MLS Attendance Analysis: Week 32

Discussion in 'MLS: News & Analysis' started by edwardgr, Oct 25, 2012.

  1. Sounders78

    Sounders78 Member+

    Apr 20, 2009
    Olympia
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    When I take a road trip I'm not so concerned about the distance I still have to travel as I am knowing I am on the road that is heading to my destination.

    I can assure you, however, that if I were doing a long road trip I would want fellow passengers who appreciate the view along the way, rather than constantly complain about not being there yet.
     
    Kappa74, Jasonma, vponce75 and 2 others repped this.
  2. Furacao del Norte

    Mar 13, 2009
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    A weeknight game, on Halloween, that wasn't finalized until 3 or 4 days ago, that's not automatically on the STH package? It may be a playoff game, but it had nothing else going for it.
     
  3. Spursfan1

    Spursfan1 Member+

    Sep 7, 2010
    Atlanta
    Club:
    Tottenham Hotspur FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    seattle would have sold out. portland too. kc. etc...
     
  4. zensum

    zensum Member+

    Jan 22, 2008
    The Bronx, NYC
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Seattle / yes
    Portland / yes
    KC / maybe?
    Vancouver / maybe?
    Everyone else / NO
     
  5. Spursfan1

    Spursfan1 Member+

    Sep 7, 2010
    Atlanta
    Club:
    Tottenham Hotspur FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    San jose? yes
    LA Galaxy yep

    So everyone else no is wrong again.

    KC definitely yes.
     
  6. KCFutbol

    KCFutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 14, 2001
    Overland Park, KS
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    On Halloween? Don't be so sure.
     
  7. BSGuy321

    BSGuy321 Member

    Sep 2, 2008
    Good point.
     
  8. TOareaFan

    TOareaFan Member+

    Jun 19, 2008
    Greater Toronto Area
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    Toronto has never had an unsold playoff ticket! So, there!
     
  9. profiled

    profiled Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 7, 2000
    slightly north of a mile high
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    I doubt LA sells out tonight.
     
  10. Len

    Len Member+

    Club: Dallas Tornado
    Jan 18, 1999
    Everywhere and Nowhere.....I'm the wind, baby.
    It was disappointing to see the turnout. However, because so much of MLS' support comes from families, it shouldn't be too surprising. This conversation never had a chance:

    "Well, I'm headed to the game."
    "But Dad, it's Halloween."
    "I know, but it's the playoffs"
    "But Dad.....It's Trick or Treat..."
    "I know, but.....(sigh).....Get your costume on, lets go."
     
  11. TOareaFan

    TOareaFan Member+

    Jun 19, 2008
    Greater Toronto Area
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    I prefer to think that the match was a sell out but the most popular halloween costume in Chicagoland is the empty stadium seat.!

    Kidding aside, MLS has made huge strides but in few (any?) markets are they at the point where the fans are pre-buying playoff tickets way in advance (with the date and opponent both saying TBD?)....so the downside of having close playoff races (didn't the DC v Chicago match on the weekend determine if this match even existed)......selling tickets with 3 working days to do it is tough (in any market)....in hindsight (and I benefit from excellent hindsight...not sure I am unique there) they may have been better working with their broadcast partners to turn Thursday into a double header giving the Fire one more day to get the message out...but that may not have been possible.

    Another factor may be the NBA......I know that the bballers in this town had their season tip off last night.....so, to the extent MLS fans also follow other sports (sacrilege, I know) there was one other thing to factor in last night.

    Turns out, it was not much of a match anyway.
     
  12. Mucky

    Mucky Member+

    Mar 30, 2009
    Manchester England
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Opponent really shouldn't matter when it comes to deciding whether to attend a playoff game.
    I don't know how much it accounts for lower attendance in playoff games but I hope other factors are at play.
    I hope that MLS can get to a stage where demand is increased for playoff games over regular season games since MLS cup is celebrated as the premier trophy.

    I only saw the highlights of last nights game but the atmosphere seemed flat as did Chicago fire themselves, strangely so. I mean having scored to get back in a one off game which would define your season with only 1o minutes to go they simply trotted back to the halfway line without celebrating as if they had scored in a friendly in the last seconds which they had been losing 5-0.

    Maybe Fire fans who attended saw it differently?
     
  13. Brazbit

    Brazbit BigSoccer Supporter

    Jun 1, 2009
    Manchester, WA (USA)
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    When Seattle had a Halloween playoff match (2010) they took that into consideration. They had all sorts of Halloween events outside the stadium (Haunted house amongst other things I believe) a costume contest, giant Thriller performance, the give-away was trick or treat bags and nearly every employee in the stadium had candy for trick or treaters, etc... Parents got their game, kids got their Halloween and the stadium was packed. No need to have that conversation if the front office thinks ahead.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  14. TOareaFan

    TOareaFan Member+

    Jun 19, 2008
    Greater Toronto Area
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    Not sure anyone said the opponent mattered....but right up to the end of their match against DC.....there was no certainty that there would even be a game in Chicago last night. If the Fire had beat DC there was no match to buy or sell tickets for...I think that is the point that some (including me) are making.
     
  15. TOareaFan

    TOareaFan Member+

    Jun 19, 2008
    Greater Toronto Area
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    Of course, other than the general awsomeness of SSFC and their supporters (and I do not mean that in any joking way....they are the exception that proves many MLS attendance rules and deserve all the kudos they can get) the other factor there is that I believe they knew that match was going to take place about 2 weeks before.....so they were able to fire up their well oiled marketing geniousity and turn that night into the event it was.

    In addition to not being the top dog in town, the Fire had to deal with a much shorter planning and sales window.
     
  16. vponce75

    vponce75 BigSoccer Supporter

    Aug 16, 2004
    SoCal
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There was no way the Fire were going to sell out this game with three days notice, for a Wednesday night, on Halloween night, during the Bulls season opener. Not excuses, just facts. Other markets may be able to overcome these things and that's awesome for MLS. But not this market at the present time. It is what it is.
     
  17. fuzzx

    fuzzx Member+

    Feb 4, 2012
    Brossard
    Club:
    Montreal Impact
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    Any chance of their being more space between the regular season and playoffs next year? I've heard that the season starts one week earlier. Will the whole extension be used for FIFA dates?

    Is an increase in weekday games during the season worth it to have more time to setup playoffs?
     
  18. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Just to throw this out, but has Chicago never heard of pre-selling playoff tickets? It's not like the playoffs snuck up on them. They've known for a month or more that they were in contention to make the playoffs...
     
  19. Rulas

    Rulas BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 3, 2007
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Since I started working an hour north of Chicago I realized how terrible the Toyota Park location is, especially for these midweek games. If you live in a town like Libertyville, which has a huge soccer complex by the way, it's a mission to get down to the city and then back out west to TP.
     
  20. Etienne_72772

    Etienne_72772 Member+

    Oct 14, 1999
    Yes, they knew they were in the playoffs, but they didn't know until last Saturday that they would have to play the play-in game. Many around these parts actually considered it unlikely that they would have to play in the play-in game.

    I suppose they could have presold tickets to the "first" home playoff game, whether it was the play-in game or the home and home series, but still it is all very much speculative.

    Having said that, however, one thing that does not surprise me is the lack of any real marketing effort from the FO. The Fire FO seems woefully stagnant, and very uncreative when it comes to selling the Fire.

    At least with Wilt around, he was pushing like crazy for newspaper coverage. My local northwest paper didn't even have side note in the paper today, let alone an article about the game.
     
  21. cwilke1

    cwilke1 Member

    Sep 1, 2006
    Glen Cove
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    the low Chicago attendance is also probably an effect of there being too many teams in the playoffs. Being in the playoffs should be a reward of an excellent season, and then the fans' excitement about the team's regular season performance will carry over to boost playoff attendance. Just being in it should feel exciting and a reward in and of itself. When a slightly above-average team is matched up against an average team for a supposedly BIG matchup, its understandable that there were tickets to spare for this one.
     
  22. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is quite possibly the stupidest post you've made on BS so far, which is saying something.
     
  23. xbhaskarx

    xbhaskarx Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Feb 13, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The hell? The Fire finished with more points than the Sounders. The Dynamo didn't lose a game at home all season. How did these teams not deserve to be in the playoffs?
    This was a play in game to get into the playoffs, the entire season down to one game... that should matter.
    Of course, there was short notice, it was on a weekday, the Bulls opener, Halloween, etc.
     
  24. jond

    jond Member+

    Sep 28, 2010
    Club:
    Levski Sofia
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I think people have made valid points, but if you take Halloween being an excuse, the Bulls opener being an excuse, only a few days to sell tickets as an excuse(and why not pre-sale as someone suggested?), then I question why this game was put on ESPN and the LAG game tonight is on NBCSN.

    If you buy into the excuses, then there should have been foresight of those same issues, and therefor put last nights poorly attended game on NBCSN instead of showcasing a half empty arena on ESPN, and put tonights game on ESPN instead. But instead, what wil be a better atmosphere tonight will be viewed on a channel which isn't in as many households as ESPN.

    I was scratching my head when I originally saw which one was on ESPN and which one was on NBCSN. Poor planning.
     
  25. nlsanand

    nlsanand Member+

    May 31, 2007
    Toronto
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    This has always been my point regarding conference based playoffs. Many posters (not you) often said that we need geographic rivals meeting each other in playoffs to increase the intensity. I just don't see it. Playoff games should be able to sell themselves. And if they don't sell, it's more a barometer of the market (not necessarily good or bad, but moreso how engaged the fans are).
     

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