Should Toronto FC have a General Admission Supporters Section?

But should TFC concentrate on winning to bring fans back first? If the can't win, the stadium won't be consistently filled even with the current size.

 

General admission seating? What could possibly go wrong with that idea?

 

The reality is that BMO Field already has a GA area.....buy a ticket anywhere in the stadium and grab a spot on the patio under the north stand.....first come first served.

 

I argue that all of BMO is general admission, except boxes and those crappy pitch seats. in the last two years I've yet to see my seats, I have no idea where they are.

 

God no. All we need is a bunch of unidentifiable tourists in the south end doing stupid shit.

 

We have an unofficial GA policy within the supporter sections already. Seems to work fine.

I guess I just don't see the problem with what's in place, or where there's any push for GA. Only people it would really benefit are section tourists.

 

Good God. That face. I won't be able to sleep tonight...

 

I have to think that the tim horton's cup was really something else that was photoshopped out.

 

What would the upside be?

 

Most successful stadium expansions are based on including a lot of these low cost/low amenity/low margin areas.

 

I agree with the low aspect, I just don't see why general admission for the supporters section offers any advantage over assigned seating for the supporters section.

 

my point is that stadium expansions cost money, big money, that has to be recovered. They are, in large part, funded by the future revenues that the new seats create....the more higher margin seats (boxes, clubs, premiums) that they can get in the more revenue.....the more that the new space is taken up by lower margin seating, the less likely an expansion is.

 

So....I don't see any advantage for the club to do this. As mentioned above, they make their revenue off of the high-end seats, not the supporters seats. The supporters seats are kind of an unwritten agreement - we'll give you cheap seats, you provide the atmosphere. So they'll likely expand the supporters section too, but it's not going to be a huge portion of it.

I also don't think that MLSE wants to deal with the headache of general admission seating. If there is any incident of violence, stuff being thrown on the field, etc., they want to be able to trace where it came from back to a seat owner.

Plus, I'm not sure what the upside is for the fans, either.

 

Right, and I don't see how GA seating accomplishes any of the things you list. So, my question still remains (for anyone on the pro-GA side of the discussion) what would the upside to GA seating be?

 

If you don't have season tickets, GA offers you the ability to walk up on the day of the game and buy a ticket showing up early enough to have the best seats in the GA section. Nice for people who often don't know until the day of whether they can attend or not. That being said, it's completely not worth the risk of people who buy GA tickets so they can anonymously make an ass of themselves.

 

I think you have it there....from what I understand, following the story very casually from afar, the people most in favour of a GA section are a combination of unaffiliated "supporter-type" fans and newly formed supporters groups and when those people are asked they seem to favour an entire south end supporters GA section. Somewhat counter-intuitively, from what I understand, the people most opposed to a GA section of that nature are the existing supporters groups (U-Sector/RedPatchBoys/etc) who see any move to a fully GA south end as a moving in of new supporters who weren't there on day 1 to support the club and now want the ability access the same prime areas that those groups have occupied.

On the outside is the vast majority of ticket buyers who would not be affected at all because they would continue, regardless, to buy reserved seats.

Any move by the club to create a full south end GA area would be met (I think) with great resistance from people who already own seats in the south end (whether they are members of RPB or Usector or not) so the only option for the club, if they were interested in a GA section, would be to allocate some portion of the newly built sections (maybe a second deck or upper rows of the south end) as a GA area but, again, how likely are they to get existing groups to move from their "historic" sections/areas (where, amongst themselves, they operate informal GA as it is) into those new GA areas? So that may create a "splintering" of support rather than a unification of support (which is often given as one of the advantages of a GA area).

Another option I have seen thrown around is the north stand. As the last part of the stadium built it has the lowest percentage of season ticket holders....so turning that into a GA area might result in the least displacement of existing ticketholders....that said, those seats are a bit more expensive than the south end and turning it into an area to satisfy the pro-GA constituency would likely require lowering the price......again creating less profit margin in existing seats is not a great way to finance, either, stadium rebuilds or player/squad acquisition...so I am not sure how probable that option is.

 

It improves the atmosphere for those who like that scrum and mingle type. But I don't think it applies to a lot of traditional NA fans.

I could see it happening in new sections only due to existing seat licenses.

A very large tailgating area would really be optimal for improving the experience, and you don't even have to worry about seats then. I know the team would be really hesitant about brought in food/drink cutting into their sales, but just charge a significant entry fee to compensate. It's more about the party than just trying to skimp on concessions. Large fenced off parking area for cars and buses. Get a tradition of supporters groups going in on bus purchases/rentals, and commuting together, and you cut the drunk driving risk too. Have stalls with electricity/gas hookups and go for the NFL experience.

It's just so outside the box for sports teams here to think about with their traditional models. I hope someone at MLSE can be forward thinking.

 

There are no seat licenses at BMO Field

Of course all that you would need is an amendment to Ontario liquor laws to permit the consumption of alcohol in a public space.