Real Football in America
 

Just wondered how the interest varies in the round ball game, state by state and whether there was much greater interest in some parts of America than others.

With Brazil hosting the next World Cup. same or similar timezones and the potential for the US to do really well, could US football be on the verge of making it big time in the US ?

Living in Australia, we also are faced with the prospect of Football being a minority sport, but that is changing. Is there anywhere over in the US... in a similar position to my Location in the Medittarenean dominated suburbs of the North side of Melbourne where arguably real football is the main sport ?

Just testing the waters for the next WC build up ... Over to you guys :thumbup:

Re: Real Football in America
 

Seems like there was more interest this last time.

It also seems to attract a lot of interest as a sport for girls in schools.

Re: Real Football in America
 

Soccer AKA football does well with school age children. Upon graduation interest levels drop. Partly cultural, partly because it is so god damn boring when you are not an active participant. Yes I know I just don't understand the game blah...blah...blah...

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It's popular in school and there's a few teams in crappy leagues in this state that are okay but bring in the attendance figures of about none.

The pro team here is the Revs, they use the Patriots stadium and the tickets cost $20 for up front seating instead of $200 for way out in the nose bleeds, they only open up the first ring of seats and don't fill them that they now don't even publish attendance figures that they are so low.

You just don't see pick up games in general either. There are organised matches, but you need permits to use a lot of the town fields.

Some towns are better than others. Our last town, you'd see more folks playing but then there was a massive Brazilian population.

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Getting reports of a lot of this kind of strange football style behaviour out of the MLS at present ;)

I reckon the build up for the Brazilian WC is going quite well.

People in Europe and indeed the rest of the World are sitting up and taking notice of the MLS now.

It may surprise some people on this part of the fourm that Portland had the 4th biggest home and away crowd of the year in the world last year. 64,600.

So who here has been to a game

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People take note because they pay stupid sums of money for everyone elses has beens that should have retired years ago, but now get a second run in like Beckham and Henry...which helps to bring the level of the game up a bit. Also helps when players like Dempsey heads to the UK and does well.

The only good thing about going to a Revolutions game here is that you can find parking, but you can also park in the mall at the stadium for free and they don't care unlike at a Patriots game where you're lucky to find a spot for less than $40.

Went to see Oxford United last summer on a pre-season tour, playing a team from New Hampshire and one from Mass...it was fun, but there was about 30 people in the stands watching and that includes the girlfriends of the players and the chap filming/tweeting the match for Oxford United as well as travelling fans from England, who used it as an excuse for a holiday to Boston (there was a package tour group discount on offer including flights for fans and Boston hotel stay and a night in New Hampshire).

They're doing another tour this summer, one match in Saco, Maine and then another two in Exeter, NH. Should go, never get to see my home team other wise, but I don't know if I can be bothered with something so souless again.

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Well hats off to you Bob :) A real football fan in my eyes. I'd travel 2.5K to Perth to see my team play. Almost a duty to carry the flag as a pioneer in spreading the word.

Having said that, the MLS really is being taken notice off now... started properly about 2 seasons back for some reason and now snowballing. Football people actually go out of their way to take in a game now. I know of plenty of people that have visited a game from the UK and someone personally from Aus... and he was of Greek heritage... and the person that told me the MLS is "going to happen". Plenty of mentions on football boards here.

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The US team played Scotland here at the weekend. Suprisingly big crowd which almost filled the local NFL ground (Jaguars). Plus they were big winners over the Jocks (5-1). Soccer isn't promoted that much but there is definately a great deal of support.

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I wouldn't go that far, Exeter, NH is only a bit over an hour away from where I am :lol:

As for how much the MLS is taking off...I think it really depends on where in the country.

It is much more involved in some parts, especially if they don't have any other sports that dominate.

Down where I am, we've got Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, Bruins, then we've got the college sports with all the colleges and way down below everything else would the Revolutions fit into the picture.

Apart from a very small handful of folks I know around where I live even realise that Brazil is hosting the worldcup, or that Euro12 is kicking off this summer.

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I think it depends where you are and if you know who to ask/where to go. There are lots of pick-up games here in Houston, but there's also a large expat population here driving it. I could get a game any night of the week just by turning up but there are also lots of organized games too.

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Not part of the Timbers Army then.

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Like I was talking about, where I am.

There are loads of Brits and other nationals playing in Boston, but pretty much all in various leagues.

There are about 30 pitches in two parks in the neighbouring towns to where I live, but unless you're in a league, with a permit, you aren't allowed to play on them.

Number of parks I've been too, I've only ever seen footie being played once out in the metro area of Mass that wasn't an organised kids league. You hardly even see a parent kicking a ball around with their kids out here and there are goal posts with nets.

Actually, you hardly ever see anyone playing any sport out this way unless it's an organised sporting league other than frisbee.

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We have the Charleston Battery in SC. They play in the USL-1 league and have a ground akin to a Blue Sq Prem/League 2 team with similar attendances. Saw a couple of games there last year, one being Portsmouth who came over for a mini US tour. Will be seeing Notts Forest in a couple of months time too.

Locally, it's big in the elementary/middle school ages and tapers off into high school and college. Season ticket for a South Carolina University season (Go Cocks!) is $25 for ten games and is a good evening's watch I find :) I do get the odd look in the stands though as I'm not related to any of the players! :lol:

I referee high school and below and my son is a U18 coach.

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Surprises me, but what you wrote does not make any sense. What does "home and away crowd" even mean? Their ground only holds circa 20,000. Can you explain further your meaning?

edit: A quick Google suggests it is some AFL Aussie colloquialism, but I do not know what it means nor how it applies to Portland to make them the fourth best at anything.

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In terms of attendance I read (here) that Seattle Sounders with 64,140 had the fourth largest attendance in the world in 2011, but as it does not even count Man U, I think we can treat these claims with a pinch of salt without more authoritative sourcing. [edit: I re-read that article and it was highest attendance for that Saturday, so I assume Man U were away]

I think Soccer (certainly in terms of a spectator sport) is big in the Pacific Northwest where Portland sell out their 20,000 ish stadium regularly and Seattle are selling 38,000 for every game this season, and 36,000 for the preceding three stadiums. They are technically sell outs, but they only open specific sections for soccer, the stadium can hold 67,000 or so, which it does for pigskin. I believe that Seattle with 36,000 average where in the top 50 average crowds worldwide.

Several times a year the whole stadium is opened up, but that is for tickets bought for the International friendlies against Man U or Chelsea, they are sold as combined tickets for the friendly game and for two or three regular season games, it is an attempt by management to make regular fans out of the casual spectator brought in wanting to see the big teams.

I can only speak for Seattle, but their is less Latino support that an outsider might expect, in fact there have been campaigns both from the management and supporter groups to try to increase interest from local Latinos.

regarding your point/question in your similar post in the Aussie forum - There is a big Latino crowd when Seattle play Mexican teams in the CONCACAF Champions League, and for friendlies against Mexican teams. Latinos seem to stick with the teams from the old country.

Supporter culture borrows from around the world so the use of capos is common, which I hate, people singing on queue, too many songs get assigned times, and the songs do not change no matter what is going on on the pitch; all a bit supporting by numbers. Capos do not attempt to watch the game. Tifo is big here, and can be quite impressive. American supporter are often very knowledgeable about the world game, the historic small scale of soccer in the US has gotten people to look outward both for the game itself and the supporter culture.

The local rivalry between Seattle-Portland-Vancouve is good, it is nice to get away games with a bit of bite; although away tickets is regulated through supporters groups, so that the singers and banner wavers are represented on TV, and limited as MLS is still a little nervous about importing the negative side of soccer culture, MLS is not sure about away support, if they want it at all, or to regulate it.

I love driving down to Portland, I have family in the city which helps, but the atmosphere is great for the Portland-Seattle games.

I have dropped season tickets this season but have had them for the last few seasons. I can get better deals via my work, I work tangentially for the city, and the stadium got city money and so we get a few good deals. (as cheap as $10.00 for the extra seats in the gods when the whole stadium is opened)

What I notice nearly every game, I never get used to it, is the orderliness of an American crowd, a crowd of 38,000 and the cars are still driving down the streets around the stadium unhindered. People still stop at the cross-walks.

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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]

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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?

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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 :lol:

Re: Real Football in America
 

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.

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Like Rounders.

Which looks suspiciously like baseball...

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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 :D

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

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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.

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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.

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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...

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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 :D

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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.

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

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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.

.

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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.

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Definitely and the Aus Club teams which equates to the local players are well behind the standard in the J league. That's something that doesn't sit well with Australian sports people. The J league teams standard would probably be pushing for promotion out of the Championship... Whereas the A league would probably be top leauge 1 standard at best. So having the J league and the Korean teams come in and regularly beat the A league teams is causing the standard to aim higher. Last years Brisbane Roar team was probably the best club football ever played in this country... they would have won a hell of a lot of games at Championship level in the UK. The A league has only been running for 8 years now... and there has been steady improvement.

Just to let readers on this thread know... we had real issues with ethnic divisions... IE: Croatian v Italian v Greek for example and it was really holding the game back in this Country. The A league has banned clubs from having any ethnic references on board. The consequence of this is the Brits and local Aussies are finally backing the game in a big way here... and the game is really growing.... It's not seen as something so foreign now.

BTW it may interest people on here to know, how desperate Football Australia is to get the game happening over here. We have the longest distance for a domestic home and away game in the world.... Perth v Wellington in NZ....over 3,000 Kilometers or a 6,000K+ round trip.

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What's the money like in the Aus or Asian leagues?

Don't tend to hear as many players heading to Japan for the money these days, but to China and the UAE and even Russia for the big pay outs.

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Australian local football has no hope of competing on a financial basis yet. Not sure where the Jleague stands. I understand Drogba is off to Shanghai if the rumours are to be believed, so we may see him in a Asian cup club comp here in Aus. We've had players like Robbie Fowler and Dwight York play here... Currently Harry Kewell plays for Melbourne Victory. He managed to get a contract worth 1 Million Aud per year out of MV. Which possibly makes him the highest paid footballer of any code in Australia. Haven't seen good value out of him in his first season dammit !

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The Open Cup used to have a tender process for who got the home advantage. You offer more, you get to host. All a bit odd for us Brits to get our heads around; but they changed the rules for this year to a straight draw; first out the hat gets to host. Except there are rules and sub-clauses, and it seems that you can still buy the home advantage from the first out the hat team.

So presumably now, it is often cheaper to buy the home advantage as it is no longer a hidden tender. It just seems a crazy messed up way to organize a tournament.

Would this be possible in the British Cups? I think the first team out gets to select the venue, but could another team offer money?

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Montreal has had a couple of 60,000 crowds this season, but the other three home games were more like 20,000. Anyone know why the disparity in numbers?

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http://www.seacoastunited.org/Oxford...ts/630071.html

So they've put ticketing info up, so cheap enough and you'll be able to get tickets at the venue this year so you can wing it.

The club also has youth coaching stuff going on in Maine, so if that's what you're interested in, chances are someone there you can have a word with.

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As it stands I've nothing on next Tuesday so should be giving it a go. New Wednesday shirt arrived yesterday so maybe I'll wear that to go in.

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We're going to the Friday match, the missus sorted out a couple days off after the weekend too.

Last year, there were a bunch of Brits with a whole variety of footie shirts, so wouldn't worry about it...only a few OU shirts...though they sold a bunch, quite tempted this year.

The scarfs that they had though, that just made me ill thinking about it in the heat :D

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Good stuff. Hopefully we'll all get talking about the international love of the game. Unless theres Sheff U fans there and I'll have to shout abuse at them.

The only place scarves belong at this time of year is the back of the cupboard. Don't want to think about them for another 6months

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Shame Forest cancelled their US tour. I was looking forward to seeing some English play again this year in Charleston.