There was already a concern when the matches were announced for Copa America and its arrival in Orlando. The three games that would be played at Camping World Stadium were not going to fill the marquee and turn people out.
No offense to Costa Rica-Paraguay, Panama-Bolivia and Brazil-Haiti, but these were not games that would draw on name-brand alone. Kaka’s late-training injury that took him off the roster for Brazil did not help matters either.
All three games, now completed, were good in their own way. Costa Rica-Paraguay had implications for the U.S. team and was a physical 0-0 draw. Panama-Bolivia featured some great end-to-end action as Panama pulled out a 2-1 win. And Brazil simply dominated Haiti, as expected, showing class and skill in a 7-1 victory Wednesday.
A look into the crowd though did not paint a pretty picture. Orlando City on average outdrew all three games.
There were certainly extenuating circumstances. Saturday’s first game was played in ridiculous heat. Monday’s game was played in a tropical storm. There were plenty of reasons for the casual fan to stay away outside of the lack of star power on the field.
Still, there was some level of disappointment with the attendance at the three Copa America contests.
Through Wednesday’s matches, the tournament is averaging 37,184 per match. That is buoyed by a sell out crowd of 60,000-plus for the U.S.-Colombia game in the opener in Santa Clara. Orlando’s three matches fell well short of that average.
The median attendance through Wednesday’s games is 33,942. Again, Orlando fell short of that.
Much of the attendance numbers have perhaps been skewed by the immense draw the United States (53,541 average attendance in two games), Mexico (60,025 in its opener against Uruguay), Argentina (69,451 in its opener) and Brazil (40,700 average in two games) get. In that sense, maybe Orlando was lucky to get a Brazil game.
Who knows what Brazil’s attendance will be in Foxboro, Mass., when it plays Peru on Sunday?
The attendance for the three games in Orlando were 17,113 for Saturday’s Paraguay-Costa Rica game (originally reported at 14,334 due to “internal miscommunication”). Monday’s game between Panama and Bolivia drew 13,466 while being played through Tropical Storm Colin. And 28,241 for Brazil’s win over Haiti on Wednesday.
As expected, Brazil proved to be a much bigger draw in Orlando, bringing in numbers similar to Orlando City regular season games. Camping World Stadium as a venue averaged 19,607 in announced attendance for its three games.
In a report from Adrian Whitsett of WESH News Channel 2, there was not much of a run up to prepare for the tournament. It was announced only six months ago that Copa America would be competed in the United States and in Orlando specifically. There was some frustration the event was not bigger.
Orlando Venues (eds. note: This post originally said Visit Orlando, this was an error on our part) told Whitsett the event provided about a $30 million economic boost. That is not a huge number for such a large international event. Again, the planning and the potential cancellation of the tournament kept people away. So too might have high tickets prices, keeping the usually passionate Orlando City fan base from gobbling up tickets to enjoy a game.
Expectations attendance-wise may have run a bit wild. Brazil probably drew about what was expected considering the opponent. The other two games had their struggles as two of the three least attended games of the entire tournament to date. Why is not exactly clear. The teams on the marquee and the weather conditions may have played a role.
What this means for Orlando as a potential host site for a future U.S. World Cup bid is certainly still unknown. The World Cup carries more cache and notoriety to an everyday fan and more travel potential for visitors. It is hard to compare Copa America to the World Cup in that sense.
It is hard not to be frustrated a little bit though that the city and the event did not turn out more. Especially considering the way Orlando has flocked to soccer of late.
USF coach not worried about UCF competition
Every coach kind of stays in his own lane it seems when it comes to recruiting and worrying about his own program. There are certainly rivalries, but a lot of that is created by boosters and fans.
UCF and USF’s rivalry has been surprisingly nasty in the past. Scott Frost will get his first taste of it this season.
He has hit the recruiting trail hard for UCF and brought in some big in-state recruits. That will undoubtedly encroach on his rival to the west.
USF coach Willie Taggart though is staying in his lane. He tells the Orlando Sentinel he is not worried about UCF’s growing recruiting tide.
“I don’t see it as a battle. We’ll recruit the guys that we recruit, we look at guys that we think can help our program and work our tail off to get them there no matter who it is. But I don’t see it as being a battle. We haven’t had a battle with UCF since we’ve been here. I think we’ll do a pretty good job holding our own and we’ve done that even when things weren’t going well so I don’t expect for that to slack off at all.”
That sounds like a coach who is focused on his team and not looking to rattle any boats before the season begins.
Predators fall to three in ArenaFan Power Rankings
The Orlando Predators are chasing one of the top seeds in the Arena Football League following a loss three weeks ago to the Philadelphia Soul. It feels like they are on the outside looking in and just scraping by.
Their latest escape was just that. A game-winning safety on a botched field goal attempt.
It should be no surprise then that Adam Markowitz of ArenaFan has the Predators holding steady as the third best team in the league:
The seething anger stemming from Orlando fan is already eating up space in my inbox as I type. Sure, the Preds are 8-2, and they’ve got that allure the 2014 Gladiators had when they just found ways to win seemingly every week. But no one watching this team can seriously think Orlando has a real chance against Philadelphia or Arizona on the road at this point with the way things have been going. We’ll have to see how long Randy Hippeard is out for, and if he is, we’ll have to see whether Bernard Morris can continue to run this offense efficiently. B-Mo wasn’t great on Sunday, and his sample set wasn’t large anyway. Orlando only ran a total of six drives in the entire game. Color me unimpressed with a 43-41 win over a Pete Thomas-led LA team.
Orlando is back at it Saturday against the Cleveland Gladiators (No. 5 in the power rankings) at Amway Center.
