By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – The United States men’s soccer team will play a three-hour game at Safeco Field in March, and Ron Copple’s greatest hope is that the impact in the Puget Sound region will last for years.
Copple, president of the Washington State Youth Soccer Association, proudly took part in Thursday’s news conference announcing details of the exhibition game, the U.S. vs. Honduras, scheduled for March 2.
For the U.S. team, it’s an important tuneup for the World Cup tournament May 31-June 30 in Korea and Japan. For youth soccer in Washington, it could be a springboard for growth.
“It’s going to reinform the parents of the value of the game, show why the kids enjoy it and why some of us have spent more than 30 years with the game,” Copple said.
Interest among girls in the state exploded three years ago after the U.S. women’s team won the World Cup, and Copple believes the U.S.-Honduras game – even though it’s a one-time-only exhibition – can become another important step in the growth of soccer.
“The enthusiasm in the children, the adults and families increased probably three-fold,” Copple said. “It brought on a renewed vigor. Our girls numbers increased in registration and we saw more girls wanting to go to the Olympic development program and getting into the premier level.
“We hope to see the same light lit under the young men with this.”
Copple hopes a big crowd will prove to soccer officials that Seattle will support visits by national teams, and that the city will eventually land a franchise in the highest level of professional play in this country, Major League Soccer.
“If we’re not successful in selling 20,000-25,000 seats, then we may be hard-pressed to come up with another national team for a while,” he said. “But I’m not even worried about that. I think we’re going to sell 25,000 if not more.”
The state youth soccer association is handling group ticket sales for the game and Copple’s biggest concern isn’t how he’ll sell his organization’s allotment of 5,000 tickets, but how he might get his hands on more.
“It will give us an opportunity to go back to U.S. Soccer and say, ‘OK we’ve shown you. Now let’s bring one of the other national teams,’” he said. “It’s critical that we show good attendance and show good public support.”
Copple says the Seattle Seahawks’ new stadium, which opens later this year, will provide a perfect soccer venue, but that luring an MLS franchise won’t happen anytime soon.
The financially challenged MLS will operate with two fewer teams in the coming season, and expansion could be a few years away.
“Part of the problem is two-fold,” he said. “It’s not that they downsized the league as much as the problem of finding an owner. What the league wants is an investor/operator, which is a different scenario than what they originally established. I think it’s postponed for maybe two to four years. But I think once the facility is open, then we can aggressively pursue this with the MLS.”
Until then, the March 2 appearance by the U.S. men’s team will be the best opportunity for soccer enthusiasts to push the sport in Seattle. It should provide plenty of selling points:
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