Political comments regarding the World Cup (including mine) are moved to the appropriate thread.
World Cup 2026
- Thread starter jamesdeluxe
- Start date
ChrisC
Well-known member
I have only been to a few evening games; decent weather, roof open.
Marlins games are so poorly attended that one can generally purchase tickets for $10 per seat - maybe $6. This "generally admission" (not really) gives one the ability to float and try out about 3-5 different sections of the stadium. They even need to sell $44 Family 4-Packs: a ticket, a hot dog, and a soda. Basically, they cannot give away Marlins tickets. It's the 2nd-cheapest MLB team?!
Anyways, the question is not whether to attend a Marlins Game: it's whether you want to pay for parking? Brightline would include shuttles to the stadium, same with soccer.
The bad referee calls and VAR misuse are exhausting. If you missed it, check out clips of the Egypt/Argentina match. Messi definitely lives up to his reputation; however, the ARG favoritism is difficult to overlook. Egypt wuz robbed.
Doesn't surprise me.
I'm living in the opposite world. Per game price of my two season seats plus the most convenient parking in Dodger Stadium:
1995 | 26.46 | DS |
1996 | 26.70 | DS |
1997 | 28.70 | |
1998 | 30.77 | |
1999 | 34.30 | |
2000 | 36.00 | |
2001 | 36.10 | |
2002 | 39.40 | |
2003 | 39.40 | |
2004 | 39.40 | DS |
2005 | 41.28 | |
2006 | 44.32 | DS |
2007 | 57.28 | |
2008 | 57.83 | LCS |
2009 | 56.00 | LCS |
2010 | 56.00 | |
2011 | 56.00 | |
2012 | 46.00 | |
2013 | 44.51 | LCS |
2014 | 50.93 | DS |
2015 | 54.73 | DS |
2016 | 64.74 | LCS |
2017 | 75.10 | WS |
2018 | 90.68 | WS |
2019 | 90.31 | DS |
2020 | 103.27 | WS |
2021 | 103.27 | LCS |
2022 | 107.86 | DS |
2023 | 111.18 | DS |
2024 | 120.80 | WS |
2025 | 146.45 | WS |
2026 | 184.51 |
Postseason results are in third column, so the price of success is evident. Single game prices are more than mine. Rarely do I sells seats on StubHub/SeatGeek. 10+ years ago I would get less than I paid; now I would get more. I almost never buy food at Dodger Stadium. We have so many excellent options close by to dine or bring takeout into the stadium. Drinks are very restricted but food is OK in the clear bags most stadiums want these days.
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Patrick
Well-known member
Somewhat frustrated by the last week on the World Cup. Feel bad for the Swiss and Norwegian tonight. Paraguay-France non-calls were horrible.
Be consistent and fair…
This might be over the top, but you get the point.
Be consistent and fair…
This might be over the top, but you get the point.
Patrick
Well-known member
Here is another skit from IG
For casual U.S. viewers (not futbol superfans) who are watching with objective eyes, the two big negative takeaways of the World Cup are:
and
The ongoing question is "will this, the second World Cup on U.S. soil, finally transform futbol into the monster spectator sport that it is in the rest of the world?" IMO, the points above are impossible for the American sports mind to overcome or dismiss. The answer is "no, it'll never be more than a minor professional sport here." The North American Soccer League tried valiantly more than a half century ago (from 1968 to 1984) to address the many issues that made audiences on our continent lose patience and it still didn't work out.
1. The sheer numbers of non-calls, wrong calls, and VAR misses (last night's TV cable deflection was the most recent flagrant example) are exhausting. Only having one on-field referee and two linesmen is clearly insufficient. How does the NFL manage to get its video analysis consistently right yet FIFA misses almost half of its reviews? While "rigging" matches isn't really possible, as we saw in the Argentina vs. Egypt match, it's hard to deny that key calls are often decided in favor of teams with huge superstars.
and
2. A hilarious bit that's absolutely not an exaggeration. We've been making fun of melodramatic foul histrionics for decades and it's still a major part of the game that's often effective.
The ongoing question is "will this, the second World Cup on U.S. soil, finally transform futbol into the monster spectator sport that it is in the rest of the world?" IMO, the points above are impossible for the American sports mind to overcome or dismiss. The answer is "no, it'll never be more than a minor professional sport here." The North American Soccer League tried valiantly more than a half century ago (from 1968 to 1984) to address the many issues that made audiences on our continent lose patience and it still didn't work out.
No question, FIFA clearly wants Messi, Harry Kane, and others to win and believes that outweighs the upsides of an underdog reaching the upper WC matches.
To be fair, the NFL more or less did/does the same thing with its superstar quarterbacks. For years, if the defensive team so much as gave Tom Brady a dirty look, they'd throw a roughing-the-passer flag.
I was thinking in the long run that if Cape Verde (or whomever) got farther in the tourney, they might invest more in being good?
In my limited experience watching Messi, the other players don't take cheap shots at him they way they do at everyone else. Is that respect, or cause and effect (penalties) or both?
Also Messi doesn't flop they way everyone else does. Is that because they don't cheap shot him, so he doesn't need to? I'll tell you that for ME, the fact that he doesn't flop makes him so much more fun to watch.
Great minds think alike. I made those same bolded comments almost verbatim to my wife and mentioned what a pleasure it is to watch him because of that. I don't have the answers to either question.
To further demonstrate the extent that Messi owns FIFA, I just caught up with this from yesterday's Switzerland/Argentina match that I missed. Even a respected star like Wayne Gretzky would've been given an instant game misconduct and additional disciplinary action for getting in a ref's face, lecturing, and pointing at him like that.
This is the last straw for me with the World Cup. As mentioned earlier, I've run out of ashtrays to throw at the TV. I'm going back to Green Acres reruns.
This is the last straw for me with the World Cup. As mentioned earlier, I've run out of ashtrays to throw at the TV. I'm going back to Green Acres reruns.
ChrisC
Well-known member
I finally looked into real-time sports betting after the VAR call in the Switzerland-Argentina match. What are the odds on an Argentina win, Argentina's next goal, and Messi scoring? It is that easy and fixed, right?
Of course, Argentina needed to win! There needs to be a Latin American country in the semi-finals.
And this match should have been Colombia vs. Argentina. Switzerland's upset of Colombia was not in FIFA's plans. No small Euro nation can take down Latin Powerhouses. Take a player out!
At least Norway already had created an online marketing juggernaut that could be monetized if they beat England. They had: the Viking Row and a 6-4 real-life Viking forward. FIFA might have allowed it, but not quite.
I was at Dodger Stadium and did not see it live, but at first I could not figure out what that Swiss player did to get his second yellow card. But a later review should give James some satisfaction. Embolo got that card for taking a dive!
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The flopping is so fake, and in slow mo it's often hilarious and pathetic. Do they allocate practice time for faking?
Dude hang in for three more games!
I appreciate the emotional support but it would just be hate-watching -- cringing in wait for the next officiating outrage.
Now is very different with MLS. The are 30 teams with a median value of $670 million and three of them over a billion. In many places we have a substantial foreign born population that loves soccer plus a couple of generations of American kids like Adam that played soccer extensively. MLS has served this population with purpose built stadiums of 25,000 or so, many of them owned by the MLS teams that can also earn revenue from other events.
As for local interest in the World Cup, I've already discussed the dramatic difference in demand as evidenced by real world ticket prices vs. 1994.
I think there's a very direct analogy that may offend James: the NHL outside Canada and the Original Six cities in the US. In terms of widespread attention, neither sport has it but both have enough local fans who fill the arenas for live games. The US media rights to the NHL are about twice as large as MLS. But those NHL rights are half what they are in Canada which is why NHL team values are 3x MLS values.
If you exclude Boston, NYC, Detroit, Chicago, I think NHL and MLS are rather similar in fan interest. Patrick often
at tepid NHL interest in the US Sunbelt.
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