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 2013 Attendance 2014 Attendance
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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 MayKansas City2618 16 MayWashington1011 19 MaySBFC1046 25 MayPortland3324 9 JuneKansas City1377 29 JuneChicago2318 3 JulyBoston1430 11 JulyWNY2514 14 JulyWashington3855 25 JulyChicago2017 17 AugustPortland3855 Total25,365 Max3,855 Avg2,306 Median2,318 Min1,011
Thanks, this prevented me from scouring the web for this. I have added both the 2013 and 2014 tables to the first post.
Seattle has been really quiet re ticket sales until this.. IT’S OFFICIAL: #ReignFC VIP tables are sold out! Grab your Premium Grandstand seats while you still can! Buy yours: http://t.co/0g2G8b446o— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) February 27, 2014
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.
I know I'm just fantasizing, but if Tancredi got in a fight with Leroux, that could spark a rivialry...
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.
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.
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. Can't wait to pick up your scarf? We'll be at the Sounders match tomorrow selling scarves and season tickets starting at 12:30p. #LetItReign— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) March 14, 2014
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!
No. The Sounders Women are a completely independent club that has licensed the use of the brand from the Sounders.
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.
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.
That's nice! Now, how about the Galaxy fusing with Pail/Strikers, so people with access to South Cal can see games?
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.