Pittsburgh has begun moving earth, though, so the high school field era is coming to a close there. What happened in Orlando? Two games in three days or did it rain or what?
Oh, I forgot they had Stoke. That's why I had the Charleston game as originally scheduled for tonight. Gotcha.
I don't know if it occured to them, or in any way crossed their mind, to either move the Stoke friendly up to the 21st or move our second Charleston home match to the 21st after Forest canceled. Also, it does look odd that we drew more for Wednesday than for Friday, but on Wednesday we also had a fairly large group of SeaWorld employees. BTW: We drew 10441 to the Stoke match. About on par with the Newcastle friendly last year, which drew just under 11k. It was really buzzing. I hope the day comes when we get that kind of crowd for the regular season. @ Harrisburg: 1851 (excellent work) @ Richmond: ???? (not on report yet)
Division 3 Code: 79.5% complete Year Avg Median %<1K %>3k 2005 1636 1410 22.5% 11.3% 2006 1780 1566 15.5% 14.1% 2007 1547 1382 30.4% 6.3% 2008 1560 1592 26.6% 6.3% 2009 1553 1455 31.0% 4.2% 2010 1648 1373 38.3% 17.0% 2011 2229 1424 31.6% 29.8% 2012 2680 1641 32.4% 38.1% Median-33%: 1094 Median+33%: 2188 <MED-33%: 41 / 39.0% >MED+33%: 47 / 44.8% Code: Final Numbers Year Avg Median %<1K %>3k 2005 1680 1457 21.4% 11.9% 2006 1803 1703 14.1% 11.8% 2007 1575 1423 28.1% 6.3% 2008 1614 1629 26.0% 7.3% 2009 1602 1518 31.8% 7.1% 2010 1689 1385 35.1% 17.5% 2011 2269 1449 32.4% 31.0% Good numbers this week if you look at the league-wide average, but not so good when you look at the teams against how they've been doing. But, as mentioned above, Orlando City had three games in one week, the last one against Stoke City. A drag to see their numbers pulled down, but they're still solidly ahead of last season and ahead of Rochester, so, really, what's to complain about? Next week: Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Richmond, Charleston, Rochester, Charlotte, and Wilmington. The Charlotte - Wilmington game that wasn't played still hasn't been rescheduled as far as I know, but I haven't looked that hard. I wonder if they're waiting to see if it matters to the playoff standings. Just three weeks left!
They're going to have to play it, and having looked at it, the most reasonable solution is a home-and-home back-to-back the last weekend of the season, when they're already playing each other on the Saturday and neither has a Friday game.
Our numbers were depressed late in the season last year, too. The point is, year-over-year it's an improvement, and that's what you look for. It certainly did better than match dates 10 and 11 last season, that's for sure. We need to draw 4,836 for our season finale (8/17 v. Dayton) to maintain a 1,000/match increase in regular season average.
Is that right? I have your current average as 6392, and last year you finished at 5415. To get 1000 higher than that, you'll need to draw around 6700 for your last game, right? Or have I lost my math skills? ...or misentered some numbers?
I had 5,265 for last year's average. To get to 6,265 for 2012, they'd have to draw 75,180 for the season. I have them at 70,344 so far. Or 4,836 away from the target. An extra 1,000 a game would be a 19% increase year-over-year for them.
I just double-checked my numbers against a document that you sent me April 24 and my numbers match the ones in there. And I believe your source was pretty reliable.
I'd like to see that document, because I'm the one that updates the Wikipedia articles for City (I get my numbers from USL's match reports).
Wow, I gotta go back in and re-do my 2011 numbers. I've got lots of differences now. Oy. You're right, that rescheduled match SOMEBODY transposed numbers. These are what I believe Orlando for 2011 SHOULD be (or is, according to the authorities): 7,933 7,279 5,876 4,517 4,241 5,943 6,923 4,594 4,758 3,121 5,251 4,549
I found a source for the number y'all have: http://www.charlestonbattery.com/matches_report.asp?mid=369 Just for confirmation that there was, at one time, a source for that number, even if it's not on the USL or Orlando websites anywhere.
I'm surprised we don't have a number from Harrisburg yet. Didn't look like they had particularly bad attendance.
I'm not, really. Their communications piece has been a struggle for a while. Maybe ERic will work his magic again. EDIT: Actually, the game story says 1,500-plus fans. So somebody knows the number.
Yeah, I'm starting to get the impression that some of the interns around the country have not been taught about websites, and only think in terms of facebook and twitter.
For this year in particular, that's good for a Wednesday. That's about where I thought they were, I definitely thought they were over 1k.
Hershey (just up the road) used to do significantly better than that (though they folded and the Isles have not). I wonder how much City Island is a problem. Their baseball team is 8th in the Eastern League in average attendance at 4,001 a game.
I know about Hershey's successes. I think someone once mentioned some bad blood there for some reason.
Bad blood where? The Islanders (obviously) didn't exist when the Wildcats did. Or do you mean between the baseball team and the soccer team?
I think several things account for the City Islanders' attendance issues vs. the solid numbers posted by the neighboring Senators in baseball. One, if you compare facilities, it's not even close. Skyline Sports Complex is rickety with poor amenities. Metro Bank Park is newly refurbished with top notch amenities and clean, comfortable seating. If a casual sports fan wants a night out, the Senators offer more food options in a better stadium. I don't know how well Hershey drew, but also keep in mind that this is central Pennsylvania. Football reigns supreme and baseball is very popular. There are soccer fans and some great soccer youth teams, but the population as a whole is not one that fully embraces soccer. Also, the Senators are partnered with the Nationals and lots of dynamic young players receiving national press have played in Harrisburg the past few seasons (like Strasburg and Harper). The City Islanders receive Greg Jordan and Jimmy McLaughlin on loan from the Philly Union, nobody the casual fan has ever heard of. I think the perception of talent in their respective sports, plus the knowledge of the fan base in general (I often overhear people at City Islanders games who have no clue about soccer or the USL) further accounts for the gap in fan suport locally. Finally, take a look at an old blog entry I wrote based on Soccernomics: http://thesportsburger.com/2012/01/...the-usl-pro-city-sizes-and-soccer-prizes.aspx In this, I compared the size of each USL-PRO market and their income level. Based on last year's teams, Harrisburg was the smallest market in terms of population and second-poorest market in terms of per capita income. It's tough to overcome those numbers, even with the solid squad that's taken the field the past two years. As a city, Harrisburg is completely bankrupt and I just don't see those numbers improving much unless Skyline gets a massive overhaul. Even friendlies and Open Cup matches against MLS teams draw fewer than 2K, so I think there's a ceiling for attendance. The sports market is saturated, and the economy is hurting. Add that to the fact that a very popular team plays next door, and the City Islanders are a tough sell.
I mean between Hershey and soccer in general. I thought someone mentioned during the discussions after the flooding of City Island some sort of shenannigans that happened when Hershey had a team. Anyway, Friday: @ Charleston: 3557 @ Richmond: 1907 @ Rochester: 6383