Gold Cup Venues Announced For 2011 Tournament, Just Two West Of Dallas

Those of us on the West Coast have a bit of a chip on our shoulders, this can not be denied. We feel as though we are ignored by big media based on the East Coast. Our teams’ highlights make the national broadcasts less than we’d like. We feel as though our players get overlooked for postseason awards. Maybe we’re over-sensitive, I’ll admit that.

But it’s stuff like Thursday’s announcement of the 2011 Gold Cup venues that perpetuates this victimhood. Just two of the 13 sites are located West of Dallas, and both of those are in the Los Angeles area.

I’ll admit that as a Seattle resident, I’d love for at least one match to be played here, but it’s bigger than that. There’s a brand-new soccer specific stadium in Portland that will be ready. Rio Tinto Stadium has proven to be a great venue. The Rapids have a wonderful soccer-specific stadium. Phoenix is a great soccer market with a world-class stadium that even has air conditioning and real grass.

If all the other venues were no-brainers, I’d keep quiet, but there are some strange picks in the bunch. Charlotte, Detroit, Miami and Tampa are all without MLS teams. In Charlotte, Detroit and Tampa, at least, those games are being played in world-class NFL stadiums and are being played on grass. But the Miami game will be played at FIU Stadium, an otherwise underwhelming 23,500-seat, 15-year-old facility that has FieldTurf. Is that really better than playing a third game out West?

I get playing a game in the nation’s capital and if the game there was at FedEx Field, I’d have no complaints. But one of the tournament’s quarterfinals is scheduled for RFK Stadium, an aging facility that DC United is dying to get away from.

Obviously, every U.S. soccer fan wants games as close to them as possible. I’m not suggesting the Midwest or South should have been ignored, but each of those regions got more games than the West. It just seems another game or two could have been played out here, where some of the most rabid soccer fans in the country happen to reside.