I was just browsing through Kenn Tomasch's PDL attendance stats for last season, and comparing them to their English counterparts from the 2008/09 season. - Des Moines Menace (3,552 average attendance, best in the PDL) is comparable to Rotherham United (3,531, League 2). - Fresno Fuego (2,443 average attendance, 3rd in the PDL) is comparable to Darlington (2,932, Conference). - Ventura County Fusion (873 average, not in the top 10) is comparable to Newport County (853, Conference) - Thunder Bay Chill (794 average, not even in the top 10) is comparable to Northwich Victoria (787, Conference) - My team, Hollywood United, had an average attendance of 145, which would have put them around 350th in the English hierarchy - on a par with such worthy teams as Selsey, Croydon Athletic and Bridlington Town. - Westchester Flames (80 average, traditionally one of the lowest in the PDL) is comparable to Colne in the North West Counties League (Level 9) - and still has a bigger crowd than 469 of the 1,011 teams with reported attendances in the English pyramid. Not sure what any of this means. Just thought it was kind of interesting.
Fresno is drawing 5,983 on average after their first two home games. If that holds up, the Blues' ownership needs to be courting them heavily to make the jump to USL-Pro. Ventura County (1,166) and Victoria (1,027) might not be bad targets either.
Per Kenn's blog, Fresno have a sponsor who's picking up the tab for free admission for this season. Not surprising attendance has jumped, but it conditions fans to expect something for nothing. When they charging for admission again, attendance will drop. The question is whether it drops back to its original level or not, and if not, whether attendance keeps going down below that starting point.
Tickets were $6 or $7 last year, so when you factor in the amount of money it takes to sell tickets (box office staff) + keep the cash safe + credit card fees etc, I wouldnt be surprised if theyre making more money this year. 2x the attendance may mean 2x the concession sales. It also means the advertising partners get more exposure, so the ad space is worth more. Note that the team is highly commercialized. Multiple jersey ads, bimbo bear running around, univision ads everywhere + advertising booths. Might be something other PDL teams could look into. It's a huge shame the team didnt make the US Open cup because of shoddy tiebreakers (they didnt play Ventura). 5,000 fans would put them near the top of tournament attendance (assuming they could host).
Puget Sound PDL clubs still looking for bigger crowds Seattle Sounders FC are breaking all Major League Soccer records for attendance. There is more buzz about the sport at every level in Washington than ever before. It isn’t translating to the size of crowds for the Pumas, Tide, SeaWolves and Crossfire, though.
