

Bob

That's good and the way I think it should be, unless it's primary school type stuff.

Does seem very hit or miss on what they require, around my way at least.

Southy_SWFC

I'm told its a little over an hour to Saco so thats not too bad. Just a shame its not a weekend.

Cheers for the advice, I'll mention it to the boss if we do end up going.

Yorkieabroad

Houston Dynamo have opened a new stadium this year - not been yet, but will be there on the 16th with my kids cubscouts. The scouts get to parade on the field at the start of the game - interesting that out of a pack of about 50 kids, there are only 6 boys going (and 2 of them are mine!). I didn't know what the new stadium capacity was so googled around a bit and came across this from last year on Fox Soccer, November 9, 2011 :-

Bit surprised but not sure it actually means a lot...!

Anyway, turns out the new Dynamo stadium is 22000 capacity, down from 32000 at their old home, and is actually too small to hold their 3 largest crowds from each of the last 2 seasons. Not exaclty planning for a lot of growth...

Bob

OUFC site has all the matches as 7pm...so probably not to bad...

We might see about heading to the one on Friday as a late stop off point to heading up to Maine. We'll see.

Last year the matches were after lunch and on uncovered, metal bleachers, it was mentally hot, so evening matches should be a lot nicer.

One thing that did amuse though, they were selling club scarfs and the very thought made me ill

kimilseung

The point of the new stadium is that it is soccer specific, it is not a multi-purpose stadium that they had. So a better experience for soccer fans, closer to the action and no distracting football markings on the ground. MLS has been encouraging soccer specific stadiums.

Yorkieabroad

Oh, thats for sure - Roberston stadium was the pits. Especially on the sunny side! Was just surprised at the size

ozzieeagle

Would have been a great game to be at by the sounds of things. The terminology re home and away, is to differentiate the usual league games from things like European cup matches or finals series.... Which tends to bring in larger than average crowds.

The reason it's important to take note of how the games attendances are improving is to show the state of the game at grass roots in the US. From the outside It's possible that Football in the US is one World Cup away from going real main stream. Seems is slightly ahead of what we have here in Aus.

It would be great to see some kind of Pacific Cup, where you could actually match up against some of the South American teams and perhaps you'll get to face the Australian, Japanese and Korean Champions as well.... Melbourne Victory dont seem that far behind Seattle and probably in front of Portland in terms of support numbers. Although I think your standard could be 4 to 5 seasons in front of the A league.

Anyway good luck with the game in the US... Like I said it is starting to be noticed and taken seriously overseas now, With references on football forums around the world.

.

kimilseung

In terms of International club football, it might be nice to have a Pacific tourney. US teams measure themselves against the Mexican teams. In the Champions League, last year was the first time a US team beat a Mexican team in Mexico. It was viewed as something of a landmark.

Tournaments other than the league, (Champions League, Open Cup) tend to confuse some more casual US fans, they have to advertise the international games, as NOT being friendlies.

I know Australia moved to Asia, do you think that will (already has?) make a difference? Stronger competitors.