It’s time for the U.S. Men’s National Team to come back to Detroit
By Zac Snyder
The U.S. Men’s National Team hasn’t played in Detroit since 2011, but the city has earned the right to host again because of recent soccer success.
The soccer profile has been on the steady rise in Detroit over the last half decade or more. Detroit City FC has built strong grassroots support despite their semi-pro standing in the fourth division of the American soccer pyramid.
Southeast Michigan has continually shown that soccer has more than a niche standing in the area through events like the International Champions Cup. ICC brings some of Europe’s biggest clubs to the U.S. for a series of exhibitions ahead of their domestic seasons and has enjoyed much success with games in the Detroit region.
Michigan Stadium has hosted two games in the series history, with attendance topping 105,000 both times. The 2014 game between Manchester United and Real Madrid holds the ICC attendance record at 109,318. The two Michigan Stadium games are the only games in ICC history to top 100,000 in attendance.
Those numbers can’t be written off just because some of the very highest profile European clubs (Man U, Real Madrid, Chelsea) took part on beautiful Saturday afternoons. Detroit once again showed this month when Paris Saint-Germain and AS Roma played at Comerica Park. Despite being a match between two teams without the same name recognition as a Man U or Real Madrid, it was a virtual sellout for PSG-Roma on a Wednesday night.
PSG went on to play in Orlando the Saturday following their Wednesday night game, but played in front of about 3,000 fewer fans when they took on Tottenham Hotspur.
In fact, the 36,289 attendance number for that game at Comerica Park exceeded the 31,615 that were in Philadelphia that same night to see the U.S. Men’s National team defeat El Salvador in the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals. A European exhibition in Detroit outdrew the national team’s quarterfinal game in the biennial regional championship.
It sure seems Detroit has earned the right to host the USMNT in the near future.
2011 was the last time the USMNT played a game in Detroit. It was the group stage of the 2011 Gold Cup and drew an attendance of 28,209. That might not seem like much but it was actually the best-attended game the USMNT saw in the group stage that year, outpacing games played in Tampa and Kansas City.
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As Detroit waits to find out if it will see professional soccer come to the city in the next round of MLS expansion, U.S. soccer should give the city serious consideration for future hosing opportunities featuring the national team. Soccer fans in the region now have a consistent pattern of supporting such events.