The following article from yesterday's Washington Post caught my eye:

Supply Won't Meet Ticket Demand United's Home Opener on Saturday Is Nearly Sold Out

D.C. United officials reiterated yesterday that they will not open the upper deck at RFK Stadium for Saturday's season opener despite the large interest in 14-year-old Freddy Adu that has left just a handful of available seats unsold.

"It's the right thing to do," team president Kevin Payne said. "We've already begun to see a lot of [ticket-buying] activity for the second [home] game, and that was exactly the point: to get people to understand that they need to buy their tickets in advance."

With the upper deck closed, capacity will be 24,603 at the 52,000-seat stadium for the nationally televised game against the defending champion San Jose Earthquakes.

Despite a surge of interest in the team because of Adu's arrival, United officials have limited seating at RFK this season in an attempt to create demand and encourage fans to buy tickets in advance. They had considered opening the upper deck for only the highly anticipated season opener but decided against it.

OK, let me get this straight. DC United, a team that averaged 15,000 fans last year, and has a smaller following in the DC area than Dennis Kucinich, is turning away fans? DC United, a team that has seen a 30% decline in attendance since 2001, are going to now tell people they can’t come? That’s like Craig Kilborn barring people from watching his show.
Nobody pays attention, then when they do, you ostracize them. Good business plan.
In the years that the MLS will come to know as B.F. (Before Freddy), teams couldn’t give away tickets to most of their games.
DC United only drew big crowds when local hero Raul Diaz-Arce came back to play at RFK or their regular season MLS game was packaged with a national friendly. A regular season opener? That wouldn’t even make the local news.
With Freddy, the United have been on the front page of the Washington Post sports section for the past three days. Before, they would maybe merit six-inches on D9. The media has been swarming on this story. Sports Illustrated has had three stories on Adu in the past two years. 60 Minutes featured the phenom on a segment Sunday night. And ABC is broadcasting his first game nationally.
United usually dispense 100 media credentials for home games (most of which go to Latino news outlets). On Saturday they have requests for 300.
And with all this publicity and hype for their first game, the team is going to keep the upper deck closed?
Has the front-office of United been watching South Park? Are they trying to copy Cartman’s “You Can’t Come” strategy that worked wonders for his amusement park?
Shoot, maybe they’re worried that once they get people inside RFK Stadium, they’ll realize how boring soccer actually is, Freddy or not, and never want to come back.
DC United and the MLS need to capitalize on this opportunity to draw in new fans. The only MLS fans now are soccer purists. But a sports league that wants to be major can’t exist as a niche. They need new blood. And Freddy Adu is the man, or more appropriately, the teenager, that is going to bring that in.
Adu is going to be huge. In what way, I don’t exactly know. I doubt he’ll make soccer a major sport in the US, but he will certainly put it on the map. Carl Lewis was famous throughout the ‘80s but track & field never caught on. All this pressure that the MLS is putting on Adu to resuscitate its league is unfair. But he seems to be level-headed enough not to let the expectations get the best of him. It looks like he realizes that all he needs to do is simply be Freddy.
And from what my unsophisticated soccer eye has seen of him, Adu is a great soccer player that does dazzling things on and off the ball. He has all the makings of one of those athletes that you will be able to brag to your grandchildren about having seen play. I don’t know soccer, but those who do say he has the skills to become the next Pele.
Adu, at 14, is also the most charismatic and engaging athlete to come around in a long time. And it’s not a fake media-personality that guys like Alex Rodriguez and Tracy McGrady put on for the press. It’s something different. It’s a cliché, but he has a star quality.
Adu did better on Letterman than most Hollywood stars. He joked around with Wilbon and Kornheiser on yesterday’s PTI about his age, but also articulately answered serious questions about the same subject. Adu has a quality that is going to make adults want to watch him and make kids want to be like him.
And now, when the eyes of the nation finally will focus on soccer, DC United will turn people away.
There will only be 24,000 people in RFK Stadium tomorrow to see Freddy Adu’s professional debut. I suspect that in 20 years, when Adu’s career is over, there will be a lot more people saying they were.