Does the U.S. women's soccer team have a home-field advantage in Canada?

While the Women's World Cup is being held in Canada, the Canadians aren't the only team that feels like they have a home-field advantage. The U.S. had plenty of fans cheering them on in their 3-1 opening win over Australia Monday, leading American striker Sydney Leroux (who was born and raised in Canada) to say afterwards, "We came out here and it felt like we were playing in Kansas City or in Seattle. It was like we were at home. It’s really nice having that support." There's tangible evidence to back up the argument that matches in Canada are almost like home games for the U.S. team, too. Chris Leyden, a content analyst from ticket firm SeatGeek, passed on this graphic showing that tickets for the Americans' group stage matches have had three of the five highest resale values on the secondary market (with the other two being matches involving Canada). Note that all the values here are in American dollars:

It's not just the value of the tickets that's notable, it's how many of them are being sold. Leyden writes that " fans have spent $680,000 on the secondary market for tickets to the first two Group D sessions, almost three times as much as has been spent on tickets for the first two sessions of the other five groups  fans have spent $680,000 on the secondary market for tickets to the first two Group D sessions, almost three times as much as has been spent on tickets for the first two sessions of the other five groups combined." The numbers of tickets sold are also interesting: an estimated 7,900 Group D tickets have been sold on the secondary market, more than double the estimated 3,880 tickets resold for all other groups combined. Group D includes Australia, Sweden and Nigeria too, of course, but it appears to be a desire to see the U.S. team that's really driving this market. 

This doesn't mean that the U.S. matches are actually drawing more fans than the Canadian team's. In fact, Canada's opener drew 53,058 fans (which is a record for a Canadian national team in any sport, but not an overall record for Canadian sports or soccer attendance), while the Americans' opener drew 31,148. Now, Winnipeg's Investors Group Stadium only holds 33,500 while Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium can accomodate 56,302,  so that should be considered too, but it's notable that the resale prices for the Canadian game were higher. There's more volume of resale for the U.S. matches, which perhaps indicates that many American fans made plans to come to Canada later and are getting their tickets through secondary markets, while many Canadian fans bought tickets early and hung on to them. Still, the numbers for the U.S. are substantial, and they indicate that the Americans have much more fan support than any non-Canadian team.

That's perhaps to be expected given the U.S.'s geographical proximity. It's the only country you can drive to Canada from, which many fans have done, including the two who drove the 1,638 miles from Auburn, Alabama to Winnipeg. Expect to see many more American fans driving across the border from the U.S. side of the Pacific Northwest for the team's final group stage match, in Vancouver against Nigeria next Tuesday. Proximity explains some of this, but the numbers of American fans showing up for their team's matches are still impressive, and they're definitely helping to give the U.S. team a home-field advantage on foreign soil.

What's going to be really interesting is if the U.S. and Canada wind up playing each other in the knockout stage. If both teams win their respective groups, that can't happen until the final, but if Canada finished second in Group A and the U.S. won Group D, they could meet as early as the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, if Canada won Group A and the U.S. was second in Group D, they could meet in the semifinals. There are also various possibilities based on either being one of the four best third-place teams, but that seems unlikely at this point in time. Regardless of when it happens, though, a Canada-U.S. match would be an obvious hot ticket given the support for both, the intense rivalry between the sides, and the grudges held over the Americans' controversial 2012 Olympic semifinal victory. It might be fascinating to see which team's fans wind up with more tickets for a U.S.-Canada clash, and which side winds up with the home-field advantage as a result.

(Update: Exactly what the Canada-China attendance record represents has been clarified above.)