Birmingham kisses US Soccer Good-Bye

I don't understand what they are thinking. I live in Birmingham, Alabama and for the last few years I've been extremely excited as a fan of US Soccer. After firmly establishing itself as the first-choice Southern venue for National Team home games, Birmingham is now purposely making a move that will keep US Soccer away.

I was in living in Columbus, GA when Birmingham hosted Olympic soccer games in 1996. I had no idea at that point that I would one day soon be living in Birmingham, but I was excited at a chance to see some well known US players in action. My dad and I made the trip that summer to see the United States defeat Tunisia. The experience was awesome.

Fast forward to March of 2000. I'm now living in Birmingham and the city is now hosting its first ever National Team home game. It's a friendly against, again, Tunisia. Two years later, the team returns to Birmingham for a World Cup warm-up match against Ecuador. The attendance, and the vocal support for the home team earned Birmingham a favored spot on the National Team's list of preferred home venues.

If there was a game to played in the south, Birmingham would now get that game. Being centrally located in the South, we could draw from several states. Here I am, a HUGE fan of international soccer and of the US team in particular. And I live in a city they love to come play games. You can imagine my excitement.

This new-found status with US Soccer culminated in March of 2005 with Birmingham hosting a World Cup Qualifier against Guatemala. Again, a huge crowd. This time even on a Wednesday night. US Soccer was pleased with the turnout and Bruce Arena, the coach, even went out of his way to praise the high quality of the playing field.

...and that's where the trouble lies. All these games have been played at Legion Field, a dinosaur of a football stadium. It was falling apart so bad that the upper deck had been condemned for a couple of years and after the Guatemala match it actually came down. The University of Alabama no longer plays their games there, so the place is hardly used.

Well, now the city, in all its wisdom has decided it would be a good idea to spend a whole bunch of money replacing the grass with artificial turf! The decision has been made to do this before April 11th: a date that we had our next US Soccer game scheduled.

But now US Soccer won't play on artificial turf, it is against FIFA standards. So by putting in turf, we can't host any more games. The county commissioner here said "Let's wait and host the April 11th game and then put in the turf." But apparently that's not going to happen. Contracts have already been signed and all that.

So: Good-Bye US Soccer. It was fun while it lasted. I'm glad that you liked Birmingham. There is a huge community of soccer fans that would have loved to have you back every couple of years. I'm sorry the leadership in the city didn't see fit to keep the grass in place, considering a game is estimated to bring in about $5 Million to the local economy.

I guess I'll just catch the rest of the games on TV.