Attendance: Where the heck is everyone?

[alco_soccerstar]

I can understand zero attendance in NY and KC, but we have a big stadium too and have always gotten good attendance. On Thursday we had ~12,000. Today we had 14,267. Is it simply due to us sucking this year? I know the supporters groups keep getting more and more season ticket holders and members. I mean today's attendance is alright, but we usually have at least 16-18,000. Maybe I am off my rocker, but why would attendance be down at RFK?

[RoundBallNewbie]

Early season.

Sunday.

Recent peformance of ass-like quality.

[kirchhausen]

Freddy's gone, maybe some of the fringe with him?

Plus what roundballnewbie said.

[United1]

No way we'll pack them in on a Thursday (until Beckham comes to town). Same goes for a Sunday...I didn't think 14K+ was all that bad.

Not sure what they'll call NE's attendance today but I would guess no more than 10K.

[Mountainia]

My friend and his son couldn't go, and I met a woman at a Chipotle after the game who said she and her kid couldn't go ... both because of kid's soccer games.

But, all four are season ticket holders, so I wonder if they were counted in that 14K.

[T Nitty]

I was there. It felt like a nice crowd for a Sunday match. When you have 2 matches in a week, some folks have to choose one or the other. Maybe with the win, we'll get the fairweather fans out there.

Yes, I think a small part of it may have to do with the Freddy factor, but I'm kinda glad that's over with.

[alco_soccerstar]

Pft, forget Freddy. I just want attendance to get up again. I love a good atmosphere at the games. I mean yeah we(SE and BB) are rockin' the house, but I have been seeing too much orange so far this season. I can't wait for Becks to come to town for two reasons. Other than Benny O, he is my favorite player. Every proir attempt to see him has failed, like when ManU came to play Barca in Philly. Yeah, he got sold like 2 weeks before. I had friggin 4th row seats to that game. The other reason is to see RFK sold out. I have never seen it since I began watching United around 00, 01.

[United1]

No chance we sell out for Beckham.

And F him!!!!!!!!!!

:D

[sch2383]

Attendance is normally lacking while the youth soccer season is going on. I'm annoyed, but not overly concerned.

[McLean FC]

2 games in 4 days, it probably cut the walk up sales in half for each game. people wanting to see a game this weekend had a choice between 2 games.

[traversunitedfan]

dc has the fan base, we just for some reason cannot get them to the game. rfk sold out with the dc united is an amazing atmosphere (mls cup 97) . Supporter groups have packed in all this year, we need the average soccer fan to show up now.

[Jimbo]

For anybody with kids playing travel in NCSL, Sunday afternoon is right in the middle of games so a big block of soccer fanatics are on their kids' sidelines instead of at RFK.

[alco_soccerstar]

Exactly. Where is soccer mom and dad at with their kid? Or even someone who likes to watch games often, but isn't a season ticket holder?

[NicktheGreek]

It was on TV for free!!!!! Half the Chivas fans haven't sobered up yet after yesterday's Cinco de Mayo festivities (I mean that in a good heavy partying way).

[RoundBallNewbie]

Exactly. Where is soccer mom and dad at with their kid? Or even someone who likes to watch games often, but isn't a season ticket holder?

Parents have a wierd school night mentality about Sunday. You see this at baseball games all the time: the father-son/family ratio usually drops noticeably on Sundays regardless of start time. That and "Sunday is church and quality time" syndrome.

I personally say screw it. Atmosphere is what matters much more than attendance (and also what brings in the better, louder new fans instead of Bob and Sally and the twins), and it wasn't lacking on Thursday or today.

[DC Braveheart]

Well I had to coach this afternoon and my assistant missed too. These early Sunday games stink - they conflict with tons of youth travel soccer games:mad:

[Winoman]

The Winoman family never made a Sunday game while Winoson #2 was playing travel. Like DC Braveheart said, all the travel games are on Sunday AM or Sunday (early) PM. It sucks, but it is a fact of life, around here.

[BigKris]

I'm with the DC Fire Marshall on this one... I think folks are being scared away from the games by fear of being burned to death by smoke bombs.









:D

[GoDC]

I think people are staying away because they can't get jerseys or autographs from the opposing team.

[EdsonArantes]

14k showed up, and it looked great on TV (the full side). So I think the atmosphere was there at least on one side...I was at the Thurs game and I thought the atmosphere was good too. If people are just talking about attendance numbers, if we had 2k more today, for a total of 16k, nobody would be asking about the attendance, but I don't know how much different it would have looked, as those people would have been dispersed around the stadium, or if the atmosphere would have been that much better.

Bottom line, decent attendance for both games, good ambiance (we still put all other teams fans to shame), and it will increase as the season goes on.