The comparison to USL Pro numbers is interesting. I personally think this year the number comparison will be more meaningful as both leagues will have full offseasons to market their teams. Last year the USL Pro was helped by new teams in Orlando (who had great numbers) and saw the return of the Hammerheads. I'll be interested to see if these teams can hold onto these attendance averages or even better - improve upon them. Rochester, to me, is a problem. Yes their numbers were higher than most NASL teams, but they are going down by 1-2K fans each year for the past few years. The Rhinos need to reverse this trend. I think the NASL will see modest increases in attendances with a full offseason. I look for Carolina, Minnesota, Ft. Lauderdale & the Rowdies to increase the most. FC Edmonton won't increase until they have a better venue IMO. I bet Atlanta stays flat but they were far better last year than I ever thought they would be. In the end, I hope both leagues improve attendance becasue as we've all heard on BS - attendance is what makes the most money for these minor league teams. Here's to hoping for a successful 2012 for both the NASL and USL Pro!
That simply is not true. Nether Thierry Henry or Rafael Márquez appeared at the Stanford game and no one really cared before hand if they would play or not. The only reason why 40,000 tickets were sold was because everyone seems to want to go to a Quakes game. Their games at Buck Shaw Stadium have been selling out continuously and they only have 10,000 seats available to sell. I'm sure there are many teams that can outdraw them. As far as DeRo is concerned, he has played with 4 different teams since he moved to Houston along with the club in 2005 and no one really cares anymore if he came back or not. If the Quakes attendance dipped for the DC United game, it was only because they had a lousy season.
BS. They don't average a sellout, and every time I saw them on the TV this season, I saw a LOT of empty seats. I'm fairly certain Orlando City legit out-attended the Quakes at least twice this past season. If "everybody seems to want to go to a Quakes game", why bother staying in a cramped baseball park when Stanford Stadium appears more than adequate as a temporary solution? And why settle for a 18k SSS that still may or may not get built? The new stadium looks to be getting NIMBY resistance.
Buck Shaw has not been a baseball park for at least the last 20+ years and its capaicity has a total of 10,300 for soccer. They even added seats at the end of the season to accomodate more fans. Unless they were give aways, which I don't believe, the last 6 homes games of 2011 (even though the team sucks) were all sell outs including DC United. As far as playing their games at Stanford , even though I work there, I for one am glad they don't play their games there. For starters if you ever saw a game played there, you would see Stanford Stadium is a crap field too play on because its just too narrow to play soccer on. It was great during the 1994 WC but since it was torn down and re-built for the gridiron, Buck Shaw has a much better field which I would put it up against any pitch in the league. Aside from this though, Stanford Stadium is also too expensive to rent out and its 30 miles north of the San Jose. July 30, 2011 San Jose Earthquakes 0 – 2 D.C. United Attendance: 10,525 August 6, 2011 Earthquakes 1 – 1 Portland Timbers Attendance: 10,525 August 13, 2011 Earthquakes 1 – 2 Colorado Rapids Attendance: 10,525 September 10, 2011 Earthquakes 2 – 0 Chicago Fire Attendance: 10,525 October 1, 2011 Earthquakes 1 – 1 Sporting Kansas City Attendance: 10,525 October 22, 2011 San Jose Earthquakes 4 – 2 FC Dallas Attendance: 10,744
what those numbers tell me is that Orlando, Rochester, Charleston, and maybe Wilmington and Richmond should be NASL teams. and Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Dayton, FCNY and LA Blues should play PDL. having a professional D-3 in the USA seems pretty pointless to me. especially if they're not really gonna be a regional league like they said they would be. Happy Boxing Day.
with road trips to Antigua and LA, these so called pro teams make more miles than teams from the Bundesliga
for what its worth the game against New York at Stanford for a fireworks game.. thats the real reason the huge number showed up. that being said, to be fair San Jose does do a good job of filling buckshaw consistently, and with a new and larger stadium they would likely average over where Montreal's NASL squad was.... making the argument that they don't draw well now is pointless.... Kansas City in 2010 compared to 2011 is a prime example as to why that isn't a good way to measure things.
Kansas drew an average of 10,053 (2009) and 10,287 (2010) in a 10,385 stadium Now they draw 17,678 in their new stadium Like you say, it is not a good idea to compare the old Kansas with the new Kansas and the same will go for the old Quakes and the new Quakes
Re: Oy "you must spread some reputation around, yadda yadda..." Too bad San Jose won the MLS cup when they did all those years ago
I think they should be wherever they feel they can be most successful overall. Charleston has been a 2nd division market before (and, in fact, has won the second division before). Their owner also was known to spend a lot (a lot of money on players to get there, which isn't always what every owner wants to do. Neither you nor I gets to decide what level they should be at. I love Wilmington as an organization and a market, but it's too small to be a second division market (if you define it by the amount of revenue you can reasonably expect to generate). Richmond might be as well, but, again, they decided they were better off at the third division level and I can't say that I blame them. They're not owned by people with even as many resources as Tony Bakker has, I don't believe. Harrisburg and Charlotte are the darndest things...the City Islanders seem to somehow make it work at the pro level, and so do the Eagles, despite all the challenges they have. Pittsburgh simply doesn't have the budget to be truly competitive among the teams in D3, but god bless 'em for trying. And LA's people seem bound and determined to be professional. Again, not our call. Can't really disagree with you there. Regionally, it probably makes a little sense. Nationally, I don't think it makes any sense at all in a nation as big as ours. Germany's only 357,000 square kilometers in area (bigger than New Mexico, smaller than Montana), so, yeah. Hamburg to Freiburg might be the longest trip in the Bundesliga (476 miles), but even if there was no team in Antigua and none in LA, Charleston to Richmond would still be 427 miles. Antigua is 1563 air miles from Charleston, or slightly more than the distance from Tampa to San Juan.
Just the typical Sounders fan adding nothing to the conversation at all. Destroy his rep to the point that he goes running away, crying to mommy.
Not to interrupt the petty arguments here, but I was wondering if anyone has compiled the attendance data (all years available) in a spread sheet that they would be willing to share? Pretty Please.
all years? NASL has only been around for 1 year. Unless you also want the old NASL, I believe Kenn has a blog with those numbers.
A detailed analysis of the impact of global warming on the reproductive practices of the South American tunnel snake?
Apologies for reviving an old thread. Does anyone have a complete (or close) list of 2011 NASL attendances?