by Matt - US Soccer Daily
When the issue of home field advantage comes up, there always seems to be a boisterous faction calling for a bonefied national stadium a la Wembley or Azteca (though, obviously, on a smaller scale). But the demographic distribution within the US makes finding one city that would consistently yield a home field advantage against all major CONCACAF teams essentially an impossible task.
My proposal is not for one fixed venue, but for eight fixed venues, one assigned for each of the top teams in CONCACAF (no offense, Barbados, but you're not exactly keeping us up at night) so as to provide locations that are far from the most highly populated American cities for the respective ethnicities.
Now, my only tools in this endeavor were some census data and about an hour of my time, so excuse any soft reasoning or slip ups in judgment. With that, I give you my suggestions for matches against eight other CONCACAF contenders: Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Honduras, Trinidad & Tobago, Costa Rica, and Jamaica. (Due to some pressing matters, I didn't have time to include any others such as Canada, Cuba, or Haiti, but I don't think those would be overly difficult to figure out. It should also be a testament to Canada's ineptitude that I completely forgot about them the first time I made up a list of decent CONCACAF sides.)
Mexico- Columbus, Ohio: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Getting a home field advantage against Mexico is the most difficult of the bunch given the millions of El Tri supporters who reside in the States, so it shouldn't be overlooked that the Yanks have enjoyed the majority of the support at games in Columbus over the past decade. USSF seems to have already adopted this idea of an opponent-specific venue for our biggest rival, with the last three Hex qualifiers against Mexico taking place at the friendly confines of Crew Stadium.
Honduras- Seattle, Washington: Well, Chicago didn't exactly work out, and cities along the east coast probably wouldn't work much better (ask fans in DC how it's worked in the past). So why not avoid the east coast and sun belt entirely and instead head up to the Great Northwest, where soccer fans in Seattle have already shown a great passion for the game. The city is about 1,000 miles from the closest region with a significant Honduran population (that being Northern California), and even if fans of Los Catrachos were to make their way northward, I have a feeling the American fans in the Emerald City would still dominate Qwest Field.
Costa Rica- Washington, DC: Along the lines of Mexico at Columbus, the USMNT enjoyed a very pro-US crowd at RFK this past October. Let's keep a good thing going.
Jamaica- Sandy, Utah: An overwhelming majority of the Jamaican population in the United States is split between Florida and New York. So, let's go a couple of thousand miles west of both of those places and play the Reggae Boyz in picturesque Sandy. The fans in Utah have supported the Yanks well in the last two qualifiers there (though their showing at Rice-Eccles Stadium in 2005 was much more impressive than last year's match), and the location would make it very difficult for hordes of Jamaican fans to support their team in person.
Trinidad & Tobago- Nashville, Tennessee: Once again, this worked well back in March, with a decidedly pro-US crowd inspiring Bob Bradley's men on to a 3-0 victory. With a majority of the Trinidadian population living in and around New York, the Soca Warriors didn't enjoy a great deal of support at LP Field.
Panama- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: There isn't a huge Panamanian population in the US, and it's pretty spread out at that. Over the summer, the USMNT enjoyed some nice home field advantage in the Gold Cup quarterfinals, with only a section or two of Panamanian fans in attendance (who were drowned out by American fans like myself in the next section over). The crowd was the largest in the Gold Cup of any match not involving Mexico, and anyone who was there will tell you that it was most definitely a pro-American crowd. I might be a little biased here, having lived in Philly all of my life, but I think the USSF is just starting to discover the fantastic fans in the City of Brotherly Love.
Guatemala- Commerce City, Colorado: With many Guatemalans calling New York and California home, I figured I'd put this one somewhere in between. The crowd at Dick's Sporting Goods Park back in the USMNT's 2008 qualifier against Guatemala had a pro-American majority, and even though Guatemala's qualification hopes were at stake, there was not a really noticeable presence of light blue and white in the stands. The crowd may have been small (9,000 and change), but it wasn't much less than the one at Toyota Park for another 2008 qualifier (11,000 and change), and I think a more important match would bring a bigger crowd out to Commerce City.
El Salvador- Portland, Oregon: This one was a little harder because I left it for last and used up a lot of options with other teams. Also complicating matters is the fact that there are large communities of Salvadorans in many metropolitan areas across the country. Despite the proximity of Salvadoran populations in Northern California and Los Angeles, I think a small stadium coupled with the fervent American soccer fans in the Rose City would be able to create a nice home field advantage for the Red, White, and Blue.----
Now to address some potential cons to this approach. The fixed venues would mean that fans in certain cities wouldn't have the same opportunity to see the USMNT play. But, sorry to all my readers in Southern California or Texas, World Cup qualifiers are about results first and foremost, not about reaching all corners of the country. Even so, I think the geographic spread of the cities I suggested makes at least one venue within a reasonable distance of a sizable portion of the population. The USSF can fill the void by bringing friendlies to the neglected areas (which they already do on a regular basis) or the second round home qualifier against some Caribbean minnow.
Another con might be that these predictable venues could allow opposing fans to prepare for a trip far in advance, but the fact that the dates of the respective matches are not released until just a couple of months before they actually take place means that the amount of planning a group of opposing supporters could do would be no different than what they can already do with the current set up.
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With a little more time to look at demographics and other factors, I may have been able to make some more informed decisions, but I don't think I was too far off base with any of the cities included. I fully expect that you won't completely agree with all of my choices, but it was the concept that I wanted to communicate more so than the specific suggestions.
I really just want nothing more than to see a stadium packed with American supporters each and every time our boys take the field for a World Cup qualifier in the good ol' US of A.
Editor's Note: This piece was cross-posted to US Soccer Daily
