As someone who has stood in the supporters section in Crew Stadium to see the mighty Yanks put the dos a cero on Mexico, I know the importance of home field advantage and a friendly crowd behind you. As a member of Sam's Army (have flag, will travel), I'm aware of the problem that exists when it comes to scheduling USMNT matches. The stronger the opponent, the more motivated their supporters are to come out and support the national side. Last year, I personally saw strong contingents from Mexico, Costa Rica, and Honduras, while Trinidad, Canada, and Panama had more modest followings. This makes choosing the venues for our most important matches much more difficult.
I for one, have been quite pleased with how the USSF has distributed match hosting. In terms of our most difficult home fixture, hosting Mexico in Columbus was, demographically and geographically, an astute decision. Just as the Russian Army has "General Winter," the weather is a big factor when it comes to US games in Columbus. It's the kind of psychological edge that fills Mexican minds with fear and trepidation, and swells the confidence and courage of the American players. It's the kind of intangible you cannot measure, cannot quantify, and cannot buy. It is our Stalingrad, our Gibraltar, our Helm's Deep. In 2005, my father saw the Yanks beat El Tri to qualify for Germany. In 2009, I endured the kind of storm that can only be described as "biblical" to see the beginning of our 2010 Hex campaign. In both games, the majority of fans supported the US, and in both games, The US won.
When it comes to games that might be considered easier or less crucial than a qualifier against Mexico, the Federation has used the Nats to bolster soccer interest in newer MLS teams (Portland, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City) and to proselytize soccer in new markets (I was at Nashville last April, where we got over twenty-seven thousand). It's a brilliant strategy. The USMNT is the highest profile commodity in American soccer, and it carries a glamor that the MLS doesn't quite have yet. A chance to see the Yanks play live, and experience everything special and unique the match day atmosphere at a soccer game has to offer can mean the difference between a kid being someone who played soccer as a child and a lifelong, travel-to-far-away-matches kind of fan. It is only by reaching out to new fans, and new markets that the USMNT can ever hope to have home field advantage in its own country.
Another factor that must be considered is national team burnout, or how many times a market can host matches in a given time period, and still continue to draw. I doubt whether any city in America could hold even half of our home matches and consistently draw crowds of twenty to twenty-five thousand. DC can't do it, New York can't do it, and even Seattle can't do it.
And to be perfectly honest, I like going to new stadiums, seeing the country out of a bus window, wandering around strange cities in post-match delirium. Soccer in this country is still growing, and major, constant home field advantage in every game will come, but there's no single city or magic formula that will bring it about instantly, or as quickly as we'd all like. It will come through the combined efforts of the Federation and the supporters working together to entrench our sport in the American psyche.
