By: Joel Delgado / Sports Director
On a typical summer day, FIU Stadium would not be a very eventful place.
Most students are out of class. Summer practices have yet to begin for the Golden Panther football team with the season still several months away. The aluminum seats at the stadium would be the only things bearing the brunt of the Miami summer sun
But with FIU Stadium hosting its first Gold Cup group matches in 2009, things began to change.
Thousands of soccer fans congregated at ‘The Cage’ to watch Costa Rica take on Canada and Jamaica face off with El Salvador. By night’s end, the aluminum stadium was nearly filled to capacity with prideful and passionate fans hoping to see their team earn a World Cup berth.
FIU will have a chance to replicate that atmosphere again this summer, hosting two Gold Cup matches on Jun. 12.
Having the Gold Cup return to “The Cage” is not only good for the university itself, but also for the entire South Florida soccer community.
The matchups are nowhere near as appealing as the United States and Canada squaring off against each other in Detroit or Mexico and Costa Rica clashing in Chicago. But with a sizable community of Jamaicans and Hondurans in the region, FIU Stadium should by buzzing with just as much fervor as it was in 2009, when the multi-purpose facility was nearly filled to capacity with adrenaline-charged soccer fanatics cheering on their native teams.
It is sure to be a special night for soccer not only for fans of the countries involved in this summer’s games themselves, but also for FIU and the local soccer community. It’s a great event for Miami to start proving.
But FIU needs to do more.
“SOCCER U”
The school should be doing more to promote itself as a ‘soccer university,’ bolstering its once prominent collegiate program to where it was in the 1980s and 90s, when the program was competing for national championships and sending players that would become successful and well-respected members of the national and international soccer community.
The same year the school hosted its first Gold Cup, FIU came heartbreakingly close to luring a Major League Soccer bid for an expansion franchise that would have poured a substantial amount of investment and consistent national exposure to the campus.
After the bid, one that was spear-headed by a local billionaire and FC Barcelona, fizzled away and shattered the hopes of thousands of soccer fans awaiting the return of Division 1 soccer to South Florida.
Since then, FIU has dropped the ball on channeling the potential energy and enthusiasm of what could be the most fervent soccer fan base in North America.
The Gold Cup is a good start, but it is nowhere near enough.
TIMELY SPARK
This Gold Cup should act as a catalyst for FIU to renew its efforts to establish itself as the go-to location for the largest events beautiful game. No more passiveness. No more idly sitting by waiting for the next Gold Cup to make its way around.
It’s time to team up with local soccer leaders and members of the international soccer community to bring attractive events to FIU that will make the school synonymous with big-time soccer.
Not to mention the thriving youth soccer community that has been growing rapidly over the last decade and has turned local clubs and high school teams into some of the best in the nation.
There are thousands of Miamians who hold allegiances with national teams from their home countries throughout the western hemisphere. Tapping into those communities and hosting international ‘friendlies regularly would have them flocking into Modesto Maidique Campus with regular ease while at the same time uniting a soccer community that has been fragmented for decades without an identity.
These multiple groups provide a solid pool for FIU to tap into and market to.
This summer’s doubleheader Gold Cup match will be the first soccer match held at the stadium since it served as one of the home venues for the local lower division soccer club in 2009. Having one night of international matches every couple of years and even fewer soccer events in general will not be enough to fulfill the potential FIU Stadium holds as a perennial soccer facility.
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