Agreed, no way they succeed behind all those other teams at the Blue Cross. The Saint Louis Ambush actually play at the suburban Family Arena in St. Charles, MO. It is about 30 minutes from downtown St. Louis. Despite fielding below-average to just-awful teams since returning in 2013, the team has drawn decent crowds for the most part. My advice to Sam is market the team not only in Rochester but focus heavily in the vicinity of the suburban arena. Use direct mail marketing, radio (he already does his show but buy radio ads also), Groupon, billboards, newspaper ads/inserts, website banners. Appear with team promotion tables at every parade and local festival in the suburban area. Run some kids soccer camps out there, farm out the players to coach local kids teams. Also, many, if not most, of the Ambush sponsor companies are from suburban St. Charles, not Saint Louis. It is much more of a St. Charles team, actually. Sam really needs to work the suburbs first, then Rochester, not the other way around. I am sure he doesn't think that all the 'original' Rochester fans are just automatically going to drive way out to see games in the other arena. If there is a guy who knows how to market correctly and make indoor soccer work in the suburbs, it is Sam. 4,000 seats is a perfect size for indoor soccer. The Ambush only use the lower bowl of the Family Arena, which holds 5,000 fans. The Comets arena is like 4,500 or something. His arena cost should be way lower, his choice of prime dates, what's not to like? I hope it works out.
Yes, you're right teams like Ambush and the Comets have found success in the suburbs. The first 5 years of the Comets since coming back they average 4,000+ but the last two seasons the average attendance has dropped 560 fans from 2014-15 to 2015-16 and 172 fans from 2015-16 to 2016-17. The Comets have been a great franchise with a record of 102-48 and a couple division titles and a league championship in the last 7 seasons. The St. Louis Ambush has done great in the first 3 years since coming back. averaging over 5,000 per game but last season they took a huge noise dive, dropping 2,727 fans per game from the season before. Now the Ambush's record is horrible 18-62 in the last 4 seasons. So I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. Now the Dallas Sidekicks in their first 4 seasons they have dropped almost a 1,000 fans per season since coming back in 2012. Some little life was shown last season when the average attendance did go up, only by 88 people. That's coming off another bad season. Also your right if anyone can make it work, it's Soccer Sam.
The drop in Ambush attendance is partly explained by the fact that the previous owners were vastly inflating the attendance numbers in the first 3 years since their 2013 return. The new owners who took over before their woeful 1-19 season in 2016 said that 'we are now honestly reporting the actual attendance, and it was definitely inflated in past years.' The team has only used the 5,000 seat lower bowl since 2014, how could they 'average' over that number? The Wave saw a similar 'drop' a few years back when new owners started reporting attendance numbers that were more accurate after prior years of fluffed up tallies. That said, I would say we have lost 25-30+% in actual attendance in the last 2 seasons overall, compared to the first 2 years. We were probably in the low 2000s by the end of this past year, if that. This is based on my observations of how many people were in the seats over time at the home games over several seasons. Losing seasons are a big part of that, and the team spent lightly on marketing in the last couple years. The new owners were understaffed this past year and were not spending more than the minimum needed. Hopefully that changes this season, especially to pay better players.
Here is the Major issue they have at Dome Arena , The Indoor system they have does not work and they may not have enough time to order a brand new carpet in time. for a standard 80 x 280 floor you need a total of 19 rolls of carpet 15 x 81 foot , The carpet company needs a 3 month notice to make it and ship it by train from Georgia
Well, I have seen for-sale listings on occasion for used boards and carpet for indoor soccer. Why couldn't Sam just take the boards and carpet he was using in the other arena? Unless the boards are now owned/used by the hockey team, then he would have to buy new boards. I don't know what the lacrosse team uses. I am sure Sam has an answer to these questions. I really don't think he will go back to sharing an arena with four other teams. If it happens, it will be his indoor soccer team at the suburban arena.
you still need to order the same amount of rolls of carpet and now they are 85 foot long. when you are ordering carpet they come on Bolts the length is ( 78.2 yards ) 12 feet x 234.6 feet long so for a soccer field you can only get Two 85 foot pieces out of each bolt of carpet. So you will need 13.33 Pieces to make up the floor . ( 14 Rolls ) So the carpet manufacture would need to reset its process to adjust the machine to only make a 180 ft bolt to allow for waste and bleed just to get two pieces. They have to do this 7 times to make up the soccer floor ( that was my point ) You are not going to just call "Constantine Commercial " Then say I need 14 rolls of astroturf and padding and expect them to have it in stock and ship it out on monday.
I don't know about the carpet, but the boards pre-date the Lancers and are definitely owned by Blue Cross Arena where the AHL Amerks have played for decades!
We are talking about Dome Arena , I am not sure if they need to replace the carpet at bluecross or not . Right now they have to make a decision by tuesday 8/8/17 unless they manage to get an extension fro the league to confirm an arena lease
He didn't make it work before. Hence, the title of the thread. Also, he is leasing the name and intellectual property to Miller and his ownership group. He's not actively involved in "making it work."
http://www.frontrowsoccer.com/2017/...ers-dont-arena-lease-give-masl-indoor-league/ Latest update on the MASL Lancers per Front Row Soccer.
Well , Doug miller was on vacation and he actually appeared Live on Kelly and Ryan hes won a dance off and was live on the show 8/7/17 the video starts at 15:29 into the show
Sorry, but if you are serious about bringing back a so called "Professional" sports team (2 mos prior to the season kickoff no less) and you DON'T have a lease in place, then why the hell are you going on vacation ? This is one more reason the league is kind of a laughing stock to any potential investors/sponsors If some miracle happens and the lease is signed in 3 days.. the league should still tell the Lancers they won't play until 2018 ! Unless of course 4,000 season tickets have already been "sold"
To be fair to doug and his Family , His daughter Kalista had a photoshoot and this was already pre planned and they are not going to reschedule the shoot. Now the show itself is filmed in New york City. So he was in town and who is to say that after the show he was not talking to the arena about the lease.
http://www.frontrowsoccer.com/2017/...-lancers-hope-play-gene-polisseni-center-rit/ Latest update from Front Row Soccer
http://www.frontrowsoccer.com/2017/08/17/team-without-home-lancers-still-trying-find-indoor-arena/ THE TEAM WITHOUT A HOME: Lancers still trying to find indoor arena Aug 17, 2017
dunno...but I can tell you that the Danbury (CT) Titans minor league hockey team just went out of business citing the same WC insurance pricing issues: http://i95rock.com/danbury-titans-regrettably-hang-up-the-skates-and-cease-operations/
The MASL can't extend deadlines for Rochester too much longer. Baltimore and Syracuse may not have those short trip road games with the Lancers this year. The owners may need another year to either wrangle a more favorable deal out of Blue Cross or get one of the other area arenas ready to play soccer in. I think pursuing one of the other arenas is a better idea, unless the Lancers can somehow get a lot more prime dates or double-header dates with some of the other teams in Blue Cross. I hope Rochester can return at some point.
..........without boring everyone to tears. This is could be difficult to fix without "spending a fortune". It would be similar to an indoor team on an International sized ice sheet which is 100 feet wide instead of 85 and has a different curvature radius of the end boards. That Compuware Arena in Plymouth where the Detroit Ignition played has a number of ice sheets, one of which is an International standard. Lowering the goal so it is flush with the inside boards may or may not be easy. It depends on the kickplate (the yellow band that goes around the ice/field) and if the boards are permanent or temporary. Behind the kickplate is a metal band that goes around the entire base of the boards. Each has unique problems. What you DON'T want to do is remove the kickplate in front of the rump/gate and cut into it if the rink is temporary. You will mess up the integrity of the supports/braces. Personally, I think they have left this far too late. They may have a coach, players and place in the league, but they don't have the inertia to market the team in (less than) 2 months.
The Polisseni Center is just not feasible if you reduce the slopes and cut into the concrete there is a strong possibility you will damage the plumbing system and the heating system used to make and remove the ice. & The Lancers would need to buy a new carpet. ( not a viable option ) The Dome Arena Needs to add seats , at a cost of $200,000 the city will not do that and the bleachers they go have they can not locate. The Lancers will not pay for them. Also the lancers would need to buy a new carpet. as well. Once again ( not a viable option at this time ) Now here is the hold up & this is why the league is willing to give rochester an extension. The BCA arena has given the lancers a list of dates already. They have agreed to give the lancers a lease for this year once the dates are booked...The Dates given to the lancers are really bad they need a minimum of 4,000 people in the building to make everything work financially. You are not going to get 4,000 people in the door on Tuesdays and Thursdays On Monday 8/21/2017 The Lancers Meet with BCA & are asking them to free up ( weekend hold dates ) for concerts that may or may not happen. The Lancers only need them to free up 2 or 3 more prime dates and this can happen. So that a temporary lease can be signed and and new dates faxed to the MASL for approval. I would think that the league could then allow the lancers the extra time to get the actual lease to them & they can still work on the schedule and it does not hold anything up. Everything must be faxed to the League by 8/25/17 or they are out and will not return until 2018-19