We Won The US Open Cup And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt
(Oh, and a share of the $100,000 first prize, I guess.)
Congrats to the Seattle Sounders, who won a wild US Open Cup final, 2-1 over DC United last night. Seattle could still conceivably become the first US side to win the treble (MLS Cup, Supporters Shield, US Open Cup), but they’re six points back in the race for the league’s best regular-season record with six to play, so the third leg might have to wait.
Two things stuck out to me about last night’s game: Josh Wicks‘ meltdown (second in a week, if you’re scoring at home…guy’s got issues) after he had played so brilliantly and the crowd. DC United spent a lot (in advertising dollars and in snarky back-and-forth capital with Seattle’s front office) and drew the third-largest crowd for a final in the modern era:
| Year | Crowd | Site (Matchup) |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 19,146 | Chicago (Fire vs. Fusion) |
| 1998 | 18,615 | Chicago (Fire vs. Crew) |
| 2009 | 17,329 | Washington (DC United vs. Sounders) |
| 2007 | 10,618 | Frisco (FC Dallas vs. Revolution) |
| 2005 | 10,000 | Carson (Galaxy vs. FC Dallas) |
| 1997 | 9,776 | Indianapolis (DC United vs. Burn) |
| 2004 | 8,819 | Kansas City (Wizards vs. Fire) |
| 2008 | 8,212 | Washington (DC United vs. Charleston) |
| 2006 | 8,185 | Bridgeview (Fire vs. Galaxy) |
| 1996 | 7,234 | Washington (DC United vs. Rochester) |
| 2002 | 6,054 | Columbus (Crew vs. Galaxy) |
| 2003 | 5,183 | East Rutherford (MetroStars vs. Fire) |
| 1999 | 4,455 | Columbus (Rochester vs. Rapids) |
| 2001 | 4,195 | Fullerton (Galaxy vs. Revolution) |
Whether that was enough for them to actually make money on the whole deal, as team honcho Kevin Payne said he expected they would, well, we don’t know.
Anybody own www.someoneelsewonthistrophy.com?
Tags: attendance, soccer, US Open Cup
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Wow. So, if I stayed home in 2005, the attendance would have been 9,999?
I love suspiciously round number announced attendance.
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Sounders fan response was with the following site
http://ButYouDidntWinThisOne.com
September 3rd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Dan, don’t you remember that in 05 the Galaxy said they couldn’t sell more than 10K tickets before it was hosting a weeknight game? Thus, they just announced the number that (publically) they were capped at selling to.
September 3rd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Did United shell out a lot of money? They bought a domain. They bought a couple of ads in the papers (for which I’m sure the papers were more than happy with). They then took some trophies to bars. And gave out some t-shirts and stickers.
While they got the word out, I don’t think they shelled out a ton of cash on it. They may have even funded it out of the spare change Real Madrid left behind.
September 3rd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I don’t know, full page ads in the Sunday Washington Post going for cheap these days?
Everything I’ve read, including this post on Pitch Invasion, says DC spent (relatively) a lot of money.
“DC are spending ’significantly more’ than on the 2008 campaign, their marketing department told us.”
http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2009/08/10/u-s-open-cup-final-marketing-dc-united-we-win-trophies/
Now, maybe they didn’t spend anything in 2008, which I could believe.