Real Madrid and Manchester United met at the Big House in Michigan on Saturday and set an attendance record for a soccer game in the USA.
For their friendly match at the campus of the University of Michigan, the fans packed Michigan Stadium to the tune of 109,318 fans, easily breaking the American record set at the 1984 Olympics in LA.
Again we note this attendance record was for a friendly match, a match that didn't mean anything. Sure, it's part of the Guiness International Champions Cup but that just makes it a glorified exhibition. To underscore it means little, Cristiano Ronaldo didn't enter the game until well past the 70th minute. Manchester United won the game by a final of 3-1 but the bigger story was the massive crowd on hand to witness it.
Just put this as the 7,348th piece of evidence that the appetite for the world's favorite game is growing in the USA.
It's been quite a year for the Big House which also hosted the NHL's Winter Classic and set a record for hockey attendance on a snowy New Year's Day. It's called the Big House for a reason.
