It's Reigning Men - The Official Reign FC Attendance Discussion

Discussion in 'Seattle Reign FC' started by Blaze20, Feb 12, 2014.

  1. Blaze20

    Blaze20 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Seattle Reign FC
    Sep 22, 2009
    Club:
    Philadelphia Independence
    #1 Blaze20, Feb 12, 2014
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2014
    For any women's league in the US, attendance is the giant elephant in the room. As this is a sensitive topic that is sure to garner a few opinion's, I thought it wise to have a separate thread for that discussion.

    The Reign management this off season has done a lot both on a off the field to make the team more attractive to fans. Now it's up to those fans to do their part and actually turn up.

    The last information I can remember about season ticket sale so far is Harvey mentioning that they were slightly above where they were last year. That was before the announcement of Memorial Stadium as the new home. She also mention Rapinoe returning contributed a little bump to sales. For those living in Seattle, are you aware at this moment of any advertisement for the team that is not on social media?

    And lastly, I do apologize for the title, I just could not help myself :p

    2013 Attendance
    upload_2014-2-13_8-13-10.png


    2014 Attendance
    upload_2014-2-13_8-15-51.png
     
  2. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I haven't seen any traditional advertising for the reign at all. However, with all of the moves this winter their seems to be more excitement about Reign than there was last winter. The biggest change that I've seen is tht the main writers for Sounder at Heart are actually putting up articles about the Reign and last year the only time I recall them writing articles was when the Reign got the team and when the allocated players were dropping like flies. The rest of the coverage was largely left to fan posts. If the Reign want to get in with the Sounders fans, they need to get S@H covering them regularly.
     
  3. Blaze20

    Blaze20 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Seattle Reign FC
    Sep 22, 2009
    Club:
    Philadelphia Independence
    Thanks for your import. They still do have time though for traditional advertising as those kind of marketing are usually done closer to when the season is about to start. You don't want to start in Jan/Feb and by may people have forgotten about the team.
     
  4. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I don't disagree with you. :) I'm thinking they'll do more advertising during Sounders games since the MLS season starts up before their season.
     
  5. cpthomas

    cpthomas BigSoccer Supporter

    Portland Thorns
    United States
    Jan 10, 2008
    Portland, Oregon
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I suspect that the wait to start pushing ticket sales had to do with the switch to Memorial Stadium. I think that switch will make tickets easier to market.

    This is an area in which the lack of an MLS connection hurts. Starting in December here in Portland, the Thorns ticket effort began with calls to all of last year's season ticket holders and, I believe, also calls to Timbers season ticket holders and wait listers. Use of the Timbers ticket marketing staff and lists has been a tremendous and very valuable resource for the Thorns. I mention this here because I am wondering if, regardless of the independence of the Reign, there could be a cooperative agreement between the Reign and the Sounders that would let the Reign get (purchase?) at least some of the benefits that the Thorns get from their Timbers linkage. In other words, if there isn't going to be a men's/women's marriage like in Portland and Houston, maybe there's something short of that, that would help the women's teams. My sense here in Portland is that the Thorns and Timbers aren't competing with each other, they're mutually helpful to each other. Maybe the Reign and Sounders could achieve the same thing even though not under the same roof.
     
  6. Blaze20

    Blaze20 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Seattle Reign FC
    Sep 22, 2009
    Club:
    Philadelphia Independence
    You raise a good point about a partnership with the sounders. At the very least, it will be a huge benefit to the Reign if they had access to the Sounders season ticket holders list. That give you a starting point to begin calling. They could potentially offer discounts to those fans.
    I just checked google maps and there's a ~10 min driving distance between Century Link Field and Memorial Stadium so the new location should be more attractive to Sounders fans.
     
  7. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    While you are absolutely correct, cpthomas, I just don't see the Sounders doing that. Hanauer has never shown any interest in anything other than if it helps the Sounders and I haven't gotten the impression that he sees Women's soccer as helping the men's team. Even the Sounders Women don't get any help from the Sounders and they've made it clear that they are licensing the Sounders name/colors and that they are not actually affiliated to the Sounders.
     
  8. ladyofwh

    ladyofwh Member

    Oct 24, 2011
    Los Angeles, CA
    Club:
    Philadelphia Independence
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It's just too bad. I do hope the Reign continues to reach out to the Sounders and that there could be some partnership down the line. I also hope to see pro athletes in Seattle (such as Sounders, Storm, etc) come out and watch a Reign game!
     
  9. msilverstein47

    msilverstein47 Member+

    Jan 11, 1999
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    TeamAverage
    Portland Thorns FC 13,320
    FC Kansas City 4,626
    Western New York Flash 4,485
    Washington Spirit 3,620
    Boston Breakers 2,427
    Seattle Reign FC 2,306
    Chicago Red Stars 1,711
    Sky Blue FC 1,664
    NWSL TOTAL 4,270
     
  10. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    Hopefully you're not doing extra work on this, as I already had a spreadsheet with this data for every team (if I did it correctly)
    DateOpponentAttendance

    4 May
    Kansas City2618

    16 May
    Washington1011

    19 May
    SBFC1046

    25 May
    Portland3324

    9 June
    Kansas City1377

    29 June
    Chicago2318

    3 July
    Boston1430

    11 July
    WNY2514

    14 July
    Washington3855

    25 July
    Chicago2017

    17 August
    Portland3855

    Total25,365


    Max3,855

    Avg2,306

    Median2,318

    Min1,011
     
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  11. Blaze20

    Blaze20 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Seattle Reign FC
    Sep 22, 2009
    Club:
    Philadelphia Independence
    Thanks, this prevented me from scouring the web for this. I have added both the 2013 and 2014 tables to the first post.
     
  12. Blaze20

    Blaze20 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Seattle Reign FC
    Sep 22, 2009
    Club:
    Philadelphia Independence
    Seattle has been really quiet re ticket sales until this..

     
  13. Ledbetter

    Ledbetter Member

    Jun 27, 2013
    Club:
    Los Angeles Sol
    Attendance should pick up due to the move from Tacoma to Queen Anne/Downtown (which also has ample parking - the Seattle Center and Experience Music Project Museum are right next to Memorial), Rapinoe showing up earlier, a stacked lineup, a winning record, and improved advertising. What would help a lot too is if they added short scoring highlights to the news. The Reign should try to get an exciting announcer and provide the tape to the news. There's gotta be a ton of bored Seahawks fans looking for the next great thing.
     
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  14. Ledbetter

    Ledbetter Member

    Jun 27, 2013
    Club:
    Los Angeles Sol
    I know I'm just fantasizing, but if Tancredi got in a fight with Leroux, that could spark a rivialry...
     
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  15. txsn

    txsn Member+

    Jan 22, 2008
    Texas
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Reign play the Dash the same night as the MLS All-Star game in Portland... that's not going to help attendance at all. It is a shame too, because if they played any other night that week Houston fans could have an epic road trip to the NW. Two Dash games, 1 Dynamo game, 1 MLS all star game.
     
  16. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Even if the game was on a different night, I highly doubt that the traveling Dash fans will have an impact on the Reign's attendance number.. The Dynamo have rarely had more than a handful of traveling fans up here in Seattle, so I'm not sure why you would expect the addition of the Dash to make this any different. I'm also not sure the All-Star game is going to have a large impact on the attendance. Interest in the MLS All-Star game is quite low up here and the only reason it has even minimal interest is because Portland got the game and there was some angst that they got the game and our FO didn't even try to get the game.

    The largest impact on the Dash game won't be the All-Star game, it'll be that it is on a weeknight and weeknights in general are horrible for attendance.
     
  17. Blaze20

    Blaze20 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Seattle Reign FC
    Sep 22, 2009
    Club:
    Philadelphia Independence
    Great that they are going to be selling tickets at the Sounders game.Even if lots of people do not buy tickets immediately, it is good exposure.

     
  18. cpthomas

    cpthomas BigSoccer Supporter

    Portland Thorns
    United States
    Jan 10, 2008
    Portland, Oregon
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Right on!
     
  19. Blaze20

    Blaze20 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Seattle Reign FC
    Sep 22, 2009
    Club:
    Philadelphia Independence
    Team announced during the Sounders game.

    upload_2014-3-15_18-39-53.png
     
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  20. luvdagame

    luvdagame Member+

    Jul 6, 2000
    wow!

    don't the sounders have a women's team? why would they allow that? how much did predmore have to pay?

    great exposure tho!
     
  21. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    No. The Sounders Women are a completely independent club that has licensed the use of the brand from the Sounders.
     
  22. luvdagame

    luvdagame Member+

    Jul 6, 2000
    gotcha.

    reign should then try to make themselves sounders women in everything except name - if predmore and the sounders are comfortable with that.

    not news, but an alliance with an mls team may be the the ticket to success for each nwsl team.
     
  23. Forgedias

    Forgedias Member

    Mar 5, 2012

    Its my hope as well. Lots of teams are in MLS markets, just hope there are owners that can set aside their egos and find a working partnership with the MLS club in their area.
     
  24. newsouth

    newsouth Member

    Nov 20, 2010
    Club:
    Santos FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
    That's nice! Now, how about the Galaxy fusing with Pail/Strikers, so people with access to South Cal can see games? :mad:
     
  25. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    1. They're officially the LA Blues, can't you give them respect enough to use their actual name?
    2. Not the right thread to bring your whining. Don't poison another team's thread.
    3. The Blues have been heavily associated with Chivas on Twitter, so you can probably kick your Galaxy fetish out.
     

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