It was not a big crowd by national team standards or by UConn standards.
"
national team standards"? For the U.S. team, ~28K people is roughly average for home games the last few decades. Additionally, 28K meets or exceeds average home attendance for non-World Cup qualifier games and other friendly games (effectively exhibitions in non-soccer/international football lingo). Not so surprisingly, games which matter much more tend to attract more fans.
Very solid reasons exist for the US Soccer Federation to host games at the Rent; exhibit A: consistently good attendance, good fan involvement, and relatively convenient proximity to a large chunk of the US population, soccer fan base, and relative affluence (yup, USSF and Nike sell bushel loads of stuff online and know their market segments).
"
UConn standards"? Similarly, an
actual 28K would be relatively good compared with a few too many games during the last several years of Pasqualoni and Diaco destruction. We all hope RE 2.0 and company bring back better days, attendance bumps up again, etc. As with many college programs, perhaps UConn will once again include both teams' players, coaches and other staff members, police, fire, ambulance, security, field maintenance, and other individuals in attendance #s a la RE 1.0's most successful days. Yup, when a bit generous 40K attendance figures were announced and published.
UConn football this year? Maybe not AD David Benedict and others, but a legit 35K will make most Huskies' fans much happier. 28K not so much, but anything over 30K would be a big improvement. Go Huskies and USA!
