Pre/In/Post Game: Home Opener: Tampa Bay Rowdies vs Carolina Railhawks 4/6/13

Agreed and agreed.

 

I am ok with mixing it up with the green. At least the shade of green is better this season and they switched from gold to white lettering/numbers. Remember, these aren't THE Rowdies, they have changed their first choice kit each season.

I think it is kind of funny that this season's slogan is 'Forever Green and Gold' and this is the year they roll out a ridiculous black alternate. Guess they are forever green and gold, except when pandering to the Black For Black Sakes crowd.

 

Not a big fan of the black either. I thought the 3rd should have been yellow. Yellow like the keepers kit one season for the old rowdies. You guys know what I'm talking about right?

 

This green on the jersey is the best shade for the team since its inception or re-inception.

 

Gold would be fine. The green and gold hoops from season one is a nice third choice kit. Honestly though, we really don't need one.

 

Yes that kit. I remember seeing that on the rowdies website/blog that gentlemen runs on the history of the rowdies. When I saw a picture of it, I really dug it and thought if we were to ever have a 3rd that should be it.

A 3rd shirt really is to make $$$ and for the fans. I would prefer gold over black for a 3rd.

 

Then lose one star.

 

We let two points get away. Or did we? I'm still hoping to get a good look at the offside call that negated our goal in the first half. Seemed like a tough decision against us, but I'll wait until I see it to judge.

The Rowdies completely dominated this game and I want to be frustrated that we couldn't finish off the Railhawks, but I did like very much what I saw overall. They continued the form they showed during the entire second half against Orlando City last week. I think the goals will come. We haven't see the same starting 11 for two games in a row yet and the guys up top need time to gel.

Regarding attendance, I'm not buying the 4k figure either. I would say it looked alot like the typical 3k-ish crowd we have seen so often over the past two seasons.

I'll say it is disappointing and honestly this team needs to really consider staying in St. Pete.

OR, they could hire a couple more ticket reps and do a damn better job selling tickets?

There was a Rays home game today that started at 6 pm, I believe. That could have had an impact.

 

Situation................G...Total....Average
Rays Game 2011-2013......7...22,172...3,167
No Rays Game 2011-2012..23...71,712...3,118

This team is now 30-28-29 in its regular-season history.

4,232 is the largest non-July 4 home regular-season crowd in club history, and the 10th-largest crowd in reborn club history (including playoffs). It's the 4th-largest crowd in Al Lang FCTB/TBR history.

 

*It's the fourth largest announced tickets distributed in Al Lang FCTB/TBR history.

 

And very nice that you had this on freakin speed dial. I didn't really think the Rays had any effect. There isn't any significant overlap between fans of these two sports. I was just kind of hoping.

The Orlando game being the week before might have impacted tonight's numbers.

Or, am I supposed to be HAPPY with this and pretend everything is ok now?

 

Happy maybe, but I personally won't by satisfied until ALF is full. I am happy that this is the best attendance by far for a home opener since moving to St. Pete. I am happy that the club is promoting itself. But I won't be satisfied until ALF is sold out for home openers, Independence Day and other key matches. It seats 7k, give or take. That doesn't seem like an unreasonable goal.

The key is ticket sales staff. I think they are lacking in that department. The Storm average in the 10k range for Arena Football. The Rowdies have become much more visible in the media since late last season than the Storm have been in years. The key is the Storm has ticket sales people who know how to sell. It does help that if you go to a Bolts game they pimp the Storm, but I am not sure how much crossover there is between the two sports.

I have said it before, if this team is able to get to the 4k plateau this season and have nice crowds (6k) for a few important matches, then I think that is progress. I really didn't expect them to start a string of sellouts. Maybe the OCSC match canibalized last night's crowd a bit. If so, then maybe we would have hit five thousand or so.

They have two weeks until the next home game. If they can pull off another four thousand plus crowd, I would be pleased.

 

We both know THAT isn't happening.

 

He won't be happy until they move out of St Petersburg and average the same attendance somewhere in Tampa.

 

I could not believe how much we dominated in the game and we still drew.

 

I am starting to believe that it isn't ALF that's the problem. If we played in Tampa I feel our attendance woes would still remain. I really think so.

 

Whoa. Where did you get this? Did you compile this yourself Kenn?

 

http://www.kenn.com/the_blog/

Kenn does a great job with this stuff for the lower leagues (and MLS and women).

 

I see you aren't familiar with my work

I think they'd be better off on the Hillsborough side, but they would have to up their games anyway.

 

...at Al Lang, that should read.

 

Not at all, I am now. I've seen you post on uni-watch and then here. Cool deal. Where in AZ are you from? I was born in Yuma.

 

Setting aside the fact that they don't have an adequate facility to move to in Tampa, if this team did exactly what they are doing now in Tampa attendance wouldn't change much at all.

I agree with your conclusion and I am pleased that some others are starting to come around to my thinking. The only choices they have is ALF (where they have choice dates), Raymond James (expensive and way too big), GSF (been there done that), Corbett Stadium (where they would need to add bleachers). With that group of choices, give me ALF and freaking sell it out and get the city to help convert it to a real soccer stadium.

I notice that the Strikers are talking stadium, would be nice if the Rowdies at least could come up with a long term goal/plan for their own yard. Either side of the bay would be fine. No vision for the future really with this group.

 

At the end of the day, your own actual soccer stadium is a must.

Unfortunately, they are easier to talk about then to actually pull off.