Pre-match: RailHawks v. Puerto Rico Islanders (4/9)

Yes...but Groupon has to make their money as well and I expect them to get about half of that.

I think these sites get somewhere between 10-20%, not 50%. But what's important is the number of butts in the seats, IMO.

Yeah, this. Since we don't sell out most sections, let alone the stadium, every additional attendee is added value unless it comes in a form that dilutes the brand. (It's often discussed in the industry that getting extra buts in seats via comp tickets is not a winning strategy, for example.) Besides, every new fan created by the Groupon deal is a potential customer at full price later on.

not trying to make an argument out of it but it is common knowledge that groupon makes 40%-50% of the revenue. they are not looking to make only $1K-$2K off of each offer.

www.inc.com/magazine/20100401/how-to-use-groupon-to-boost-sales.html

Whatever. Point taken. When I noted the gross amount made from the deal, I was not implying the total amount was going into the Railhawks' coffers. (Perhaps I should've avoided it all together.) The point is that social networking, in this context, can be a useful tool for getting butts in the seats. That's all.

At this point in the league's life cycle, increasing attendance is vital. So what if these social networking sites take a cut? It's part of the cost of doing business. Teams need to get as many folks out to the games as possible. Then they need to work on retention (of those folks) as well as adding new fans to the mix.

i wasn't arguing whether or not the deal for the railhawks was good or not. i was just stating that they were not getting as much money. i thought it was great. they gained much more out of the marketing of the team via this offer.

Heading out for the game in a bit. Pumped up! I was told that they have sold a record number of mini plans and are ahead on season ticket sales. Should be a good turnout tonight. Perfect weather for some fast paced attacking footie. The pitch looked gorgeous yesterday and should be just about purrrfect tonight.

Let's cut the Islanders down to size.

Come on Railhawks!

Uggh. I stay up until 1 AM to see the game, get 9 minutes of crappy feed and then a lightning delay. Oh well. Hope you guys have a good time and the Railhawks get a result. I'm going to bed.

LOL a bit different seeing Curt Johnson on at halftime with a tie and sweater compared to Wellman's v-neck t-shirts

Johnny Steele in a RailHawks shirt, a bad tackle, some pushing and shoving, and a red card. It's like he never left.

Wow. Epic letdown in injury time gives PR the win.

Penalty was soft, red was stupid, we were poor. Did not deserve a point here. But that still really sucks.

Damn fog. That was a letdown.

Good game, guys.

I didn't think we were poor. It just looks like the guys are still getting to know one another. The defense, especially toward the end, looked a little suspect. It's still "early days."

Yeah, "still getting to know one another" is a perfectly good reason for not being very good tonight. I wasn't really expecting us to come out and beat the defending champs with a brand new squad.

I did like the fight back in the 2nd half but even still, our penalty was extremely soft and I don't think we had a decent chance on goal before the shot that eventually led to the penalty.

Neither side was very good to be honest, but again, there were perfectly good reasons for it. Hard to critique tactics and new players when you're playing on a slip-and-slide. With that said, I think Franks was the definite man of the match for us. Good to see Barbara come in and make a difference too.

And Dean was absolutely killing Campos in that first half. Can't say he didn't deserve it either.

I thought Campos was a little too casual for my liking, especially in the first half. Nice skill, but not much urgency in his play. And Rusin's absence was glaring.

Also, given the weather they should've taken more speculative shots. The conditions were perfect for garbage goals.

anybody got an attendance number for this game? i found the other 3 NASL games reported attendance but nothing for this game. any link to an official number would be great, thanks.

Indeed, there's a reason I was regularly shouting at him in Portuguese to hurry the hell up and move quickly like a forward should. Barbara should have come on sooner, but with the proper three-sub rule in place it's hard to do that.

I'd say Campos has shown himself to very much deserve a spot on the roster of a club at this level, but not as a starter. The tricky thing about Barbara, though, is that he has a lot of trouble giving it the full 90. What we really need is Gregory Richardson or somebody very much like him.

Haven't seen one yet.

Stands were pretty empty by the eleventh minute because of the lightning, and even at kickoff it was a rainy evening opposite what turns out to have been a do-or-die match for the Hurricanes, so not what I would have hoped for for a home opener. I'm looking forward to hearing both the number of tickets scanned and the number sold, though.

Campos was ok. Not as fast or skillful as Tim was but ok. Let's give him a few more games. It was an epic letdown. I thought we fought real hard in the second half to get the Pk and goal. Should have scored a couple more but could not get the shots in.

IMO, the second goal was damn soft. The GK should have come out to get the ball. It was low and did not have too much pace to it. Also it was about 5 yards from the goal. Should have been an easy collection for the GK. Instead, he decided to stand and scream "away". Perplexing to say the least.

I thought Matt Watson was absolutely clutch throughout the game. High marks to both Kupono and Devon but the CBs looked a bit shaky. And Johnny Steele....what can I say. It was like the good old days of Scott Sweitzer. Flashbacks of 2007 all over again. Minimum 1 fight and 1 red card guaranteed per game. Welcome back Jonny! We love ya but keep a cooler head next time.

Props to TSF for a great tailgate featuring the Hooters girls . I wish the weather was a bit better. I was drenched when I got home.

The team's still finding itself, so yeah, but I wasn't impressed with him. Just didn't see much hustle, which is important in a forward.

I was pretty impressed with how the team played given that it only had ten guys for most of the half.

Agreed, although I also think PR deserves props for making beautiful use of what we gave them. It didn't look like all that easy a goal even with Knighton's error.

Agreed.

Next time, I'd rather see us play like we're down a man without anybody having to get ejected. If eleven RailHawks had played the second half like ten actually did, that game could easily have gone the other way.

And props to my fellow homebrewers on the fact that not one of the beers I had was disappointing - and that's even having tasted one in a style I normally find unappealing.

Yeah, same.

Any word on the attendance ?

Either an official count or an experienced estimate would be nice.

It is understood that weather was a factor but for the record ...

2016 is the only number I've seen.

http://twitter.com/#!/SWakeSports/status/56922615796867072