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Tillamawnin
Moderator
USA
197 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 30 2001 : 11:55:22 PM
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We Reggae Boyz Fanz have to be real careful we do not get the same treatment as the Honduran fans. This article was taken form the Washington Post.
Tilla
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Federation Relegates Honduran Fans to the Cheap Seats
By David Cho and Brian Straus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 30, 2001; Page A01
After the Honduran ambassador was not allowed to purchase a block of seats close to the field for his country's World Cup qualifying match against the United States, he asked an aide to do what many Hondurans were doing -- find a way to disguise their rooting interest by buying tickets with an American name.
Hugo Noe Pino was told in June by a U.S. soccer sales agent that even though he was the ambassador, he could not buy the most desired tickets in the lower deck of RFK Stadium for Saturday's game because they were reserved for members of the "U.S. soccer family."
"It's unfair," said Pino. "I understand they want to preserve home-field advantage. . . . but just because they know we are Hondurans, they deny us tickets."
So Pino asked his aide's wife, whose son belongs to a U.S. soccer club, to send in the same ticket application form that had been denied, but this time using her American name. In a few days, she got 50 tickets -- no questions asked.
The U.S. Soccer Federation and D.C. United, whose office handled ticket sales, denied discriminating against Hondurans, but they make no apologies for trying to maintain a dominant American presence in RFK's lower bowl and selling as many tickets as possible to U.S. fans.
"Our objective is trying to win this game," said Kevin Payne, president and general manager of D.C. United, adding his staff tried to accommodate Pino. "We don't go anywhere to the depths that other countries go in creating a hostile environment."
The effort to create an American-friendly environment has led to a two-tier supply of the much-coveted tickets. American fans have ample access through soccer clubs. But Hondurans, some of whom will travel across the country to see the game, say they either must misrepresent their allegiance or pay exorbitant markups through scalpers or auctions such as eBay.
Miguel and Susan Calix of Washington said they were denied a block of lower deck seats after they told a sales agent that they ran a soccer team called "Hondurans de Washington." So he asked his wife's sister, who has an Italian surname, to make the call for them.
Susan Calix said the sales agents asked her sister who she was rooting for. "She told them, 'the Americans' because we wanted to get the tickets," Calix said.
Consolidating support of the home team is common practice at soccer stadiums around the world but is relatively new in the United States. The Federation has been sensitive to poor treatment its players received in Latin America and the Caribbean -- from noisy bands playing outside the team's hotel all night long to batteries, coins and bags of urine thrown by opposing fans.
Envious of the home-field advantage enjoyed by its opponents, U.S. Soccer in the past few years has been more proactive in creating pro-American crowds at domestic matches. Crucial games against Mexico have been scheduled in Columbus, Ohio and Foxboro, Mass., rather than in cities such as Los Angeles, where thousands of Mexicans live.
Good tickets to important World Cup qualifying matches are increasingly being reserved for members of the American soccer community, namely Major League Soccer season ticket holders and those affiliated with youth and amateur soccer organizations, before going on sale to the general public.
While no one can control who buys tickets, U.S. Soccer can ensure that fans with connections to American soccer establishments have first crack at the best seats. It did so with considerable success at a World Cup qualifier at RFK last year, when most American fans got seats in the lower decks, while Guatemalans were confined to the upper decks. "It's about creating an environment and an atmosphere for our team in our stadium," said U.S. Soccer spokesman Jim Morehouse. "We don't want it to be like it was 15 years ago when it was 80 percent opponents' fans."
The United States and Honduras are among six teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean competing for three spots in next summer's World Cup in Japan and South Korea. The prestige, publicity and money involved in vying for the globe's most coveted trophy drives fans around the world to frenzied levels -- a trend that is beginning to catch on in the United States.
U.S. Soccer and D.C. United months ago started selling tickets to Saturday's game in two stages. As part of the initial private sale, thousands of flyers were sent to youth leagues and members of the Federation's mailing list. More than 40,000 tickets were sold before July 1 using this method. Hondurans and other fans awaiting the public sale found that only 14,000 tickets, all in the upper deck or in the temporary bleachers behind a goal, were available. Those tickets sold in 30 minutes on Aug. 1.
Pino said that hundreds of his countrymen called the Honduran Federation and the embassy to complain about being shut out of a rare opportunity to see their team in World Cup competition.
The extreme to which officials will go to exclude Honduran fans from RFK Stadium is echoed by a growing number of American fans eager to help create a supportive atmosphere. Chris Hummer, a self-employed Web site developer from Herndon, has taken the initiative. Through established connections with United he was able to buy over 800 tickets, which he resold through a site that services local youth and amateur soccer clubs. It is the sort of place that many Latin American fans and players unfamiliar with the soccer bureaucracy would not think to look. Those Hondurans that did buy from Hummer were sent to the upper deck.
"I just politely asked what group of fans they wanted to sit with," Hummer said. "I willingly sold to Hondurans, but I put them in the worst seats in the house. . . . When given the opportunity, we've tried everything we could to put U.S. fans in there. There has been no blatant refusal [of Hondurans]. I think it's more about availability, choosing the proper distribution channels."
Hummer also leads an initiative called Project Mayhem that calls upon American fans to ensure that opponents "do not consider coming to the U.S. for a game a vacation." He will cap his effort to ticket the most rabid American fans this afternoon at Dulles Airport, where he will give six tickets to those who give the most enthusiastic "welcome" to the Honduran national team as its flight arrives.
Catholic University law student Brian Sciaretta is involved on a much smaller scale. With one ticket to spare, the longtime fan is holding an e-mail contest and will sell his ticket -- at face value -- to whomever can prove he is the most loyal American supporter.
"To have a big stadium full of nothing but American fans is something that we really want to be a part of," Sciaretta said. "I want to make sure I do my part to make sure that there's a big home-field advantage."
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
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Live simply so that others may simply live.
Mohandas K. Gandhi
Edited by - Tillamawnin on Aug 31 2001 00:04:01 |
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