By Paul Nicholson
June 19 – Organisers of the 2015 Gold Cup to be played in the US starting July 7 are reporting ticket sales running at double the level of sales at the same for the 2013 championship. The news will be a relief for CONCACAF’s leaders as they battle to maintain confidence and the integrity of region’s showcase event for national teams.
The Gold Cup will be played across 14 US cities with near sellouts being reported in Dallas and Kansas City. Dallas will host the championship opening double header in Group A which features United States, Panama, Haiti and Honduras.
Kansas City also hosts Group A matches, which will also play at Gillette Stadium in the Boston area where tickets are still available, but fans are encouraged to purchase in advance as supplies are limited.
So far about 300,000 tickets have been sold for the event. The total number of tickets sold to date is already on par with the total Gold Cup attendance for the whole tournament in 2005.
Following the arrests of CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb and Costa Rican president and FIFA executive committee member Ricardo Li in Zurich three weeks ago on corruption charges, the confederation has been scrambling to keep the integrity of its events in the face of US Department of Justice investigations that have included the raids on its Miami headquarters.
A special committee of Sunil Gulati (US Soccer president), Justino Compean (Mexican FA president) and Victor Montagliani (Canadian FA president) was installed to focus on the running of the confederation with the priority being the staging of the Gold Cup. Honduras’ Alfredo Hawit is interim CONCACAF president.
To have maintained the momentum of the Gold Cup preparations is a credit to the committee’s determination to progress, as well as the resilience of CONCACAF staff. It also shows a growing appetite for the sport in the region that goes deeper than the reputation damaging FBI investigations.
The Gold Cup has been repositioned as a sponsorship property under Traffic USA and was starting to make significant breakthroughs with sponsor partners prior to the arrests – which included that of Traffic USA chief executive Aaron Davidson. While the arrangement with Traffic looks unlikely to continue, the partnership with sponsors needs to.
Scotiabank are the confederation’s lead sponsor partners. Allstate, Delta Air Lines, Sprint and Telcel have recently been joined on the sponsorship roster by Jarritos.
Any doubts over management capability in the region are also being dispelled currently by the Canadians who are in the middle of hosting what looks certain to be the most successful FIFA Women’s World Cup ever. A follow up success with the Gold Cup in the US with sell-out crowds and competitive matches will go a long way to restoring the confederation’s reputation and confidence.
The host venues for the 2015 Gold Cup include (stadium, host metropolitan area): the Georgia Dome (Atlanta, GA); Gillette Stadium (Boston, MA); M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore, MD); Soldier Field (Chicago, IL); Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte, NC); Toyota Stadium (Dallas, TX); BBVA Compass Stadium (Houston, TX); Sporting Park (Kansas City, KS); Stubhub Center (Los Angeles, CA); Met Life Stadium (New York/New Jersey); Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia, PA); PPL Park (Philadelphia, PA); University of Phoenix Stadium (Phoenix, AZ) and BMO Field (Toronto, ON).
The 12 participating national teams qualified for this year’s tournament, in alphabetical order, are: Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Trinidad& Tobago and the United States.
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