[Mstars96]

We are getting more stadiums by the year but they are mostly small stadiums, TFC made a mistake by making it a 20K stadium, Philly will only be an 18.5K, if SJ ever gets one it will be 15K, talk about a mini stadium not worth of professional status in this country,etc... anyway are those stadium design with the possibility to be made larger? I can't see RB arena made bigger with the four side and roof, Home Dept center either unless you add a few seats where the grass is.
I'm talking if the league keeps growing at this pace maybe 10 years from now those stadiums will be and hopefully too small, although Columbus had to be made smaller.
Hope we have that problem.

[ECUNCHATER]

It's a wise move to keep them small since it is a niche sport.

[UNION S.C.]

The point of smaller spaces is to increase demand for one. TFC would not have the season tickets holders it currently has if it played in a bigger stadium.

Only L.A., Toronto, and Seattle have consistent attendance. So lets not get aead of ourselves.

Chicago, RSL, only sold out 1 game each all this regular season meaning their were empty seats available to be purchased., but they did have nice attendance.

I think 20-22k is perfect. Look at D.C.U. Decent crowds in a big stadium and it looks terrible on t.v.

[Mr. Warmth]

Originally Posted by Mstars96

I can't see RB arena made bigger with the four side and roof,

Really?

All you need is money

[SeaM]

Originally Posted by UNION S.C.

Only L.A., Toronto, and Seattle have consistent attendance. So lets not get aead of ourselves.

Even calling LA "consistent" is getting ahead of ourselves. Their attendance was off 20% this year. And Seattle's only had one season.

[Roehl Sybing]

Originally Posted by ECUNCHATER

It's a wise move to keep them small since it is a niche sport.

Originally Posted by UNION S.C.

The point of smaller spaces is to increase demand for one. TFC would not have the season tickets holders it currently has if it played in a bigger stadium.

Only L.A., Toronto, and Seattle have consistent attendance. So lets not get aead of ourselves.

Chicago, RSL, only sold out 1 game each all this regular season meaning their were empty seats available to be purchased., but they did have nice attendance.

I think 20-22k is perfect. Look at D.C.U. Decent crowds in a big stadium and it looks terrible on t.v.

You guys are tragically missing the point.

The question is whether or not SSS in the league CAN be made bigger. Even the OP put out a timeframe for such expansion of 10 years from now, not now.

So get off the soapboxes and read the post, alright?

[arkjayback]

Originally Posted by Roehl Sybing

You guys are tragically missing the point.

The question is whether or not SSS in the league CAN be made bigger. Even the OP put out a timeframe for such expansion of 10 years from now, not now.

So get off the soapboxes and read the post, alright?

Regardless, you don't build a stadium for what it might be in 10 years. You build it for what will be best for your team NOW.

Most of these stadiums would be able to expand. I mean, if LA really thinks that they could start getting 35,000 people on average, they'd find a way to add more seats. The only stadium that could have trouble expanding is Red Bull Arena.

San Jose has absolutely no need for more than 15,000 seats. Philly doesn't need more than 18,500. Toronto has been the golden standard for creating demand. Seattle followed suit by only opening up a certain amount of seats. They probably could have gone higher, but they created more demand by restricting it.

[arkjayback]

Originally Posted by ECUNCHATER

It's a wise move to keep them small since it is a niche sport.

Dumb statement. For one, if you're talking about the sport of soccer being a niche sport, that's definitely wrong. All it takes is the right occasion or right teams to make attendance spike.

Secondly, MLS is too strong financially to be a niche league anymore. All of the actual niche leagues are having trouble surviving: AFL, WNBA, AAFL, etc. With the money that SUM makes, the pure profitability of a few of the teams, and the enormous expansion fees that new teams pay, there is nothing "niche" about the economic strength of the league.

[Calexico77]

Any stadium can be made bigger, although Red Bull does probably present the hardest.

Without having access to their blueprints, BMO and PHP could easily add a 10k without much of a hiccup. DSG, Phili, Rio Tinto would be maybe one step up in terms of difficulty, with Toyota being not too far about that.

I look around the HDC all the time to see what could be one. First thing would be to add and upper deck of seats to all of the corners - that's not even changing the grass berm. That would probably get you an extra 5k.

The problem, IIRC, with the HDC, is the terms of their lease, and the zoning of that neighborhood. I don't think that the current rules allow them to have over 28k in attendance. that's why, for games like a major friendly, or like Beckham's first game, there were clearly more than 28k in the stadium, but attendance was still announced at 28k.

[BacteriaEP]

Originally Posted by SeaM

Even calling LA "consistent" is getting ahead of ourselves. Their attendance was off 20% this year. And Seattle's only had one season.

That's not really a fair assessment. Last year Beckham was make huge strides for the Galaxy's attendance numbers, this year it has cooled off a bit with him being gone for half the year.

2008 was a fluke attendance setting for the Galaxy and those "20% off" figures don't really account for that. I'd be more interested in seeing what the comparison between 2007 and 2009 are because it would be a more realistic representation of how the club's numbers are.

LA's numbers were largely consistent this year, however, averaging more than Toronto and usually getting at or around the 20,000 mark.