Milwaukee fans declared their allegiance with Detroit as soon as the Blast knocked the Wave out of the playoffs earlier this week. But the problem for Milwaukee is the heavily favored Ignition lost to the expansion La Raza from Monterrey, Mexico, in the semifinals.
So which team will have “home-field” advantage tonight at 7 when the Blast and La Raza play for the Major Indoor Soccer League championship at U.S. Cellular Arena?
“We have a good history with Milwaukee,” Blast veteran Denison Cabral said. “I don’t know if they’ll come all dressed up like Mexicans. It might happen. I don’t know.”
It is very likely Milwaukee?s fan base won’t be cheering for the Wave’s rivals. The Blast has eliminated the Wave from the playoffs in the teams? past four meetings.
“I don’t think they’ll be on our side,” Blast defender P.J. Wakefield said. “I guess they’re going to be there to watch a game, but they won’t be there to see their team play.”
But the Blast should have a strong contingent of fans in the stands as it plays for its fourth title in the past six years.
The Blast?s fans gave the team a vocal presence in the stands at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., in its first-round series against the Ironmen, as the crowd of 4,000 was split between the teams? fans.
Andrew Payne,a 33-year-old Silver Spring resident who supported the Blast in New Jersey, said he?ll be in U.S . Cellular Arena tonight to watch his favorite team.
Payne, who has been a season ticket-holder for the past 11 years, will spend close to $1,500 in airfare for round trip tickets from Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport to Milwaukee so his wife, sister and 4-year-old daughter can watch the game live.
“When you follow as long as we have, it’s not like the Orioles or Ravens, but you have so much contact with the players, you kind of feel bad if you don’t go,” Payne said. “You’ve been to so many games, you figure, why miss out on this one?”
Catonsville resident Dee Walsh, 60, is spending $240 for a round trip flight, taking her from Baltimore to Philadelphia to Milwaukee.
“I’ve only missed one championship game,” Walsh said. “I’ve had season tickets since 1984. I’ve been to every game this year. You want to be there. You want to be there to see them win it.”
