coppercanuck Posted August 2, 2003 Share Posted August 2, 2003 Yes, Kingston, ON! The article was printed in the local paper this morning and it describes Richardson Stadium as the second largest in Canada whith a natural grass surface. <side note: how is the stadium inventory coming along?> http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=39490&catname=Local+News On way to World Cup, women’s soccer team will play here By Claude Scilley Saturday, August 02, 2003 - 07:00 Local News - Canada’s national women’s soccer team will play its final exhibition game before September’s World Cup in Kingston. The Canadian Soccer Association will announce Tuesday that Canada will play Australia on Sept. 14 at Richardson Stadium. Kingston was selected for the match because Richardson is the second-largest stadium in the country with a natural surface – second only to Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton – said Savas Kekkas of the Southeast Ontario Soccer Association. “They wanted to play their last game on natural turf before going to the U.S.,” Kekkas said. Canada, seeded 12th for the quadrennial event, will open the World Cup against Germany on Sept. 20 in Columbus, Ohio. Dave McDowell, coach of the women’s varsity team at Queen’s University, said the opportunity to host this game “is a pretty big deal.” “It’s not very often in town we get an event of this magnitude in terms of any sport. It’s kind of neat to get a chance to see them play.” The Canadian women have played exhibitions this summer in Montreal and Ottawa, and they have an upcoming game against Mexico in Vancouver. McDowell said the Kingston game might be the first time the full team will be together. “I know being in touch with some of the coaches on the national team, they really haven’t had their full team over the last little bit,” he said, “so we’re going to be pretty lucky here in Kingston to get to see them at full strength right before they head to the World Cup.” Kekkas said he met with officials from the national association about a month ago to discuss the possibility of holding the game in Kingston. “They wanted to know if we could sell a certain amount of tickets and I said, ‘Yes we can,’ ” said Kekkas, who committed to selling 6,000 tickets. “We have to fill [the stadium]. They don’t want to come down here and only have a few thousand people. They want a lot of people there.” At $5 apiece, he’s certain he’ll be able to do so. In the Kingston area alone, he said, there are 13,000 soccer players. “You’d think from just them we should be able to fill it but then that’s just players,” he said, noting that 10 busloads of spectators from Belleville, Picton and Kingston went to Ottawa to see the women’s exhibition game there in the spring. “This will be a huge event,” Kekkas said, adding that if the response is good this time, other international exhibitions could follow. “If we can fill this stadium once, it will be a lot easier for us to bring other teams here in the future.” ----------------------- aka JTPenney "We love peace. We use our might to make the world a more peaceful place." George W. Bush Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beckham Jr. Posted August 2, 2003 Share Posted August 2, 2003 Awesome news! I'm really starting to believe that the CSA reads our board. Just yesterday I posted that Richardson Stadium was fully suited for international soccer. I hope it goes well so the men can get a WCQ game in there. Hopefully I'll get out to Kingston to cheer them on. “I've found the smaller, faster players, they're not so fast when they're lying on the grass. It tends to slow them down a bit.” Mark Watson on Japan's speedy Confederations Cup team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted August 2, 2003 Share Posted August 2, 2003 It is good news, though I still don't expect you will see senior men's teams lining up for friendlies at Richardson Stadium anytime soon. Women's teams tend to be less picky than men's (as evidenced by playing here & in Ottawa & Molson Stadium, where men's teams have not been willing to play) and the fact that WWC teams are looking to play friendlies prior to another WC held in the US also has helped arrange this. You would not likely be seeing this match in Kingston if the WWC was still in China. Also, if the men can play qualifiers in Ottawa & Montreal, there's not that much incentive to play matches in Kingston with this much smaller capacity, a couple of hours away from a major airport & frankly not the greatest facility.(though Now, if the CSA could organize some men's youth matches for that stadium....... Even the wolf can learn. Even the sheep can turn. Even the frog can become at last the prince. - Peter Hammill, Over (1977) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auger9 Posted August 3, 2003 Share Posted August 3, 2003 Richardson stadium can seat about 12,000 people. They should be able to fill it up. Nucks in '03! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auger9 Posted August 3, 2003 Share Posted August 3, 2003 Richardson stadium can seat about 12,000 people. They should be able to fill it up. Nucks in '03! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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