2700 in Ft. Lauderdale on a Saturday night? wth? I hope it rained or something. 5k in Atlanta? I am suspicious
Lost 37% of their first-game audience. Still getting league-leading numbers. But the trend is going in the wrong direction.
Of course San Antonio is not going to match the 13k on a weekly basis, and next year it is going to go down to a max of 6100 with the new stadium. But so far the average is 8-9k. On weekends when the Spurs are playing and they had Arena Football in town last also.
I'm sure Kenn's point is that the novelty appears to be wearing off very quickly there, and you have to wonder at what numbers attendance will eventually start leveling off at. An average after 3 games means nothing, a full season average will be a much more accurate gauge. Assuming that new stadium will be ready by next year is also not a bet I would wager on.
No, I actually don't know what to make of it, but I made my only two points, one of which is just an observation without explanation. Why someone would re-state my first point and pay the second even less mind than I pay it, I couldn't tell you. But, again: 1-They're getting great crowds 2-Each has been smaller than the one before I offer no explanation. It just bears watching.
And this was their fourth game at home, wasn't it? Still a small sample, but not a meaningless one. I'd have to check what other teams had done after four games. It is funny, though, that the one-game sample made them an MLS expansion candidate, but the four-game sample isn't at all meaningful. Just odd.
Yes, I shouldn't have written that I was "sure" what your original point was, since obviously I was just speculating. Bad paraphrasing there, I'll be more careful of that in the future I was thinking three games after the opener related to attendance with my other comment, so yes, it is four. I also shouldn't have typed it meant nothing, too strong of a word. At this point, deleting the whole post and starting over might be my best option. Besides, according to your buddy, attendance doesn't mean anything anyway
Obviously, it's a terrific start and if every team was doing that, everybody would be much better off and the proles would have a point. I just am always skeptical when I see an outlier, and when I see that outlier start to come back to the mean, I start to wonder if there are things we don't know at work.
The decline is slowing, and you guys are still doing good on the field. Unless you start doing under half of Heroes Stadium's nominal capacity, I wouldn't worry much if I were you. Last year our regular season average was about 1/3 below our opener's attendance. As for Atlanta... yeah.
It rained all day and all night down here. Totally killed walk ups. That 2,700 has to be the pre-sales. Considering the outcome of the game it's probably just as well more casuals or first timers weren't there to see it. The only people in the stadium were those of us who will always be there no matter what the conditions are.
My understanding is that 5,000 is max. capacity for Silverbacks Park. They sold out their opener, and their last home game before this one they had 4,700 as I recall. I don't think it's impossible to think they sold out this one against the Rowdies. They seem to be doing a lot more promotion for the Silverbacks than the Strikers are doing from what I've read. Maybe a Silverbacks fan could give us a more meaningful opinion on the marketing and game day crowds up there.
Why exactly ? That was the plan the entire time. Steel has already arrived etc etc ... No, what's funny is that people took that one game attendance and thought that is what we're basing expansion worthiness off of. Even more funny is that people continue to harp on that as though it's the truth. Anyone actually from SA or that is an actual SA soccer fan isn't in that camp (at least, not that I can see posting here and not that I know of personally).
how about forget MLS? Texas has two MLS teams already. It'll be a LONG, LONG time if EVER before MLS grants a third MLS team to the same state. Your attendance is going to level out. The freebies will dry up, soon hopefully. And the new car smell will wear off. Regardless, looks like you guys have a good chance at having great attendance by lower division soccer standards for some time to come. Why not just appreciate that and work hard to maintain what you've got?
San Antonio's attendance numbers are heartening. I'd love to see San Antonio in the MLS, but I think speedcake is right. Appreciate being in D2 for now, once it's stable and growing MLS talk can start back up again.
Interesting interview of the Silverbacks' president. I think that Atlanta should be studied by the other clubs (Tampa and Ft Lauderdale specifically) to see how to move the needle on attendance and community buy in. No doubt there wasn't 5,000 people in that stadium on Saturday night, but the fact that a team that drew flies before is now at least comfortable reporting sellouts is certainly progress. My guess is they had 3,500 buts in the seats for that game, not bad for a team that is in last place and drew less than 3,000 last year. More importantly is how they have accomplished this feat. Oki talks about how they are knitting themselves into the soccer community in Atlanta. No doubt that Silverbacks Park is giant plus that other clubs don't have and Atlanta seems to be finally leveraging that into tickets sold. It isn't just the stadium itself, but also the other pitches on site and the vertically integrated club structure they have as well. I think that the Scorpions are a great story (and a welcome addition to try and carry the Impact's torch) this season, but I think that Atlanta's progress is a very close second. http://www.insidemnsoccer.com/2012/05/22/nasl-podcast-episode-33/
All well and good, but that team still needs local ownership to survive. The podcast mentions the old owner maybe buying back the club from Traffic. But that doesn't seem like it will happen. Getting Atlanta, Carolina, and Minnesota owners is still a huge issue for the league.
Oki can't speak about ownership changes for sure, either speculative or real. The Traffic ownership of the league obviously is an issue, but I think Brian asked the wrong question in the interview. I believe it is much more likely for a new owner partner (hopefully local) to purchase the Traffic stake rather than Boris buying them out. With Atlanta doing better at the gate, attracting new investors would be much more likely.
Honestly, the whole look of the team has leaped up miles this season. The merchandise they're selling is top notch, and I hope that it's generating conversation about the team around town.
Of all the reasoning as to why MLS in "X" wouldn't happen is because there's already a team(s) there has got to be one of the most retarded reasons that exists. ... and you think this isn't happening why ? The entire goal for the franchise was to get an MLS team in San Antonio. You people do realize that, right ? Step one was getting any team here and then progressing. We got step one and now we're moving on with the plan. Part of that, is appreciating what we have and maintaining it.
Especially in a state the size of Texas. And Seattle is closer to Portland and Vancouver than San Antonio is to Houston.
