Sunday's MLS Cup '97 will be played "before a capacity
crowd of more than" 56,000 at RFK Stadium, according to
Steven Goff of the WASHINGTON POST. The last remaining
tickets for the Rapids-United Championship game were
purchased yesterday, but the United was "scrambling to make
1,000 more bleacher seats available on the concourse level,"
with "many fans already on a waiting list" for those seats.
Goff adds that Sunday's final "will have, by far, the
largest crowd for a professional soccer game at RFK since
the glory days of the North American Soccer League in the
late 1970s and early 80s" (WASHINGTON POST, 10/21).
MORE MLS: MLS Commissioner Doug Logan is interviewed by
Jerry Langdon of USA TODAY. MLS "expects to lose as much"
as $14M this year after losing an estimated $18M in '96.
Logan, on the 16% drop in league attendance to a league
average of 14,616: "The original projection for the second
year was 13,500, with 15,000 for the third year. ...
Ultimately, we should be thinking in terms of the low
20,000s." Logan, on expansion: "We're in no race to add
teams. It will not be sooner than two years, might be
three, four years. Seattle is a commitment for 2001, 2002,
when their new (Seahawks) stadium is ready" (USA TODAY,
10/21)....In Boston, Frank Dell'Apa reviews MLS' second
season: "The league will have to better address the standard
of play issue before next season. It also should reexamine
the playoff system, currently the superfluous best-of-three
format. ... [A] two-game series is not only the most fair,
but also the most efficient method" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/21).
..MLS took out a half page ad in USA TODAY under its "This
Stuff Kicks" tagline, inviting President Clinton and the
First Lady to Sunday's final in DC (USA TODAY, 10/21).
