WORLD CUP ’94 / 14 DAYS AND COUNTING : They’re a Little Short in Big D : Of the Nine World Cup Venues, Only Cotton Bowl in Dallas Has Failed to Post a Sellout
The World Cup is coming to Dallas, but Dallas isn’t so sure it’s coming to the World Cup.
The city known for its expansive youth soccer program and prestigious Dallas Cup tournament, for its fan support of the indoor Sidekicks and for its Texas-sized guarantees of World Cup mania is having to explain itself these days. That’s because of the nine U.S. venues chosen for World Cup games, only Dallas has failed to record a sellout.
“It’s really quite strange,” said Coach Ron Newman of the Continental Indoor Soccer League’s San Diego Sockers, an analyst for ESPN’s World Cup coverage in Dallas. “You would have thought that would have been the first place.”
Instead, there are tickets galore for each of the six games to be played at the 63,998-seat Cotton Bowl. Don’t ask how many, because World Cup officials aren’t in a chatty mood when it comes to sales.
“They won’t tell us hard numbers,” said Chalese Stachowiak, Dallas venue press officer.
What they will say is that of those six games, only the one on June 27 between Germany and South Korea is close to a sellout. Otherwise, there are seats aplenty.
Even the July 9 quarterfinal is having trouble luring fans. There are three ticket prices--$140, $80 and $55. So far, the “cheap seats” are the only ones gone.
According to Stachowiak, not all of this is Dallas’ fault. When tickets were distributed by World Cup organizers a year ago, 65% were allotted domestically for the Cotton Bowl, the other 35% reserved for foreign sales and commercial affiliates.
Then came the draw.
For starters, England, France and Japan--all high-profile, high-tourist countries--failed to qualify for the World Cup finals. As if that didn’t put a financial damper on things, Dallas was awarded--if you can call it that--four first-round games featuring Spain vs. South Korea, Nigeria vs. Bulgaria, Germany vs. South Korea and Argentina vs. Bulgaria. There’s also a game on July 3 in the round of 16, as well as a quarterfinal on July 9.
At last check, Germany was ranked No. 2 in the world, Argentina No. 6, Nigeria No. 7 and Spain No. 9. But rankings aren’t the problem.
“Yes, Spain and Korea--well, they don’t have any Koreans there,” Newman said of Dallas. “Nigeria and Bulgaria. I’m bloody sure there’s no Bulgarians.”
Actually, said Stachowiak, there are an estimated 40,000 Koreans in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. The problem is, they’re aren’t buying tickets.
Except for going door to door, Dallas officials have done everything they can to sell the surplus made available by the foreign ticket return. Rather than depend solely on the World Cup 1-800 operators, Dallas organizers hired the services of the 55 Rainbow TicketMaster outlets here.
Still, no sellouts.
Mexico would have helped. With the area’s large Latino population, sellouts would have occurred early and often. Instead, the Mexican team is bound for Orlando and Washington for the early rounds.
“Mexico? I’d be in heaven,” said Karen Surratt, ticket manager for the Dallas venue. “That would have been wonderful. Unfortunately, we didn’t get Mexico. We would have sold out in a heartbeat.”
Newman said that although the lack of Dallas sellouts is a mystery to him, it isn’t unprecedented in World Cup play.
“They didn’t sell out in England,” he said. “They didn’t sell out in Italy. Notoriously in the World Cup, the first games have been incredibly boring.”
Of course, that was before FIFA changed the scoring system. Victories used to be worth two points and ties one, but now victories are worth three points. Rather than play for the tie, there is now a greater incentive for a team to play to win an extra point.
The trickle-down effect of the unsold tickets and lagging interest in Dallas is obvious. The latest estimates of the World Cup’s economic impact on Dallas have been reduced by more than 20%. Projections of 300,000 committed hotel room nights have been cut to between 100,000 and 150,000.
This doesn’t mean the event is a financial flop. An estimated $200 million is expected to be pumped into the area, but Dallas officials had hoped for so much more.
Meanwhile, Stachowiak tries to spread the word about the joys of soccer. She maintains that the average U.S. sports fan only needs “a little re-education.”
A crash course is more like it, said Randy Galloway, sports columnist for the Dallas Morning News and host of the city’s highest-rated sports-talk show.
“In all the hype of the World Cup, I’m proud to say we’ve had one call about it--and I was shocked to get that,” Galloway said. “I think it’s a situation where a lot of people here are wondering, ‘Who the hell are these teams coming to Dallas?’ ”
Galloway said city officials, already stung by criticism regarding a security fence erected at the Cotton Bowl for the World Cup, are nervous about Dallas’ inability to sell tickets.
“I think it will be embarrassing if it doesn’t sell out,” he said. “Embarrassing for the city.”
Galloway said Dallas sports fans, perhaps saturated by the number of choices--Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars, Dallas Sidekicks, Dallas Mavericks, etc.--could still become World Cup soccer converts. Of course, his theory won’t win him many admirers at FIFA.
“I would have been more interested in the World Cup if teams with a lot of thugs would have been coming,” Galloway said. “When the English were eliminated, that took care of that. But the Germans can rough it up, so that gives us hope.”
Great, just what the Chamber of Commerce wants: Dallas, the City of Hooligans.
