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College Soccer Professor: Is This Soccer Heaven?
UCSB puts up the numbers to back up their words.
Sep 30, 2010 5:37:00 AM
By J.R. Eskilson
On Friday night, 15,896 people packed into Harder Stadium to watch UCSB take on UCLA. Again, that is fifteen thousand eight hundred ninty-six people who showed up on a Friday night for a college soccer game.
Let’s put that number in context:
This wasn’t an aberration for UCSB or the city of Santa Barbara. Over the last decade, games involving UCSB (either home or away) are the only ones in college soccer to break five figures in attendance. They have done it three times in the last three years. UCSB has also led the nation in average attendance since 2007.
Furthermore, the numbers spill out beyond the college crowd in Santa Barbara. Harder Stadium hosted a high school soccer game earlier this year which over 10,000 fans attended.
This record-setting attendance was a culmination, a consummation of the mantra UCSB has been pitching all year: "This is soccer heaven."
It also served as a reminder to the rest of the country. This is only a warm-up to the possibilities of UCSB hosting College Cup this December. For those unfamiliar with college soccer, College Cup is soccer’s equivalent to the Final Four.
UCSB’s stadium, Harder Stadium, is a bit of an anomaly in college soccer. It is a stadium originally designed for American football that perfectly transitioned into a soccer venue. The stadium seats 17,000, which is 7,000 more than Wakemed Park, where College Cup was held last year. Built in 1966, Harder Stadium is known for two things: Hosting the Green Bay Packers before Super Bowl I and home to the Gaucho Locos, who are known to rush the field and do things like this.
Obviously, we are a long way from discussing UCSB in College Cup. However, if NCAA wants to help the Gauchos along the right path they may be inclined to give them a favorable seeding so they have home-field advantage (and avoid Akron) on the quest to College Cup.
On Friday night, home field advantage was on full display. The very young UCLA side (the Bruins started five freshmen) were clearly rattled after the opening goal, scored by UCSB freshman David Opoku in the 76th minute. They never really found their form throughout the whole game and UCSB would grab another goal via Danny Barrera before the final whistle.
It is not an easy task for a team to go from playing in front of a thousand or so fans to playing in front of a hostile dozen thousand or so fans (throwing tortillas).
Last year, I talked to former Cal Golden Bears forward Andrew Wiedeman about the experience of playing in Harder Stadium in the post-season.
"It was a crazy atmosphere. The crowd propelled them to that comeback," Wiedman said. UCSB was down 2-0 in the second half. They grabbed two goals in quick succession in the 68th and 70th minutes. Wiedeman added, "I was thinking they might pull this off." However, Cal would get the last laugh, as Wiedeman pounced on a defensive mistake in the 103rd minute and scored the winner.
The overtime defeat to Cal remains the only time in the last decade UCSB has lost at home during the NCAA Tournament, accumulating a 10-0-1 record along the way. Taking this home field advantage a step further, since 2007 when UCSB fans grabbed the title for best attendance in the country, UCSB is 21-6-7 at home. However, three of those losses came before school was in session, thus making the effect of a student section non-existent.
College Cup is a long ways off and still somewhat unlikely for the Gauchos. But right now they're in soccer heaven.
J.R. Eskilson is the youth soccer editor of Goal.com. Follow him on Twitter @NCAAsoccer
Let’s put that number in context:
- The best attended college soccer game on campus in history.
- The attendance of 15,896 is better than THREE MLS games from Saturday: FC Dallas at Kansas City (10,385), Columbus at New England (13,533), and Houston at D.C. United (13,828). (Writer's note: Chris Pontius was part of the UCSB crowd, not the D.C. crowd.)
- The 15,896 in Santa Barbara is more than the average attendance for TWO EPL teams this season: Blackpool (15,715) and Wigan Athletic (15,499). And more than five Serie A teams: Parma, Udinese, Chievo Verona, Catania, and Leece.
- No USL regular season game in the last two years had more people in the stands.
- UCSB Men’s Soccer could qualify for Division I Football Bowl Series status with that attendance. Football teams must average over 15,000 fans to qualify for FBS.
- The undergraduate size of UCSB is 17,726. Safe to assume half the crowd on Friday night was students. Thus, roughly half of the campus was at a soccer game!
This wasn’t an aberration for UCSB or the city of Santa Barbara. Over the last decade, games involving UCSB (either home or away) are the only ones in college soccer to break five figures in attendance. They have done it three times in the last three years. UCSB has also led the nation in average attendance since 2007.
Furthermore, the numbers spill out beyond the college crowd in Santa Barbara. Harder Stadium hosted a high school soccer game earlier this year which over 10,000 fans attended.
This record-setting attendance was a culmination, a consummation of the mantra UCSB has been pitching all year: "This is soccer heaven."
It also served as a reminder to the rest of the country. This is only a warm-up to the possibilities of UCSB hosting College Cup this December. For those unfamiliar with college soccer, College Cup is soccer’s equivalent to the Final Four.
UCSB’s stadium, Harder Stadium, is a bit of an anomaly in college soccer. It is a stadium originally designed for American football that perfectly transitioned into a soccer venue. The stadium seats 17,000, which is 7,000 more than Wakemed Park, where College Cup was held last year. Built in 1966, Harder Stadium is known for two things: Hosting the Green Bay Packers before Super Bowl I and home to the Gaucho Locos, who are known to rush the field and do things like this.
Obviously, we are a long way from discussing UCSB in College Cup. However, if NCAA wants to help the Gauchos along the right path they may be inclined to give them a favorable seeding so they have home-field advantage (and avoid Akron) on the quest to College Cup.
On Friday night, home field advantage was on full display. The very young UCLA side (the Bruins started five freshmen) were clearly rattled after the opening goal, scored by UCSB freshman David Opoku in the 76th minute. They never really found their form throughout the whole game and UCSB would grab another goal via Danny Barrera before the final whistle.
It is not an easy task for a team to go from playing in front of a thousand or so fans to playing in front of a hostile dozen thousand or so fans (throwing tortillas).
Last year, I talked to former Cal Golden Bears forward Andrew Wiedeman about the experience of playing in Harder Stadium in the post-season.
"It was a crazy atmosphere. The crowd propelled them to that comeback," Wiedman said. UCSB was down 2-0 in the second half. They grabbed two goals in quick succession in the 68th and 70th minutes. Wiedeman added, "I was thinking they might pull this off." However, Cal would get the last laugh, as Wiedeman pounced on a defensive mistake in the 103rd minute and scored the winner.
The overtime defeat to Cal remains the only time in the last decade UCSB has lost at home during the NCAA Tournament, accumulating a 10-0-1 record along the way. Taking this home field advantage a step further, since 2007 when UCSB fans grabbed the title for best attendance in the country, UCSB is 21-6-7 at home. However, three of those losses came before school was in session, thus making the effect of a student section non-existent.
College Cup is a long ways off and still somewhat unlikely for the Gauchos. But right now they're in soccer heaven.
J.R. Eskilson is the youth soccer editor of Goal.com. Follow him on Twitter @NCAAsoccer
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