in US Open Cup on June 11 or 12. However, stupidly the game will be in Columbus where they will draw 500 fans for a midweek match vs a lower division team. If that game in Pittsburgh, it easily sells out and is one of the biggest games in Pgh soccer history. US Soccer really dropped the ball here. They should use this tournament to you know, actually try to grow the game in places where it's not that big.
Riverhounds to play Columbus Crew
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
- Start date
Why would MLS teams agree to play in a tournament where they were required to play many or most of their games on the road, sometimes at places with substandard fields?
By the way, years ago the Riverhounds played Columbus back when the team played at the Wild Things Stadium. Not only did the game not sell out, it wasn't even close. And I know that because I was actually at the game with my son.
Of course the term "sell out" would have been a bit misleading even if the place been entirely full, because like many other people there that day we got our tickets for free.
Of course the term "sell out" would have been a bit misleading even if the place been entirely full, because like many other people there that day we got our tickets for free.
Didn’t they play DC United a couple years ago and had a SRO crowd the entire perimeter of the field?
But at the end of the day, it’s the Riverhounds so who cares other than a few hundred diehards and another couple thousand diehard soccer fans who will go to the game to watch soccer, not the Riverhounds.
The MLS is part of US Soccer. Keeping in mind that Columbus's starters wont play vs the Riverhounds, what is better for US Soccer. Crew @ Riverhounds in front of 4000 people in a huge game for what is otherwise a non-soccer town or Riverhounds @ Crew in front of 379 people?
They did play DC United @ Pittsburgh in 2015, DC won 3-1, but Pittsburgh played well, it was 1-1 after 90 and DC scored 2 in extra time.
I'd love to have a USL team near me, it would become my #1 team instantly, I just want live entertainment and beer sales, I don't care about quality of play. I'm a huge Baltimore Blast fan. I'd love it if the Riverhounds moved to Baltimore. They don't seem to get enough love there?
They alienated many of the youth clubs a few years ago by competing directly against them. They were seen as arrogant, and sanctimonious even though they didn’t know the first thing about coaching youth soccer. Those 1000’s of kids and their families are your base, and if you don’t have them, it’s tough. I liked some of those guys and never had a problem with them. But they burned a lot of bridges that they are still trying to rebuild.
Regarding the game against DC United, yeah that was it. It was disappointing because United played 2nd teamers as I recall. But that’s what you get in these cup competitions. It’s what makes them intriguing in some ways.
I guess for me, I just want a LOCAL team, I sometimes go to the local NPSL team, FC Baltimore, but they play 45 minutes away and it's kind of a long haul for a game with like 300 fans at a community college field, I'd love a USL team, because I figure it would seem somewhat professional. Probably more than an MLS team, because it would cost less and not be as popular with easy ticket availability, that's why I enjoy the Blast so much, it's a very professional presentation, nice arena, concessions, gear, average 4000 fans, and can get tickets on game day and for no more than $25. I just want something that is in person entertainment more than high level soccer.
In reality it works more the other way around. US Soccer for a long time has been in the business of making sure that MLS works. If MLS wants something from US Soccer, MLS gets it, almost every time. If US Soccer went to MLS and told them that they were going to start playing a large percentage of their Open Cup games on the road, frequently at places with awful fields, MLS is going to tell US Soccer to go pound sand.
And then MLS will tell US Soccer what it (US Soccer) is going to do, and US Soccer will say "thank you sir and may I have another".
There is a very thin line between US Soccer and MLS. There aren't many countries in the world where the FA has such a close intertwined relationship with the domestic league. MLS has no choice but to do whatever US Soccer says for their Cup games. It's the 2nd teamers that go anyway.
You are correct, and yet completely wrong at the same time. It isn't MLS that has no choice, it's US Soccer that has no choice. MLS doesn't need the US Open Cup. If the tournament ceased to exist tomorrow very few people would care, and at least privately most MLS teams would be happy with that. At this point the only reason that there is a tournament that anyone cares about at all is because of the MLS teams. If the MLS teams withdraw, it doesn't hurt MLS at all. But it ruins US Soccer's big domestic tournament.
US Soccer has no choice but to listen to what the MLS teams want for the US Cup, not the other way around. For instance, not all that long ago MLS teams had to qualify for the tournament. Certain teams, the previous season's champions and runners up and the previous season's Cup winner, for example, made it into the main draw automatically. But the rest of the MLS teams had to play a mini tournament among themselves to see which other teams made it to the main draw. The MLS teams didn't like that, because it meant more games to play (assuming that they kept winning). So they scrapped that and now all (American) MLS teams automatically qualify into the round of 32.
MLS wanted it, MLS got it.
I don't know? DC United never plays their US Open "home" games at their own field, they always farm it out to this complex known as SoccerPlex 50 miles away where the NWSL team plays, and they have 5000 seats. it's a nice field, but they don't care if they play it at their actual home field, and they did play in Pittsburgh that one time.
But they played them at a field of their choosing, where they know that the surface is going to be in good shape. Do you think that they want to play any of their games at, say, a baseball field that has been lined off for soccer? Because while they are trying to get away from places like that many USL places have played games on fields like that. Or even play their games on a soccer field, but one that is in terrible shape with all sorts of bumps and ruts? Because some places play at places like that as well.
Additionally, to specifically DC United, up until a year or so ago they didn't have their own stadium. It's easy to see why a team in their situation wouldn't want to play a game in a stadium that will be mostly empty and have to pay someone else for the privilege to do so. Not surprisingly, now that they play in their own stadium their Open Cup home game next week will be played on their home field.
By the way, there were a little over 5,000 people at the game in Columbus. In other words, approximately equal to the largest crowd that the Riverhounds have ever drawn at home.
It was where they played their games, but they didn't own it. They rented it. The stadium that they moved into this year is their own stadium. And it's no coincidence that after not playing Open Cup games in their "regular" stadium previously they did play their game this week on their regular field.
It looks great! And they had to scale back bigly for budgetary issues. I don’t know what the original rendition was but it had to be grand.
There weren't. I watched the highlights. 2K, maybe. Even still, better for US Soccer to have 5K Pittsburghers turn up for that.
There were a lot of people sitting in the end zone for whatever reason (probably cheap or free tickets), so there were clearly more than 2000 there.
And the notion that the game would have sold 5000 tickets in Pittsburgh for Wednesday night game for a team that usually draws half that (and sometimes far less than that) when they play on Saturday and when they would have had exactly one week to sell tickets is pretty much the definition of wishful thinking. It's as if you feel past history is no indication of future attendance, and that doesn't even take into account that their attendance has been trending down over the past few years.
I went to the DC United game a few years ago on a Wednesday night. That was before they added seats but the game sold out in a day. I know because I couldn't get tickets. Then a few days later, they released a couple dozen and I bought a few. It was completely packed and a pretty good environment. They easily would have sold out their 5K seat stadium
If they would have it would have been what, about the third or fourth time in the history of the stadium they sold that many tickets for a game?
Additionally, you can tell how well they are selling tickets now and how much interest there is in the team at this point by the fact that last week they started offering two for one tickets to every game except the 4th of July for the rest of the season.
Which is all the more reason 5K people in Pittsburgh watching the US Open Cup is more important than in Columbus which has an MLS team and plays host to USMNT qualifiers
And again, how many times has 5000 people actually shown up for a game in Pittsburgh versus an MLS team? Because it's not like they've only ever hosted an MLS team once.
You know, now that I look at it the official attendance for the game against DC United that you keep claiming was over 5,000 was actually 3,988. So technically the answer to how many times the Riverhounds have drawn 5,000 fans for an MLS team is zero.
By the way, if anyone is watching the US - Guyana Gold Cup game tonight the right back for Guyana, Jordan Dover, plays for the Riverhounds.
He's from Canada and went to school in the US, so I don't know what qualifies him as Guyanan. Probably went there on vacation once.
He's from Canada and went to school in the US, so I don't know what qualifies him as Guyanan. Probably went there on vacation once.
Actually that's not how they normally work. The way almost all of them work is exactly the way that the Open Cup is set up, where the home team is determined by a random draw.
The Riverhounds have only hosted an MLS team 3 times I believe. If you want to use when they played at Bethel Park Stadium and the Wild Things Stadium to validate your point that they cant draw 5K for an MLS team, go ahead. They drew 4K for DC United a few years ago. It was sold out and they have since added seats. They would have drawn 5K for Columbus and that's more than who actually showed up in Columbus.
If you keep telling yourself this you might even be able to convince yourself.
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