Rafa Marquez will look to slow down the New England Revolution tonight. (Getty Images)

Tonight we could crown one conference champion as the New York Red Bulls host the New England Revolution. In the season finale for each club the Red Bulls are looking to claim their first Eastern Conference crown since 2000.

The Revolution hope to play spoiler yet again this week as they helped knock out the Kansas City Wizards from playoff contention. Oddly enough New England has a bit of an edge against the Red Bulls in recent meetings too. The Red Bulls have failed to get three points against the Revs dating back to 2005.

The midfield battle in this one will be fun to watch as you’ll have Shalrie Joseph going against Rafa Marquez. No doubt to of the best central midfielders in the league going head-to-head will be fun to watch.

I think the Red Bulls get by in this one even without Thierry Henry. With this being Juan Pablo Angel’s last regular season game in front of the Red Bull crowd you have to expect something special out of him tonight. Though I do think the Revs will put up a good fight I just don’t see enough offense in this one from them to see them get three points.

WVH Prediction: New York 2, New England 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csf6CD3rwGU&feature=player_embedded

Those cities are three mentioned above with LA being the fourth.

Deep down I see it coming to either Toronto or New York in the end here. But let’s look at each cities’ chances here.

New York (Red Bull Arena): A brand-new stadium, which happens to be the best stadium the league has ever seen to this date, in the league’s biggest media market. I think all they had to do was show up with a couple photos of the facility and the league was probably already hooked.

The thing about Red Bull Arena is most of the cool stuff that will be around the stadium hasn’t been built yet. I’d say the league may hold off until 2011 for the MLS Cup. By then all the cool little things around the stadium should be in place and this truly will be a great venue in and out for hosting a MLS Cup.

Philadelphia (PPL Park): The new stadium on the waterfront in Chester is a nice one. The thing going against their bid (which was a good one) is the fact that the stadium won’t be finished until summer. Which also means a lot of items around the stadium may not be done by then either. My wonder is if their bid contained PPL Park (which I assume it would) or if they went bigger by going with the Linc.

Toronto (BMO Field): I saw their pitch in PDF form, and it was pretty cool. We’ve all heard about the promise of Toronto hosting a MLS Cup by 2012 but this year would make the most sense with the new grass field at the stadium. Now that the FieldTurf is gone it makes more sense to go ahead and give Toronto this game.

What could go against Toronto is the two new stadiums in the US. I still see this being the year Toronto gets to host the game…even if it means hosting a game in November in cold weather. (note: remember the first few MLS Cups, they were in nasty cold weather in the Northeast)

LA (Home Depot Center): This venue is really a fail-safe for the league. Its in the second biggest market and the stadium can easily host a good MLS Cup. This really however is probably a backup plan for the league should something go wrong with one of the three eastern bids.

Red Bull Arena. (photo via Mark Fishkin)

Saw these photos (or stadium porn if you will) from Mark Fishkin earlier. Just wow. No doubt this stadium is passing up Home Depot Center as the main soccer venue in this country.

Fishkin also points outs some really good things the Red Bulls are doing with this new venue. Something I wish other teams would do a little more of.

- Red Bull will invest nearly 20 times the 2009 marketing budget to promote the 2010 season and Red Bull Arena. The campaign will begin in early February.

- RBNY is smartly educating the Portuguese population in the Ironbound about the team.  Apparently, some soccer-mad fans there had no idea RBA was a soccer stadium.  Some mistakenly believed RBA was built for baseball.

-Full season ticket holders will have their RB tickets delivered via a smart card.  STHs will tap the card at the turnstile to gain entrance to RBA. The cards will be used at concession stands and the team store, and reward points will be awarded for purchases.  Eventually, sponsors may take part in the RB smart-card program as well.

-The RBA concourses will include panels that will block the view of the seating bowl.  Why?  Red Bull wants folks IN THEIR SEATS during play, watching the match.  This is a very smart move that will surely look great on TV.

-Why hold Big East Soccer semis & final at RBA in late 2010 and beyond? Red Bull wants to prevent local talent from slipping away to ACC schools.  If the chance of playing at RBA drives local HS stars to the Big East, fantastic. While the Big East tourney may not be a moneymaker for RBA, the relationship with local players & fans is important for the team.

Now there are other things like mention of signing a second DP an all over there too but those were points that really jumped out at me here. I love the last one about the Big East and TBA. No doubt that was a smart move on both parties part for getting that tournament at RBA each year. I do think it will help prevent quality players from going to the ACC in the long run. I mean if you can play at RBA once a year while in college instead of having to go to Cary, NC for a game you’d take RBA in a heartbeat.

I also like the smart card system they are putting in place too.

It seems like this club is finally getting a good foot on things too here. While their player choices aren’t the best it does seem like management is stepping things up a notch with this new stadium. Getting Santos in to open the venue is also a nice touch.

Red Bull Arena construction time-lapse: May 2009 from Red Bulls Reader on Vimeo.

Question now comes in my mind, how many season tickets can they actually sell here?

This videos is a couple fans journey into New Jersey to select their new seats at Red Bull Arena. I still think it is awesome the Red Bulls are letting fans tour the stadium when they pick their seats out.

A lot of folks have been talking today and yesterday about some green stuff that is getting rolled out in New Jersey. Yes I am talking about the grass that is being installed at the new Red Bull Arena.

Yesterday the first pieces of the grass playing surface were rolled out at the team’s new $200 million stadium in Harrison, N.J.

The grass is only one component of what the club is calling a “cutting-edge underground field drainage and turf-heating system” that uses the SubAir System.

After losing their 27th straight road game last night at least the future looks a little bit better with this new grass surface that they will get to play on next year. You’d have to think they will be at least a little bit better because of it next year.