2011 Numbers from: http://www.kenn.com/the_blog/?p=4353 NORTH AMERICAN SOCCER LEAGUE...G..........Total..........Avg. Montreal Impact....................................14.........161,102..........11,507 Ft. Lauderdale Strikers..........................14...........52,769...........3,769 Carolina RailHawks...............................14...........46,942...........3,353 FC Tampa Bay.....................................14...........42,138...........3,010 Atlanta Silverbacks...............................14...........40,117...........2,866 Puerto Rico Islanders............................14..........30,247............2,161 FC Edmonton.......................................14..........25,434............1,817 NSC Minnesota Stars............................14.........23,463............1,676 NASL TOTAL.......................................112........422,212.........3,770
Ok so Montreal is gone to MLS and San Antonio is the new team. with a week away how about we guess the final 2012 #s? San Amtonio…………….….5,000 Ft. Lauderdale Strikers…... 4,000 Carolina RailHawks …….…3,500 FC Tampa Bay...................3,500 Atlanta Silverbacks............ 3,000 Puerto Rico Islanders........ 3,000 FC Edmonton.....................2,500 NSC Minnesota Stars.........2,500 2012 Total……………..……3,375
The Islanders are going to have to play at a smaller facility nearby while the renovations to Loubriel are ongoing. The secondary place supposedly only seats about 1,000 people and it may be late July before Loubriel is able to host matches (by which point the Islanders may only have four home matches left). 3,000 might be optimistic for them, we'll see.
On the other hand, I do think the trend will be upwards for most teams, and I doubt the Islanders will have any trouble at all with selling out the small stadium.
Which is fine, but which won't help them financially and will hurt the league numbers, obviously. With more lead time, Carolina should continue its upward trend. I don't know how Atlanta, Minnesota and Edmonton are going to have great advances, but maybe they will. And we're all curious to see if San Antonio is the new Rochester, the new Syracuse or the new St. Louis.
Yup. I think it'll be a lot like Carolina's tornado game last year, only for a good fraction of the season - terrible numbers that entirely do mean exactly what they sound like for the club's bottom line, but don't mean enthusiasm is flagging. Yeah. I don't think over 5K average is likely, but I wouldn't expect games much below it outside of utterly foul weather. And of course the mean will be helped by the occasional very big crowd; we did break 6 a few times last season. But, well, the occasional foul weather is part of the reality of the season. I expect modest advances, but not great ones. Yup. And whether they can actually turn a profit and make the whole thing actually work as a charitable fundraiser.
I wish the Islanders would play this season in San Juan in one of the two stadiums there. Then attendance would be brought down as bad.
My guesses for averages this year(what do I win if I hit one right on the button? ): San Antonio: 4,891 Fort Lauderdale: 4,577 Carolina: 4,489 Tampa Bay: 4,467 Atlanta: 3,937 Minnesota:3,451 Edmonton: 3,123 Puerto Rico: 2,878 I'm being cautiously optimistic, looking for a modest uptick in general. San Antonio's first few games should be big turnouts and that should help their averages. PR will be hurt by having to play at Bayamón Soccer Complex most of the year.
I'll post my predictions later this weekend. But I'll just say that as long as we see modest increases and the league becoming healthier overall, we should be happy. Should be interesting to watch.
Here we go: San Antonio…………….…. 4,500 Ft. Lauderdale Strikers…... 4,400 Carolina RailHawks …….… 3,900 FC Tampa Bay...................3,800 Atlanta Silverbacks............ 3,200 Puerto Rico Islanders........ 2,500 FC Edmonton.....................2,300 NSC Minnesota Stars........ .2,300
And some of the USL teams averaged less than 1000 fans per game last year - New York, Dayton, and LA(not including the 3 Puerto Rico teams). D3 is still D3, not D2, no matter how much one of their teams draw.
That and Orlando, along with Rochester and Charleston, are basically D2 teams masquerading as D3 clubs. All used to be in the second division. All are operated on another level then most other D3 clubs, and as a result draw better and generally perform better.
I expect Atlanta to be over 3,000 this year. They seem like they are really making a good amount of investment in the club to improve the on field product. They also had a full offseason to drum up support.
I see the Strikers, Rowdies and RailHawks all gaining in 2012. Especially the RailHawks, since their attendance last year was depressed by early-season storms. Fortunately, the cicada plague never happened.
It seems the bleachers they will install in the Islanders temporary field will be up to 3,000. But it still going to be hard, since it's not that easy to get to the BSC and people will have to be shuttled to it from the JRL because of lack of parking.
Doesn't look that hard to get to. It's at one end of one of Bayamon's major roads (Ave Zinia). Then again, I don't know traffic patterns in Puerto Rico. Looked to me like the major problem was the parking.
I agree in theory, but part of the reason those teams are doing so well is that they don't have to meet any of the very strict D2 standards. Again, they could meet them in theory, but the fact that they don't have to in actuality is a big plus (and the primary reason they'll never move up).
Not a lot of people know where it is, wouldn't be a mayor inconvenience for people in Bayamon but for us from San Juan or Carolina, it is now deep inside Bayamon instead of just of the expressway. Then you have the whole parking situation and the shuttle. It makes a 30min trip for me normally into a 45-50 minute one. They would have been better off playing in San Juan in my opinion, but politics down there make it difficult.
Any minute now, Kenn is gonna come along and set you straight on just how not so different the two leagues are Other than somewhat increased travel costs and the requirement of a decently sized bond, there isn't a great deal financially separating a team like Rochester and NASL teams. I doubt that they'd have much trouble satisfying those requirements.
