The Baltimore Blast plays for its fourth Major Indoor Soccer League championship in the past six seasons on Saturday night at 7 at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee against the Monterrey La Raza.
The catch?
The team hopes its fans can make it.
“It?s tough because it?s not right around the corner,” Blast General Manager Kevin Healey said. “We?d love for them to go and be there and we are trying to arrange some buses for them.”
Only a few of the team?s fans were able to make the two-hour flight or 13-hour drive to cheer on the Blast during its semifinal series-clinching, 14-13 win over the Milwaukee Wave at U.S. Cellular Arena last weekend.
Travel arrangements for the final are complicated further by the lack of time to prepare for the trip, with just six days to secure transportation and lodging. Healey also said the team realizes its fans ? the most committed in the league as the Blast averaged an MISL-best 7,229 per game this season ? have prior commitments or financial constraints.
Steve Ryan, the MISL?s commissioner, said having the game at a neutral site for the second straight year is a way to help the league grow.
“We preassigned a city to give them a year?s run at their fan base and help increase the aura of a championship,” he said. “We have a chance to really reach into the Hispanic community out there. It?s going to be a very interesting final and truly international.”
The Blast also is working on organizing parties locally for fans who don?t go to the championship game. Not only is the game available on 680 AM, but fans with certain cable or satellite packages can watch it on Fox Soccer Channel. But a trip to Milwaukee with a league title on the line is nothing new for the Blast supporters.
In 2003, the team clinched the championship at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee against the Wave in front of a crowd of 12,598. U.S. Cellular Arena has 9,000 permanent seats and a capacity of about 10,800 for an event like indoor soccer.
But if things are tough for Blast fans, they are even more so for Monterrey?s supporters, who live in a city about 1,400 miles away from Milwaukee.
Mike Lafferty, the Wave?s chief operating officer, said the team had run several promotional nights geared toward the growing Hispanic community around the region, including an exhibition game between the Wave and Mexican All-Stars.
“We have been marketing all year,” Lafferty said. “We will be OK. We hope a lot of people show up from Baltimore.”
