Thursday, May 29, 2008

MLS Expansion – Philadelphia 'will draw very well’; Increased stadium size?

New Director of Operations Rob Smith thinks his Philadelphia side will be a huge draw come 2010.
"I believe the new team will draw very well," said Smith, who has no plans to give up his coaching duties at Downingtown West. "I think the attraction to the sport has grown tremendously. There are a lot of passionate soccer fans throughout the area . . . people who have gotten to know the sport by playing it or watching their kids play it."
But the most interesting news from this article is not that the person in charge of getting people to the stadium thinks that people will come to the stadium. Instead, it is the possible typo concerning the stadium size.

"A new, 32,000-seat stadium on the Delaware River is scheduled to be ready for the team when it begins play in 2010."

Last I heard, they were planning on a 20,000-seater. I'm guessing this is just a mistake, but if it is true, wow, Smith must really think people are ready to turn out. At 32,000, the field in Chester would be the largest soccer first stadium in MLS, 5,000 more then the Depot that LA and Chivas call home.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

msl really is growing .... would like to see what beckham can do to it

8:44 AM  
Blogger Kyle Burkholder said...

i hope there is no misprint...32,000 would be amazing and i am sure they would average well over 20,000.

like seattle, philly is already building support - and why is seattle limiting itself to 24,000 capacity (lower level of qwest) when they have already sold 16,500 season tickets. tell me that they would open up the whole stadium when beckham and company (or other big draws) come through town...

3:01 PM  

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