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Columbus Crew in Akron


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I had higher hopes for the attendance of this game. My brother-in-law was stunned that I didn't purchase tickets before the game, evidenced by his "Aren't they going to sell out?!" We arrived as the game began and there were ZERO people in line at Gate 1 to purchase tickets or enter the game. We pride ourselves on our support for the Zips, but we (Northeast Ohio) obviously are NOT futbol supporters. No excuse this area could not produce more than 1,900 paid admissions on a perfect night during the World Cup media blitz. Pathetic!

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I know this game should have piggybacked on the popularity of the WC right now, but I think that actually hurt attendance here. I know AO Akron spent a lot of time pimping the WC match Monday night, and even though that's our job as an American supporter group, I probably would have tried to make a little more noise about this game if the US-Ghana wasn't the most important thing going on. If you don't have the Word Cup going on, and our first game isn't the night before, this game is probably the only thing soccer fans in Akron are talking about for days leading up to it.

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The game wasn't marketed at that well. Mentioned once or twice by UAkron, and if you don't follow the Crew all that well, you would have only known through Facebook, if you follow UAkrons page.

Rubber City Brigaid has less than 200 likes so there's only so much I can do with that.

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I know this game should have piggybacked on the popularity of the WC right now, but I think that actually hurt attendance here. I know AO Akron spent a lot of time pimping the WC match Monday night, and even though that's our job as an American supporter group, I probably would have tried to make a little more noise about this game if the US-Ghana wasn't the most important thing going on. If you don't have the Word Cup going on, and our first game isn't the night before, this game is probably the only thing soccer fans in Akron are talking about for days leading up to it.

Good points all. I still think the match could have been promoted better by USSF. It is their cup, right? USOC?

Even so, I do not think the attendance was bad enough to dissuade the powers that be from having another appearance at FE/CC. Everything considered, it was a pretty good showing. Could have been better, but it wasn't bad.

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All good points regarding the attendance. If it's true that attendance was in line with the numbers the Crew usually draws for USOC matches, then FES/CCF makes sense vs Crew Stadium. The smaller venue makes the atmosphere better with the limited crowd. Berhalter said he liked the atmosphere. He specifically made mention of the applause they received as they came off the field at half time. Hopefully they liked it enough to return.

Edit: I'm sure it didn't help walk up attendance by Zips fans knowing that Wil Trapp was still unavailable (noted on theCrew.com match pre-view). I wish we could have seen him on our field again, but it was great just to see him there and talk with him. I was so happy for Chad to get to play out there again.

Now, if the Crew and Timbers eventully meet in the USOC with the Crew having home field, they should come to Akron. But then again, they would be giving up home field to do that.

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I would expect Akron to root for Columbus over Portland

I think that's dependent on how many Zips fans show up. I would think that Caleb Porter would garner a significant amount of support, plus I was mostly referring to his having coached at Akron for 7 years . That would make it feel like a home game to him (Darlington, Steve, Ben, and Michael).

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I think that's dependent on how many Zips fans show up. I would think that Caleb Porter would garner a significant amount of support, plus I was mostly referring to his having coached at Akron for 7 years . That would make it feel like a home game to him (Darlington, Steve, Ben, and Michael).

Exactly. Again, we have to face the reality that people flooded to FirstEnergy stadium during the Caleb era because they were Zips fans who wanted to rally behind a great team that was tops in the country and on a national title run.....not because there was some growing emergence of soccer fans in NE Ohio.

So, I would absolutely expect more interest for Caleb and his former Zips players, rather than some Akron allegiance of Columbus Crew Soccer fans.

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