Last Friday night we went to our first european soccer game. The local team in Montpellier plays in the 2nd division, which is one tier below the top flight known as Ligue 1. Most americans would be quick to associate the 2nd division w/ the minor leagues of baseball, but I think a better analogy would be a smaller D1 NCAA basketball conference. In other words, the fans are as enthusiastic about their team as those of any Lique 1 team, although less of them come to the stadium while their team is not in the top tier (the best three teams in the 2nd division go into Ligue 1 the following season, and the bottom three from Ligue 1 drop down).
The staduim, which was probably built with Ligue 1 in mind, had enough vacant seats to remind us of a Monday night A's game in May. There was nonetheless a group of 50 or so die hards seated behind the goalie who raucously sang for the entire game. Big soccer teams (like those in Milan or London) have thousands of these singing fans, so it was quite funny to see such a small group.
It's also worth noting that this Ligue 2 game, with all of 4 thousand spectateurs, had as many scalpers as a 25,000 person NBA game. They were at least three times as pushy as well, accosting people while attempting to undercut 5 euro tickets by a whopping euro. We had to use the ol' "I no speak french" routine to ward them off (sadly, they still didn't give up).
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