Major League Soccer

MLS season is I think 32 games this year? It's the first season that each team plays everyone else home and away.

(note: the "Allegedly" in my post with the attendence link was sarcastic)

Meanwhile, the Dynamo, the United, the Galaxy, and Chivas all play at stadia that hold 27,000+.

Pretty much the only one of these that sells out with any regularity is Galaxy games (they and Chivas share a stadium), and with no Becks for most of this year that's even doubtful. United and Dynamo play in outdated American football stadia and get no revenue from things like beer sales and parking, hence the league-wide push to get each team its own home. United is the only one w/o a solid plan in place iirc. The new NY arena holds 25k.

Obv. the United are not selling out RFK, but do they get more than 20,000?

Close to it, or more when it's an important game. They've got a friendly against AC Milan scheduled for this summer that'll probably sell out.

omfg Don Garber is such a fucking fool

“I think we’re going to see more and more MLS fans travel. Like Toronto fans have taught other MLS supporters to go around to our stadiums."

yeah turns out Toronto invented the game too, all those years before they joined MLS we were actually watching baseball -- who knew?

mls-related, i really like chicago's announcement of the sister cities cup. how cool. not like there needs to be another cup, but i'm into this one. it made me look up seattle's sister cities: ooh nantes, perugia, mazatlan, that would totally work.

Why is it so big in Seattle (and why did they not get an original franchise)? It can't be all down to Ljungberg

HIPPIES

srsly tho i think WA might be one of those states that produces more young soccer players than it does football players. plus liberal effete euro-loving pussies

That's funny - 70s footy here got a totally different vibe

last gbx part tru tru.

also we lost the sonics, and we traditionally get REALLY INTO a team when it's new. it's the hot ticket in town. we'll see in 5 years.

Seattle also lost their NBA franchise recently, and don't have an NHL team.

xp yup

Good to see liberalism still going strong anyway.

Sister Cities Cup teams for the interested:

Chicago Fire
Paris St. Germain
Legia Warszawa
Red Star Belgrade

i'm not sure why seattle didn't get a club earlier. the stadium only got built 5(?) years ago and there would've been no place to play before that, so no point in courting a club.

the old NASL club drew pretty well. they used to play in the kingdome, a 50k seat indoor place. they didn't fill it, but crowds were decent. or they seemed so to 4 year old me.

sister cities cup sounds cool.

Don Garber can kiss my Anglophilic costal-elitist American ass, I went to see the Metros play New England at Foxboro in 1999.

I'd like to get St Pauli for a sister club, how cool would that be?

Just remembered this:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/seattles-disastrous-sports-year-continues-with-add,6489/

I read about an unrecognised world cup that 'The Republic of St Pauli' hosted for Greenland, Northern Cyprus, Gibraltar, etc. So they might twin with Navajo Nation or someone if they ever get a franchise

I'd like to get St Pauli for a sister club, how cool would that be?

― Ask foreigners and they will tell you the gospel comes from America. (Laurel), Tuesday, April 13, 2010 3:10 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

oh yes, st pauli is v v likely to partner with the fukkin RED BULLS

St. Pauli are also known for their close links with many other foreign clubs, enjoying a particularly close friendship with Celtic with St. Pauli fans attending Celtic games on the continent when Celtic play UEFA competitions. St Pauli flags and scarves are frequently seen on display at Celtic Park (The official Celtic stores sell St Pauli merchandise) and every year Celtic supporters arrive in Hamburg for the annual St Pauli - Celtic Festival.

Hands off, we've already got them.

LOOK I DIDN'T ASK TO BE AN ENERGY DRINK OKAY SO LAY OFF.

xp to Ailsa: Oh bother. But it's unofficial, right??

Or at least non-exclusive.

Well, aye, but Celtic allowing their merchandise to be sold in their official stores is about as official as you are likely to get.

xpost, yeah, OK, not exclusive. But fairly concrete as far as tie-ups go.

they have an open relationship

also i gotta cop to being the kind of person who just ~likes~ both celtic AND st pauli for reasons that have nothing to do with the actual football (irish, likes the skull and crossbones)

No-one likes Celtic for the actual football right now. They're on the telly right now and I'm posting on the MLS thread, FFS.

You could probably still get Millwall

no sister cities listed on the harrison nj wiki page

I like St Pauli for playing in brown shirts and saying fuk tha haters, among other things.

WANT
http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/fc/fc-st-pauli-06-08-st-pauli-hooded-sweat--vintage-logo.gif

This is the thing Ismael was talking about, btw:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_FIFI_Wild_Cup

rahni otm

Poor old Tibet. Second FIFI Wild Cup in Greenland this summer, in case South Africa's too hard to get to

I was pretty pissed when I missed the Homeless World Cup when it was in Chicago a couple of years ago.

http://i39.tinypic.com/14w3ss8.jpg

lol

It's a shitty situation, but I was surprised to see that the tributes of Fire fans to Poland's president et al made the news in Poland:

http://www.portalkibica.pl/aktualnosci/fani-w-chicago-uczcili-ofiary-katastrofy.html

one more -- the classic Bridgeview Borealis On Tour in New Jersey:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2742/4480167593_5035aa40fb.jpg

yay, Red Bulls get Spurs. And Manchester City and Sporting

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2010/04/21/2010-04-21_red_bulls_to_play_host_to_top_english_clubs.html#ixzz0lkxwuzB8

for their version of the sister city thing.

top_english_clubs.html

Sporting

I kid. I think we're going to be seeing more and more of this, especially as clubs in Yurp try to sort out their debts. I read earlier today that there's a rumor of a Celtic/Rangers match in Mass.

I think that's pretty much a rumour at the moment. Celtic have games lined up in Canada, Rangers in Florida, I think someone's thought they might as well meet up in the middle when they're done. Good luck Boston is all I can say about it.

Hooliganism visited upon the shores of the New World in amounts not seen since the great West Ham/Columbus Crew showdown of aught-eight.

Actually iirc New England's stadium (where they'd likely play) is closer to Connecticut than it is Boston, so either 1. nobody will come or 2. they'll be so concerned about how they're going to get home no-one will want to fight.

Parachuting some Rangers fans into a bit of USA populated with Irish Catholic ex-pats - MARKETING GENIUS. Am hoping Celtic see sense and distance themselves from this nonsense.

xpost, ah, OK.