The good news: Season ticket deposits are selling very well. 3200 in less than 4 days. Each deposit can buy up to 8 season tickets. Ignoring the 196 SUITES with combined seating of 4,342, the actual capacity for MLS is 26,743. MLS 2013 average attendance Seattle Sounders FC 44,038 Los Angeles Galaxy 22,152 Portland Timbers 20,674 Montreal Impact 20,603 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 20,038 Houston Dynamo 19,923 Sporting Kansas City 19,709 New York Red Bulls 19,461 Real Salt Lake 19,218 Toronto FC 18,131 Philadelphia Union 17,867 Columbus Crew 16,080 Colorado Rapids 15,440 FC Dallas 15,373 Chicago Fire 15,228 New England Revolution 14,844 D.C. United 13,646 San Jose Earthquakes 12,765 Chivas USA 8,366 Another factor that could influence the attendance figure is the stadium atmosphere. How large, organized and loud the Terminus Legion will have some effect on attendance. Hopefully, Atlanta front office will set aside a General Admission Supporters Section to help improve the atmosphere.
They don't go to Agnes Scott College's synchronized swimming performances, either. Is there a point to this?
I had to actually google Agnes Scott College. I'm looking for someone to say that Spelman dropped intercollegiate athletics because Atlanta sports fans are horrible beyond belief.
For American sports and sports that are already long entrenched in the cities the transplants came from, yeah. This is soccer. Nobody in ATL is gonna decide to become a Red Bull fan because their Dad grew up in Harlem. Best girl I ever met went there. If I'd been smart, we'd be married right now. And yeah, I've actually seen a swimming show there. It was one girl (not the one I was engaged to), so I can't say "synchronized". I almost used them as an example.
I'm trying to think of a city that they dominate attendance in all major sports. Even precious Seattle couldnt keep their basketball team... LA lost two football teams... In a metro area of six million people, and one of the largest, the most culturally distinct and also most solidified region in the country, Atlanta has all the tools to succeed. Can't wait to prove you haters wrong.
Already at near 5000 tickets sold. I believe the latest count was 4000 people have registered/put down payments on season tickets with the option to buy up to 8 tickets. Not even a week after the announcement and don't even kick off for three years. ATL is going to surprise a lot of people. More, we are the south's team! We have support from MS (maybe even in some reaches to LA) to NC (maybe even in some reaches od VA), down to northern Florida, up through Tennessee. We are coming... And we will be a flagship franchise.
No. Fans in SC or NC could give a [censored] about an ATL sports team Maybe they'll come over to see an interesting team like SEA or LA play. 1st year attendance: 17,500 4th year attendance: 12,500 6th year attendance: <10k
43,000 went to Game 1 of the NLDS last year on a Thursday, 49,000 to Game 2 on a Friday. So that's been debunked. Next.
I feel confident we can average 20,000+ in our first year. Shouldn't be a problem. The newness of the team and the stadium will help with that. Alot of people will buy MLS tickets to come see the stadium because they're cheaper than Falcon tickets.
One really important thing to remmeber for attendance comparisons is that Atlanta FC will play much less than the Braves, Hawks or Thrashers play(ed). MLB is 81 games in 3 day blocks over 6-7 months, while NHL and NBA are 41 games, 1-3 home games a week. in contrast MLS is basically an extended NFL season. They play 17 games in 8 months, similar to the Falcon's 8 games in 4 months. This means there is much less burden on fans to show up regularly, and it means that dealing with horrible traffic and coming in from other parts of the region is more like NFL than anything else. I expect an emphasis will be put on tailgating and the rest. So i'm pretty optimistic. I think they'll start at 20k-25k, but after a few years all bets are off.
This is a very good point that I actually hadn't thought of. With an incredible new stadium in town everyone will want to see it and MLS offers a much cheaper opportunity to do so than the Falcons. $60 for nose bleed seats at a Falcons game or, what? $20-$30?, for decent seats at the MLS game. This offers a great opportunity to capitalize on reeling in casual fans who may just be showing up to check out the stadium. If their first experience is enjoyable we may be able to win some over and get them to return.
Seattle, like Atlanta, has lost two teams in the big four North American professional sports. In addition to the Supersonics, the Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers in 1970.
New Update! http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/pr...-for-president/nfwH5/#99bcb32f.3617148.735367 Thats an increase of 462 more members pledging an additional 1418 season tickets since the last report. Increase average of 3 tickets per person.