Its the Size

Football season is over in New York. Actually, 'soccer' season is over as we would say here, but the international flavor of the game, even here in the US always makes one rethink what we call it. Yet by any name, the New York Red Bulls have been eliminated. No, they were not kicked out of the league for using their energy drink sponsor as a name, nor were they banned for playing while on an aspirin/energy drink cocktail (which isn't technically illegal, but gets the fans in a huff – just ask the Queensland, Australia AFL team). No, the Red Bulls simply lost embarrassingly at home to the San Jose Californians last Thursday. If there was one good thing they could take from that game, its this: they gained a fan, and one from Boston, no less.

Typically, you wouldn't find me cheering for anything sports related in this town. It's not even a level of apathy towards most of their teams, its actually dislike. Every team which calls Madison Square Garden, Meadowland Stadium, Citi Field or (gulp, I can hardly type the letters) Yankee Stadium brings me nothing less than joy when watching them fumble, stumble and bumble their way to defeat. In a sidebar, the New York Islanders are a hockey team reportedly from New York, but I've never actually met a fan of theirs, even now, so I'm not convinced they exist, and its harder to work up a hatred for a fictional enemy – 'Voldemort' excluded. In short, I loath all New York Teams.

Except the Red Bulls. Half of it is I never built up enough love to really, truly care for the New England Revolution, our beloved Foxbourough based soccer squadron. Not that I couldn't be convinced to go back to cheering for New England, and I don't doubt that if it came to a head to head game, I'd end up supporting the ol' Red, White and Blue. I just can't believe that my excitement for New York making the playoffs was matched by my apathy of New England not! There must be a reason.

There is. The stadium. The New York team has built itself a brand new stadium in New Jersey for its team. The stadium has about 25,000 seats and was built with one main purpose: to be the home of the New York Red Bulls. Pro football stadiums are 4 times bigger, holding 60,000 more seats, which is perfect for football, but when used for a fledgling little soccer league, the place feels empty when 20,000 people show up. Games at Red Bulls stadium feel more exciting than their counterparts up I95 in New England because the fans are closer, and fill out the place more. In a cavernous football stadium the fans get lost, their voices fade and fail them; but in appropriately sized soccer stadiums, when the place is rocking, the noise builds and the game feels all the more tense, all the more exciting. Admittedly I've never visited a New England soccer game, but given how empty the stadium always looked on TV, going never seemed enticing the way it does in New York.

So there you have it, I'm a fan of a New York team. A team which blundered away a lead in their first home playoff game in years, but a team I'm a fan of none the less. Could I be convinced to cheer for New England again? Probably, but the answer becomes definitely if they ever build that soccer stadium in Somerville.