Given the last one year, it's a little bit surprising. But it's the kind of crowd we would have been ecstatic about even just last year (hell, even just three or four months ago), so while it's not the good kind of surprise it's also nothing to be downhearted about.
I didn't say it was accurate, I merely relayed what Kartik said. For the record, I smirked when I heard him say it.
The local coverage is 100% absolutely the key here DR. If we can get the local media, especially on air (tv & radio) to at least mention the team is playing for the championship, 10,000 is doable. Especially since there's no Canes or Owls football that day, and no Panthers in town as well. We all need to blitz the local sports casters of all media types and tell them we want to see the team and this game getting some local coverage on the air. The boys deserve it, especially at a time when there is nothing else for South Florida sports fans to be happy about.
The RailHawks did draw over 5,000 for the USSF D2 finals last year, so I thought they would at least get that given their attendance boost this year. So that is why that number might look disappointing. Over 6,000 would be amazing this late in the year. You haven't seen that type of crowd since early in the season or the rain out game with Tampa. Media would help, but unfortunately this is not a minor league market like Rochester. So you can never count on the local media to help out. The downside in playing in some big markets is the clubs won't get the coverage they deserve.
The timing might help the local sports media pick up on the Strikers championship run. The Dolphins are 0-5 and their season is essentially over. The Heat are locked out. The Panthers just started their season but they only marginally get more coverage than the Strikers thanks to their ongoing NHL record playoff drought. And the Marlins finished last and are in the offseason. The Strikers are a feel good story in a sports market that could really use one. Hopefully that'll draw more attention to them as we lead up to the big finale.
I know we can get 10,000 if we get some local love, and I know the Strikers feel like we'll definitely get our biggest crowd at least. I was told by someone with the organization that they are planning to open up the south side reserved seating. That's how big of a crowd they are expecting. Don't know if everyone else got this offer, but when I purchased my five regular season seats for the championship game, I was told I could get five free GA tickets, or I could get five reserved tickets for only $5 each. Similar to the rain out promotion, but it seems they're expecting enough interest to throw in the $5 reserved offer as well. That's probably why they're going to open up the South Side sections. I still say the real key though is getting the tv and radio stations to at least give the team a mention. It's not every day you can say a professional sports team in your area is playing for a championship. And with all the horocious LOL news about every other sports team in our market (except the Panthers who don't get much love either) it is something psoitive to report on for a change. Plus, everyone loves a winnner, and anyone that's been here for 20 or more years has at least heard of the Strikers. This would be the IDEAL time for them to break out some legendary Strikers too!
Been keeping track all year, just ran my numbers for the overall average attendance for the Strikers(14 regular season games plus 3 playoff games). Comes out to 3,985 fans per game. Just 15 short of 4,000. If not for the terrible weather timing this year it would have cracked that mark. We would have easily gotten 8-10K for the Championship Saturday and the rained out Tampa game on May 14 if not for the nonstop rain on both days. 15 away is close enough that I can round up to 4,000 for argumentative purposes though lol
It was about 7,000. Again, tons more people would've gone had it not been for the nonstop rain all day and during the game
6.8K is pretty good, I am sure that is tickets sold, if weather was better then they may have sold an extra 2-3K for walk up sales.
Erm, watched the online broadcast and there is no way in hell there were 6800 there. Not even close. I completely believe the 6500 or whatever tickets presale number and I have no doubt there would have been a very good crowd if the weather had cooperated. But 6800 is a massive stretch for actual attendance. Really sucks about the weather because it would have been nice if there would have been 7-10k legit fans in the crowd. You guys got screwed at least twice this year for big games with big pre sales. At least the club made some money, I hope. That's life in Florida, I guess. We need stadiums with more covered seating, at least.
I was there...I believe the 6800 number. For the first time all season, there were people seated on the side of the cameras, that you would not have seen on the webcast. Probably another 750-1000 fans were on that side. I was wet as hell...i'm guessing it would have been over 8k, probably pushing 10k if the weather had been decent.
I was there too, and yea, there were people on the TV side. I was sitting on the side you guys could see, and it was PACKED. Our seats were taken so we sat a few rows back and we could not move an inch to put our ponchos on. The area behind the goal was about half full though. There were probably a lot of no shows though because of the weather. It was a monsoon on the way to the stadium. But looking at the highlights online, it does seem a lot emptier than it actually way, especially looking at the section I was in where there were pretty much no empty seats and the highlights show like Im not even there
There were 6,849 there as announced...and I assure you some with tickets didn't make it to the game (it's still raining as I look outside). The amount sold was probably between 7.5k and 8k at worst.
Seattle got more people in one game (average) than the total of 3 NASL teams Montreal average was almost as high as San Jose. Huge drop from Montreal to the Strikers. Hopefully Minnesota and Edmonton can improve to more than 2K per game next year. 3 USLPRO teams got higher numbers average than all NASL teams (outside Montreal). No WPSL
Montreal was higher than San Jose. Take out their game at Stanford (featuring Thierry Henry and the return of Dwayne De Rosario) and the Quakes drew under 10,000.