Gold Cup attendance

While we are a year away from the Gold Cup it would be a good time to reflect on the tournament. I have been told by media oulets that soccer will be the "new' sport in the States.
Soccer will be taking over hockey in the USA at the 4th most popular sport. There are more young people playing soccer than any other country. MLS will give kids something to strive for to make a living in the states.

This is all true however MLS is in it 14th year and soccer has not surpassed hockey. The biggest event in soccer, in the States is the Gold Cup. The Gold Cup is the regional tournament for the Champion of CONCACAF. There are the 2 giants in the USA and Mexico. Mexico has won 5 Gold Cup while the yanks have won 4. They are followed by Costa Rica, Honduras, Canada, El Salvador and Panama. (I am not ranking teams here only just mentioning them as I go.) The Caribbean has a few nations who can battle the top teams in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti. Guadeloupe and Martinique (French Departments) have participated in the Gold Cup 5 times. Guadeloupe last 2 times and Martinique 3 times. Puerto Rico an island of close to 4 Million is now fielding a competitive team. We will see if they are one of the last 4 standing in the Caribbean Cup.
All of these teams strive to make the Gold Cup to play the powers in CONCACAF.

Looking at attendance we can see the tournament is slowly increasing in it's attendance. Mexico is the driving force with attencance. They have numbeous nationalist living in the States. These Mexican fans recently sold out Meadowlands Stadium in NY, Houstons Reliant stadium, Dallas stadium. All of these stadiums are over 60,000 so we can see ...as Mexico go ...as goes the attendance of the Goild Cup.
The tournament did have it's troubles during the 2000 and the 2002 tournaments. Not surprising Mexico was knocked out in both of these tournaments in the first knockout games. The 2003 and 2005 tournament got the Gold Cup on steady ground. The 2007 and 2009 Gold Cups both had over 450,000 of total attendance. Both time Mexico played in the maxamium number of games and made the Final.

The future
The Gold Cup 2011 is in it's planning stage. SUM Marketing (which represents MLS) is already preparring for the next marketing plan. They are hoping for the success of the USA, Mexico and Honduras at the World Cup in south Africa. Americans want to know they are watching "good' soccer. If the antional teams do well will help in the notion that MLS and the Gold Cup is "good soccer". SUM marketing wants the Gold Cup to remain in the states. MLS is benefit the most by more exposure.
Gold Cup 2011 will be a very important Gold Cup. The winner will be the representaive at the next Confederations Cup in Brazil. All teams , especially the yanks want to go to the Confederations Cup to prepare the team for the next Gold Cup. The players will be use to the culture, the stadium and the experience of plaing the top teams for the other federations.