Yeah, because before I flew to Chicago, I looked to see where I was to catch the bus at Midway, how much it would cost, where it would drop me off, where the section 8 tailgate was going to be, where the away section was located, where I'd have to catch the bus and when the last bus leaves. Simple planning really. (And I don't have a smart phone, so I HAVE to make sure I know what I need to know beforehand.) The second time I flew in early enough in the day to go to downtown first and walk along the lake to the zoo, then walk to Wrigley Field then take the train back out to Midway. I could do that because I planned ahead and knew well enough where the train line ran. If you can't find a line of buses that are parked in a predetermined location in a stadium parking lot, then there's no helping you.
I guess that's me then! I will say (in my own helpless defense): 1) I did have no trouble getting the bus to the stadium at midway....it is a fairly typical end of the line station with bus bays attached. 2) I did have a general idea where i was going after the game (SE corner of parking lot) but as I asked attendants for conformation ("bus over here?") i was continually and consecutively pointed in a direction that took me off the grounds before I could do anything about it. 3) I have spent the last 25 years or so as a bit of a sports tourist and in the 40 or so sports trips over that time....Toyota Park is the first place this has ever happened to me....so maybe its not just me ....or is it?
You realize you're just coming across as an asshole, right? Also, none of this takes away from the fact that the public transit to Toyota Park is miserably bad. I live 13 miles away and it takes me almost 90 minutes to get there. I live 20 miles from O'Hare, and it takes less than an hour. For someone who lives on the north side (Lincoln Park, Old Town, other young professional areas), going to Toyota Park is an enormous chore.
And you come across as someone who is clueless and can't make up their mind what their complaint is. Perhaps instead of saying, you said, what you said would make more sense. Finding the bus in the parking lot is the least of your worries and isn't what is stopping you from doing it again.
Taking this back to the question of season ticket holders and attendance, the fact is that the Fire will be where they are for many years to come. So, what can they and the city do to maximize their potential? -Is the population of southern and inland(?) Chicago increasing? can the team count on a larger local base for fans in the next few years? -Is there any change in the experience of coming by car? reduction in congestion, carpooling, alternative routes to the stadium? New roads? reserved bus and carpool lanes? -Any changes in public transit to simplify, or speed up the journey to the stadium? -any steps the team can take unilaterally to fix the above? For example, the issue over where the shuttles are after games, and the ease or difficulty of using them. Given the massive open space around the stadium, it's literally a blank canvas. The team has the ability to improve the experience, if it has not done so already. They are building a practice facility north of the city right? Can they use that as a beachhead to attract new fans? These are all questions I hope the team is asking or working on internally, and fans should push them to make sure.
There are actually multiple types of buses. There are group buses that sometimes come to matches. There are the Pace buses to Midway. And there are the Pub to Pitch buses from bars in the city. They are $10, operated by the club and you can find that information on their website. This might have led to the confusion, when I used to take the CTA to every match I was often making friends through the directions I would have to provide in order to help people on their way to and from the match. But 1.5-2 hr commutes got old, & now I take the Pub to Pitch buses, which when they leave on time lead to a lot more tailgate fun time. Not really, but there are large and growing middle eastern and spanish speaking minorities in these communities, so demographics are going in the right direction should the Fire show that they are worth following on par with the teams these soccer fans already support. They finished a grade separated crossing of a railroad line just to the west, which has improved options too and from the park compared to last year. There is a transportation center being built in the stadium parking lot, which should make it a lot clearer, and more comfortable to take the shuttles from Toyota Park. If there wasn't a transfer that had to be made downtown, it might speed up trips, but city folk are used to having their teams right in the thick of it, front & center, or at least in the center of a neighborhood. So, rerouting of Orange Line trains onto the Red Line through the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city is not only highly unlikely due to operational and physical constraints, but it would probably have a negligible effect on the amount of people taking the CTA out to catch the shuttle. They have already done some through internalizing the operations of the Pub to Pitch buses which were first developed by the Independent Supporters Association known as Section 8. Which has made management more seamless with game day operations. IMHO there are only three things the Fire can do to raise attendance: in order of how likely they are to happen. 1. Build amenities around the stadium in conjunction with Bridgeview and the new transportation center. Turning parking lots into usable properties on non-game days could reduce the towns financial woes, as well as provide a generator of activity leading up to and winding down from the game. Whether those are shopping options like a Sports Authority, or entertainment options like a sports bar with a heavy soccer bent, it could make the stadium a year round destination and make a trip out to Bridgeview more than watching a team tie. repeatedly. sigh. Which brings me to 2. start playing like a big market team. Start spending on players that are both respected within the local soccer community, and proven internationally. More Mike Magees less Sherjil McDonalds. If this was sustained in a way that drew the attention of Chicago's serious latino soccer community, then I could see Sector Latino taking over all of Section 101 & 102, and our attendance being ~ 17k (which we hit fairly regularly later in the season) at the beginning of the year growing to sell outs by mid season. 3. Propose a mixed use stadium retail and residential project for the former Rezko site at Roosevelt and the Chicago River. Win the request for proposals that the city is currently soliciting, and build a new stadium 4 blocks from the Roosevelt station on the Red, Orange, and Green lines. Build the field at ground level, with the mezzanine level at the same height as Roosevelt Rd. Build parking in structured garages up to the height of this mezzanine creating a deck on which retail aimed around this new entertainment destination, and apartments above making good use of the spectacular views of the skyline from this angle. Wrap the facades of the garages in town homes oriented towards the river, with additional single family retail along this ground level oriented along the long proposed Wentworth connector between downtown and Chinatown. This facility is a long investment towards building the kind of fan base that they will have a decade from now. This development will have a Giordano's deep dish pizza restaurant connected to a Chicago Fire soccer bar looking out over practice fields. It will function as one of the departure points for the Pub to Pitch program, it will introduce pizza fans to the team, it will connect youth teams and their families directly to the club. It might not be a sea change, but it is a great investment, made with long term goals in mind. Which is the opposite of how we got Toyota Park, they might be learning to take their time, do it the right way, & don't just take the first deal on the table. I know this is a long post, but there were a lot of Chicago questions asked and ArsenalMetro merely voiced the overwhelming feedback that everyone gives the team on the yearly satisfaction survey. For a region teaming with transit options, Toyota Park is about as disconnected as you could possibly site a stadium.
I almost got caught there after dark with a bag of camera gear. The USWNT played Germany on a Sunday in October, 2012. The crowd of 20k had long since dispersed (I work on photos for 60-90 minutes after most games). I had flown into O'Hare, then trained to downtown, had lunch, then trained out to Midway where I caught a cab to the stadium. My hotel was downtown. Fortunately, three of the USSF execs took pity on me and gave me a ride into town. I was not looking foward to wandering the streets of Bridgeview on a Sunday night with my camera bag looking for a cab.
http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/pro-sports/season-ticket-pledges-sharp-for-atlantas-mls-team/nfhpP/ As of Friday, 3,175 people have joined the Founder’s Club, a group composed of the team’s first 5,000 supporters. Those members have pledged to purchase 9,092 season tickets.
Seems pretty solid for a team that does not play for 3 years, in a "terrible sports town". It had only been a week and a half since the announcement.
Forgot about this thread. Can one not have multiple complaints about the situation involving public transit at Toyota Park? Sheesh. You aren't my editor. This is 5ish blocks from my apartment, and it needs to happen. It won't, but it would be incredible.
Complain all you want, but be prepared to be called on your bullshit. It is dishonest to state that you do not plan to take the bus because finding the buses after the game is difficult. You now (and presumably prior to this discussion) know where the buses are located, so it should no longer be a difficult task, provided you have the mental capabilities to recall memories. (Based on your first sentence in the above quote, I don't want to make the assumption.) Your second complaint about having a long public transit commute is a legitimate reason for not taking public transit.
If this team had any sway in this city, a stadium would be the crown Jewel in the recently proposed Wentworth Connector/Riverside redevelopment push. But they don't, it won't, & we'll just have to make due with what we got. Also, sedlie, cool your jets. Driving through the never ending traffic jam that is Harlem avenue makes the alternative of driving not appealing to a city full of people who are used to public transit getting them too and from where they need to go. As much as we complain about the transit system we've got, it's easily one of the 5 best in the country, and if we were at a station served by three lines, the Fire would have the most transit accessible stadium in not just MLS, but the durn city of Chicago. No other team has a subway and elevated station within 1000ft of their door serving 3 lines reaching to the far reaches of the North, South and West sides of the city.
NYCFC has yet to reach 3,000 deposits, which is very much a concern here. People are very aware of Atlanta's numbers.
This is directly from the source. The best public confirmation I can give you is this: https://www.facebook.com/newyorkcityfc/posts/276683312505132 A new post from Monday advertising the still-available opportunity to be a Founding Member, which stops after 3,000 deposits.
And you joined BigSoccer and came straight to this forum because??? You realize your "big leaks" will be seen by about 20 people. Right? I'd stick to twitter if I were you.
I thought the "first 3K" was about individuals who could and in most cases would be putting a deposit on and likely purchasing multiple tickets? Word from a ticket rep a week or so ago seemed to indicate they were approaching 10K season ticket deposits? In the last few days however there seems to have been some less optimistic "feelings???" coming from the internet? The team should just clarify by announcing the current number like Blank did.
There is a difference between "3,000 accounts" and "3,000 tickets". I'm not sure how NYCFC's deposits are working with regards to a person having to put down a deposit for each ticket they order, or if they can put down one deposit and say they will take 5 tickets, but the link you provided is that Founding Members is for the first 3,000 accounts, not tickets. This means that if a person puts down a deposit, or deposits, for 5 tickets, they would only count as 1 account. I also think it is safe to assume that very few of the 3,000 accounts that will be part of the Founding Members group are only for 1 ticket, but that the average is greater than 2. So, just because they are posting links about the 3,000 Founding Members, it doesn't mean they aren't rocking it hard in the actual number of season tickets they have deposits on.
And, frankly, a lot of the early accounts will be corporate buys which are usually blocks of tickets. I would actually be rather shocked if 3,000 accounts at NYCFC didn't add up to 10,000 seats. How many season tickets does RBNY have? Cosmos? Not only that, as long as NYCFC has been around, Atlanta started selling tickets first. Until we actually get closer to next March and start getting a feel for what seats are available for the second, third, fourth home game and so on, I doubt we'll really know just how big or bust NYCFC will be in 2015 in the stands.
I don't understand what the point of this post is. Are you attempting to call Andy out for...something? I feel like there is a less passive-aggressive way to do that than your post if that is the case. Although, AndyMead, I'm curious who you think NYCFC Employee is on twitter. Or maybe you are advising him to remain or get on twitter?
Mostly just advice that if he really wants to leak news (sig: Leaks from the dark side of the Blue Moon.) from inside NYCFC, his/her audience would be orders of magnitude larger pretty much anywhere but here. Let's be honest. Ten years ago this was a hopping place, now it's mostly an old-timers home where yell at kids to get off the lawn. EDIT: stoopid typos
Sure, both Reddit and Twitter are much more active, but i'm a sucker for the old school forum format. Which is why I do all 3. pretty simple.
Twitter is a adequate platform to get news and trends.. but is a HORRIBLE space to get analysis, conversation and meaningful Interaction. Big Soccer's format is not perfect, but it fills my desires perfectly.