it will be interesting to see. The league is a lot more fun to watch when the stands are full. I enjoy it more live when there are more folks around me enjoying it too, same goes for watching on TV. The energy generated by a packed house is palpable. I'm done with putting down groups for having empty stands, artificially filling the stands with free or cheap tickets or whatever other "attendance smack" used to be a regular Monday fixture around here. I want ever team but ours to lose every game, but I'd be perfectly happy if they did so in front of a full house every week. I want all fans of all teams to suffer, just not alone, the more of them suffering, the better. I honestly hope FCC execute their plan. Build slowly toward the opening of the new stadium. By sucking this year they lower expectations and any improvement will be welcomed. I hope they're able to keep those 20K folks coming back as prices go up. I imagine they won't even have 17k season tickets for sale in the new stadium, so they already would have a 3k waiting list. So, some room for attrition. Good luck to them. It'd be very nice if 2020 Crew had 13k season tickets heading in to the stadium opening the following year.
Aside from the fact that we have only ever lost to FCC, I couldn't be more excited to have them in the league. I hope it will be like when Toronto came into the league (how many years was it before they actually beat us?). A day trip away game?!?! Come on, think about that. I think it's gonna be a great rivalry.
I seldom make predictions but I truly believe this is pretty much what we'll see. The reason businesses spend scads of bucks on marketing is that marketing works. The Haslams sold the living piss out of Cleveland to the point that they are in the top five in most major commercial and retail categories, and did it with a team that went 3 - 33. I do not doubt for a minute that we're going to see some amazing shit over the next two years.
Updated Ticket Count: STM: 10,332 I am trying to be as cautious as I can, today I marked seats I am 90% certain are sold as unavailable in order to push it as low as I can without outrightly being pessimistic and discounting fairly consistent observations. The fact that this still has us selling 101 STM since Monday and putting us within striking distance of 10.5k is epic to me. I don't know how well STMs traditionally sell over the course of the season BUT if we are combining partial plans to make one whole STM as some have speculated happens in MLS counts then I think Bez comment about breaking the record by the end of the season means we may top the all tight STM record dating back to 1996. If that is true that we would need to crack somewhere over 12.5k. If we continue to sell 100+ STM a week that would happen sometime in July. As of right now, I think we have shattered the STM record for anything in the past 10 years. 3/2 Crewsmas Opener: Normal Estimate (What I usually provide): 16,324 - up 341 from Tuesday This is my normal being as conservative as I can estimate, I am assuming everything is being held back, even in the lower bowl, and discount sections of the upper block as having sold vs. being opposition tickets. Optimistic Estimate: 16,748 - up 381 from Tuesday. This estimate just adds back in a couple of blocks of seats that I usually mark withheld but I am increasingly wondering if they are actually sold as other tickets have been released around them. In either estimate is correct we are now at the 4th largest opener at Mapfre and could break the top 3. Now that the weather is looking better I think if we have strong sales tomorrow and day of we will see a big turn out.
That's exciting. I hadn't heard that. If that's true they should report it. Let's get people pumped up about breaking the record.
I agree but they have been playing it close to the vest. I believe this was said in a private conversation with a very reliable source that I trust implicitly, unless there's good gin around. I posted it here to let you know that it appears you are astonishingly close in you count.
I appreciate it. Personally I hope I am low haha. That having been said if we are accurate then we are doing great.
I want to make a prediction. They will announce a sell out. They will distribute the remaining tickets. I think your modeling is good for tickets sold. But they are not going to let a handful of blue dots get in the way of announcing a sell out.
I wonder if he is counting the season ticket equivalents as season tickets. The pledge included those too. Those 4 game packages could be a big sale too, there are so many great teams coming this year. I hope that LA game does well but post finals midweek game is historically terrible (I believe). I also hope everyone fulfilled their pledges that still could (things happen).
I think playing it close to the vest is a good idea. They are making it a point to show they mean business, and they have a lot of work to do. Celebrating a specific number of season tickets sold while they are still in midst of selling season tickets would seem to contradict the approach they are taking and the appearance they are trying to put out.
While I hope that the game actually sells out, I think you're wrong here. Way too much negativity can come from doing that. You know that 1 or 2 thousand ticket holders just aren't going to come because it's cold. If they announce a sellout and the stands look half empty, that does more harm than good. I certainly expect them to promote the hell out of having sold the most tickets to a home opener in 10 years and 4th most all time or whatever. I just don't think with all the attendance troubles and mistrust over the years that they want to be giving away 1500 tickets to announce a sellout that only has 14k folks actually through the gates. A nice 16,500 with that same 14k there is better and actually the truth.
Just a quick update we have sold roughly 109 tickets since my post yesterday. I will keep updating when I can today. Any guesses on attendance before we head into the game tomorrow?
I think attendance will be around 16.5k, which I think is a really good number. Saturday is going to be an extremely busy in Columbus with the CBJ playing at 1 (I'm sure they will have a sellout crowd) and the Arnold bringing 200k attendees and 22k athletes to the city. Factor in the less than desirable weather and I think anything over 16k is pretty respectable.
I'll be uncharacteristically optimistic (for me) and and guess 17,126. That's one more than the highest average season attendance under PSV (in 2016).
I'm going with 17499 because I want to be full sunshine brigade and I think that's the highest I can go and still win a Kyle Crew Brew bet from earlier in the thread for being the under on a 17.5k over/under. I hope Kyle Crew is keeping tracking of all of those because I certainly am not.
By the way, the forecast is holding at what for me looks like a pretty decent day. High of 42, maybe even a bit of sunshine. Should be around 40 to the upper 30s throughout the game.
I'm going with 16,596. And I Hope I'm totally wrong and it way over. If we get over 17,000 I will be mind blown.