The haters of Miami as a soccer town were out in full force last week as it was announced that fewer than 6800 tickets had been sold for the USA vs Honduras game to be played at Sun Life Stadium. The game hadn't even been played yet and already they were bashing.In the end over 21,000 showed up on a wet night to watch the United states defeat Honduras 1-0 thanks to a wonderful goal by Clint Dempsey. Lets not point out that this game was played on Yom Kippur, that there was little promotion for the game, that a basketball event with NBA stars was being played and did I mention torrential rain?
Some mention that tickets were being given away thanks to a groupon special. But what town does not have special ticket sales for games? Sources within the Dolphins organization tell us fewer than 1,000 tickets were sold using the special. That still makes it 20K purchasing tickets by conventional means. Many of those walk up purchases. Imagine if it didn't rain? Other haters will say that 15K of those fans were Honduran nationals. In my opinion the crowd was divided... but, ok let's say they were all Honduran. It's still 15K Hondurans that live in South Florida!In the end most haters are those who don't even live in South Florida and have no idea what it takes to make soccer a success in this town. The old Fort Lauderdale Strikers back in the 70's and 80's was a success. And the Miami Fusion in 2001 was also turning the corner but was taken from us before time.
Over 70K showed up to see Barcelona play at that same stadium a few months back. The fans are here. We just need to give them the quality they are used to and this can be done. Any player in the world would love to play here and that's a fact.
Following are pictures and video of the game this Saturday:
12 comments:
Did you just admit that the crowd was at BEST split 50/50 and that it more than likely was more pro Honduras than that?
So at best 10k USA fans showed up, but in reality, judging by the video and pictures, it was far fewer. Also noticed that there hasn't been a single picture of the other side of the crowd where it appears no one was sitting.
If this is twenty one thousand than that stadium must hold 100 thousand.
Honduran fans aren't gonna support MLS and you know it. Should have played the game in Ft. Lauderdale, would have helped boost the local pro team and at least they support U.S. soccer.
Just like the last U.S.A. game in Miami, vs. Argentina. Low attendance and it was a sea of blue and white Argentina fans. Sad.
^^^ Someone is very salty....
Stadium holds 75k, no upper deck seats sold. Torrential rain and we still get 21K? Also tickets for the other side of the stadium weren't even available via ticketmaster.com because that was the 'Honduras Support side'. By the second half the other side of the field was about as full as the one on TV. I didn't see that many Honduras fans when I was leaving the stadium after the victory only some Proud USMNT supporters..... Stop being such a hater it isn't a good look.
Oh yea and Anonymous with the first comment, how are you gonna try and discredit everything when you weren't even there? SMH.
@anonymous 7:45PM
There are pictures of both sides and videos. You really don't have much to hate on do you? I think the lower bowl holds 35K maybe more. As you can see it is almost full in most sections so get a pair of glasses.
South Florida is as good a market as any. This USA game proves it and so have the past few friendlies in town, not to mention the Barca game and Gold Cup.
The original Strikers was proof of a successful soccer franchise in South Florida. They didn't fail, the league died on them.
The Fusion was getting there, it was the owner that ran out of money.
And now the Strikers average over 4K for Division 2. Not bad considering the Sounders averaged 3K before they went up to MLS.
The crowd was probably 60/40 in favor of Honduras, it was fairly even. But we all would have told you that the Honduran fans would have outnumbered the USA fans. How is it any different then when they play Brazil or Argentina in NYC or Mexico in LA or Houston? Those towns don't get half the hate South Florida does.
It was a total cash grab, as usual, from the USSF. If they were smart they would have set the game up vs. Germany, England, Netherlands etc., you'd get as big or a bigger crowd and pro-USA at that.
It was 21K, as the others have pointed out the stadium holds 75,000 and it was about 1/3 full.
While the attendance was announced as 21,000+ I don't think 21,000 were there. Stadiums always announce the amount of tickets sold. The rain kept a decent amount at home. But 21k sold is 21k sold. Kudos to the fans.
South Florida is a tough place to support any professional teams. So many old people and transplants from all over the country.
I am from the northeast and going to school down here. I did not have one friend who wanted to go to the game. Back home, I have several friends that would have been interested in supporting the US National team. People are different down here.
I think some of the people who comment fail to realize that the 21k+ people went to the game (regardless of who they were cheering for) is an indication that a home team would do very well. Imagine if all those Argentinian, Honduran, and US fans had one team to cheer for on saturdays in Miami. I think the answer is obvious, the MLS needs a Miami team.
Instead of hating, embrace ...Saturday night was a win for everyone....especially if you sat in the rain and watched the game. It does not matter how the fan base was split ...what matters is that on a Saturday Night when it was pouring rain all day, the most religious Jewish holiday, a night with several major college football games on the TV, An NBA all-star basketball game, opening night of the Panther's playing away. 21k soccer fans showed up to support soccer in South Florida. 21k is more than either the Miami Heat or Florida Panther's draw and is more than most nights of the the Florida Marlins. So just embrace and support Soccer in South Florida.....
Dave F
honduras do play weel, but it's just about luck
All in all good game :)
Didn't watched the game but i heard it was boring, I don't know I almost only watch the very important matches like semifinals-finals. Anyways great blog.
I think that Honduras is a tough soccer team when USA faces them, they tend to play better when they play against USA I do not know why, but I have seen it. Fortunately, USA won that game
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