Yessir! Key dates: Rowdies at home on Saturday June 2nd and Saturday September 1st Rowdies away on Saturday April 28th and Wednesday(ugh) July 4th Regular Season home finale Saturday September 8th vs. PR Only home date not on a Saturday is Wednesday, April 25th vs. PR at 1PM. Call in sick for that one lol.
Why in the world do you guys have a 1pm Wednesday game? That seems silly. Is it possibly a mistake? Sorry about the July 4th game being midweek.
Well, just one home game that isn't on a Saturday night again this year. That is GREAT for trying to build the fanbase. I don't get that 1 PM start for the Wednesday game though. Strange. Anyway, I think US Open Cup matches are supposed to be all Tuesdays. I hope we can make it into the later rounds and have a chance of hosting a good MLS club. Dying to get this season underway already! Anyone heard anything about season ticket sales so far? I saw they decided to reinstate the discount pricing through the end of February. Hopefully that helps drive more sales.
As far as USOC is concerned, if we win our first game, we will play an MLS team. Not sure exactly how the new system works but it's a 50/50 draw for who hosts the game, if venue is eligible. I think. The Wednesday game has to be for some kind of school initiative to get the kids out on a field trip like the Marlins do once or twice a year. I remember when I was in middle school they took us out to see a Fusion inter-squad scrimmage. Shame it's vs. PR, our second biggest rival. I'm sure some of the die hards will find a way to be there.
Bingo, hopefully. Considering I work from home at least 80% of the time, I'm hoping to make it there without taking a day off from work...but it's way too far off to know if that's possible. Unfortunately, my other ticket'll definitely miss out.
That is a horrible idea. School kids can't buy tickets and don't have expendable income. The Marlins maybe can do crap like this because baseball already has early afternoon games here and there and they play 80 some odd home games a season. NASL soccer teams have 14 home games to try and make a profit off of. Wasting one on some crap like this is a poor choice. I hope there is another, more legit reason.
1) the kids can still buy the tickets as part of going on the field trip 2) about half of them buy lunch somewhere 3a) at worst, the team should be able to write off the prices as a donation to the non-profit school board if they're given away 3b) considering the school board rents the stadium to the Strikers...even if they can't write it off, it could have a similar political effect 4) it's as much an effort to attract younger fans, who'll want to keep coming back as anything; given the fact that we probably had less than 1,000 show up to the Wednesday night game last season (even if I remember them reporting ~2200)...there isn't much room to decline. 5) they wouldn't set this up without a plan in place and reasonable financial weighting
I hope you are correct. But with only 14 home games, how about just do a better damn job marketing and selling tickets for that Wednesday game. Good luck with it.
Its a great idea. We are working on bringing a trade association meeting to 'Party on the Pitch" at lunch for that game. It opens the Strikers to a whole new crowd.
[ ] it's a great idea When I see "hey let's get all the school kids to a game in the middle of the day!" all I see is a purification of the same failed marketing strategy that MLS is moving away from and that NASL should abandon asap if they haven't already, marketing to soccer moms and soccer playing kids. It doesn't work. But if the Strikers have pre sold a few k tickets for it, even at a discount, then fine fine. I just don't like the idea of basically taking a game away from your working class fans and the supporters when you only have 14 games to work with in a season.
Equating marketing to youths as marketing to soccer moms is beyond ridiculous. There's a reason why those advertising on TV covet the 18-49 demographic and certain companies go crazy to grab a kids attention. They're trying to build brand recognition and loyalty. If you want to go with your last sentence that's one thing; if you want to go with the first paragraph, you know nothing of marketing... If anything, this is cutting out the soccer mom. This gets the brand name out to a school full of kids, the employees of that school, the parents with kids at the school and potentially to anyone driving by the school. If this were a matter of Wednesday at 1 PM vs Saturday at anytime, Saturday wins hands down. It's not. It's Wednesday at X time. They've calculated a formula, and gone with 1 PM for X. I can see the logic, and I don't see the harm in trying it at least once. If nothing else, a stadium full of 5,000(+?) kids for the Wednesday game should boost the attendance numbers for the season which creates more residual benefit. For last season the Marlins had Weather Day on April 27th (a Wednesday, against the Dodgers, at 12:10) as a field trip for kids in school. The attendance was reported at 16,523. That was better than any other midweek attendance in April, with only one other game within about 1,500 of that number and two others within 2,000. The other kid-themed game was for those in camp on July 21st (a Thursday, against the Padres, at 12:10). The attendance was reported as 27,143. That was the fifth best attendance of the season. It was 40 more people than for the July 4th game on a Monday at 6:10. Before someone from Tampa wants to bring up the Marlins bad attendance, we outdrew you 18,892/game to 18,879/game last season while winning 19 less games. The potential mistake was doing this against Puerto Rico (if they had any control) as opposed to a team with no chance of bringing in away team fans. I assume they couldn't really set up an appropriately timed camp day because of the new US Open Cup format, and/or realized it was easier to do a field trip-based game with their connections to the school board. In looking for info on what the Marlins are doing this season I stumbled upon this: http://www.somersetsoho.com/wp/?p=1923 They're getting $20 a ticket for each student on the field trip and that doesn't include food. Thankfully, they're doing it on a different day than the Strikers.
had a nice reply ready to go but re-read your post and decided it wasn't worth it. Except this part: "Equating marketing to youths as marketing to soccer moms is beyond ridiculous. There's a reason why those advertising on TV covet the 18-49 demographic and certain companies go crazy to grab a kids attention. They're trying to build brand recognition and loyalty. " What part of my post regarding marketing to youths, families and soccer moms does your reply here refute? MLS teams are moving AWAY from focusing on these demographics. NASL teams are slowly figuring it out as well. Your "certain companies going crazy for kids attention" shouldn't include NASL soccer teams. Note, I never said don't market to them at all. But catering to them with an entire match day when you only have 14 to work with in order to try and profit over the course of a season? Crazy. The only really interesting thing you said was the $20 ticket price. How much of that does the Strikers see as profit, how many tickets have been sold, etc? Also, please don't compare what a MLB team did with one of their 80+ home games and try to justify a soccer team imitating it. The situations are just not comparable.
First and foremost, I'm stating you're not portraying the effort accurately. You didn't say anything about marketing to families or youths in your post, you said "soccer moms and soccer playing kids". That's not accurate in this effort...and it's not just about marketing, it's about the bottom line for that game. My post from the third paragraph on refutes the idea that a kid-themed day is less profitable than the average day if done right. This is what happened last season with our Wednesday night game, against the leading Railhawks on September 7th with our playoff hopes still very much up in the air (it's from the 2011 NASL attendance thread): Note one of the posters. We averaged 3,769 per game last season. All that data from my last post helps back the idea that it's certainly worth a shot to boost the bottom line with what they're doing. I'm not saying it'll definitely be successful, the numbers suggest to me it will, but it's by no means a guarantee if they can't make it work. Either way there's certainly enough evidence to suggest trying it...regardless of the number of unbacked claims you make or the number of games in the season. You're not providing anything to validate your assumption that we're losing money by changing around a game time with 14 home games. You didn't pay attention to anything...? The $20 price is for that's schools field trip to the Marlins upcoming Weather Day game in April. Not the Strikers game. It's not even a ticket price...if it were it'd be $5 more than a regular game-day reserved ticket. First of all, you might as well take the five seconds to realize there are 81 home games in MLB. Second, the total number of games has nothing to do with anything but season tickets. It's all about the profitability of each individual game. Here's what we know: the Strikers attracted an announced attendance of 2,159, the lowest number of the season, to the lone Wednesday night game of last season. Observers believe the actual number there was about 1,000 or less. How much money do you think was pulled in via that game? The safe assumption is less than from any other game last season. It was against the top team in the league, in the lead up to the playoffs which otherwise should be pretty marketable in normal circumstances. Here's what we know for this season: the Strikers are stuck with a mid-week game. This time early in the season instead of late, but again on a Wednesday. Here are the options to make money with this season's game: A) Sticking with the same plan of action as last season and hoping the change in time of the year creates a boost in attendance for the third game of the season. B) Trying to improve the worst scenario from last season by bringing in an unknown number of kids and teachers from schools which are run by the owner of the team's stadium (or are otherwise guaranteed to be willing to pay for tickets if they aren't public schools). If B brings in more than 2,200 kids (or perhaps even just 1,000) who buy as much in concessions as the standard fans would per fan, then it's an improvement. That's 100 classes of 22 students. It's only three times my graduating class almost a decade ago at a high school about 15-20 minutes from the stadium. It's not unreasonable and, really, should be expected if they're trying this. If you want to assume that the kids spend 25% less in concessions, then B needs to bring in about 2,750 to be an improvement, again a reasonable number. Even going to 50% would only need 3,100 kids and even no concessions would need 4,400 kids...that's 200 classes of 22 students. The population for just the public middle schools in Fort Lauderdale proper is 7,291 students. That doesn't include the 2,832 in private schools or the number from elementary schools or the number front middle or elementary schools in the surrounding cities. I'm not suggesting A couldn't earn a profit, but I am saying it's ludicrous to call trying B in order to make a profit crazy given the above numbers and what we know...which you'll note have nothing to do with what the Marlins did. If the front office can't pull it off, then they likely won't try this again, unless it's to please the school board as the owner of their stadium.
I guess I'll quote myself, something I posted before you went off on your profit margin rant: I already agreed that if they can make this single game profitable then do whatever works. And you accuse me of not reading posts lol You also said something in an earlier post: 3a) at worst, the team should be able to write off the prices as a donation to the non-profit school board if they're given away 3b) considering the school board rents the stadium to the Strikers...even if they can't write it off, it could have a similar political effect Can you explain what you mean by these two points?
Also, am I wrong in remembering that game was affected by adverse weather? As were so many other Strikers home games last season, unfortunately.
What a fun discussion between a Striker Liker and Ralph's Mom, err, I mean mob. LOL A few things here... First, has anyone heard anything from the club or from a Broward County School saying that this 1 PM Wednesday game is indeed going to have some sort of school promotion attached to it? If not, it's a fun debate, but kind of moot. For a sec let's assume that is the plan though. Let's get the easy stuff out of the way first. If the Strikers wound up with the only increased benefit from having to play one mid-week game in their home schedule being the good will garnered from a kids school outing day, then it's already not a bad idea. The Strikers and the school board are in the same boat when it comes to the evil FAA and the situation at Lockhart. We saw that bond strengthened last year when the FAA basically made demands that would have run off both parties, but they joined forces, enlisted every local politician they could, and eventually got the FAA to back off for the time being. The stadium situation is still unresolved, and besides the community good will achieved by doing things for kids, it really behooves the Strikers for their own sake to keep that "team-up" in place in fighting for the ability to stay at Lockhart. Politicans and residents in the local communities will have some sympathy for the Strikers plight against the FAA, but it's nothing compared to the support that will get behind school kids if necessary to make certain the FAA isn't able to run them out of the stadium they've been using for like 50+ years I believe it is now. Next, I think it's a little bit of a leap, speedcake, to call the idea of a school outing to the Strikers the same thing as marketing to soccer moms. Different things in my mind. When the team goes out to the local area teams and tournaments each year, that's the soccer kids and moms marketing. While I agree that it shouldn't be the primary focus of their marketing efforts, I also think it's very short-sighted to just dismiss it altogether as one place to spend part of your marketing budget. I get very frustrated by the supperiority attitude that some supporters group members come off with sometimes. I'm not saying that's you individually, but over the years it's been readily apparent to me in a lot of examples of supporters groups and their members in general. The mentality seems to be that some young drunk guys, who, give them credit, do have passion for the team, are somehow more important than me, a five seat season ticket holder in the reserved section. My guess is that I spend far more money on my Strikers experience than a lot of supoprters group members. Well, not counting their pre-game tailgating beer expenses of course. LOL But then, the Strikers aren't profting from that anyway. Look, I love the atmosphere that Flight 19 and The Ultras provide on gameday. They work hard, are dedicated and passionate about the team, and they really do get the crowd going. It's great watching them celebrate with the players after goals! Their tifo at the second "Rowdies" game last year was an all-time classic, even you'd have to begrudingly admit it speedcake! LOL They are a huge part of the fanbase, even though they're a relatively small percentage of it, and I know they work hard, spending their own money to promote the team and help create interest. But all of that said, you have to understand that hooking the casual sports fan in the end is what will make or break a team at the gate, especially so at our level. They can't ignore soccer moms. They can't ignore corporate partners, party on the pitch groups, and even the "suite" groups. They've got to do everything they can to generate interest and attendance in every demographic. So to say, well forget soccer moms, or any other potential client group, is very short-sighted, especially in the fiscally challenging world of lower level soccer. Considering all the above, I belive it's worth a shot if it is indeed what the team had in mind. If you're stuck with a Wednesday game, and last year reminded us again how much those suck (you're right about the weather that night sucking though too) then try to come up with something that makes the number for that game grow. Can't hurt.
I never argued to completely ignore soccer moms or the youth market. Ever. Not once. My squabble is with dedicating an entire game to the effort, at 1p on a Wednesday in the south Florida sun and heat no less. Shouldn't those kids be in school learning something? You bring up some good points, but I feel obligated to defend SGs a little here. Your characterization of us as just "young drunk guys" who don't have the same kind of expendable cash as someone like yourself is flawed. Firstly, if you hold 5 reserved seat season tickets you are NOT the rule in ANY demographic. That's awesome and shows an extremely respectable dedication to the cause, but you are going to have to be very convincing if you want me to believe that is standard for your average soccer mom or dad. It certainly isn't standard for the "casual" fan. While your SG down there in Striker land might only lately be finding its feet and getting its numbers up, up here in Tampa our SG has been a driving force for the Rowdies. Our group accounted for a significant percentage of season tickets the last two seasons in a row and we've been credited for having much to do with why the Rowdies have led or been at the top of the league in merchandise sales. So when you describe SGs as being passionate, hard working and fun to watch but ultimately poorer than you, you aren't quite getting it right. Definitely has to be taken on a case by case basis. Your supporters did a great job of growing their organization last season and we do hope they keep it up, and maybe they'll save all the receipts from the money they've spent directly on supporting the team for you to browse and approve. And then maybe they'll show you all the receipts they spent indirectly supporting the team, like bus trips, tailgates, their own marketing materials, etc etc. And that isn't counting the intangibles that we all bring through our own efforts to help promote our team and the sport. We get butts in seats, not just Mob or Ultras butts either. And we bust our ass to make it happen. So we deserve those cold beers in the parking lot before games I know you addressed some of those points and gave credit, but I still felt like your overall conclusion was somewhat biased. You accuse soccer "fanboys" of elevating their own importance, but came across a little guilty of it yourself. I'd be proud as well if I could drop the money for 5 high dollar season tickets. And I could probably do so if I weren't spending all the additional money that goes into Mob related stuff. All that being said, of course I completely agree with you that without the casual fan teams die. In my opinion you do what works for your market. If down there, something like what has been discussed in this thread keys some significant growth for the club than by all means go for it. You guys have convinced me.
I suspected you'd focus in on some of my comments and cast them in a negative light I wasn't intending, but I went ahead and posted anyway. It's human nature to get defensive when you perceive, rightly or wrongly, that someone is criticizing you. I did insert a disclaimer that I wasn't referring to you or anyone else specifically in my post. Honestly, from what I've seen of SG's for lower level teams, they seem far more down to earth than some of what I've seen from their MLS counterparts. The kind of behavior I've read about from some MLS SG's has been ridiculous, and then to cry on top of it when teams put a stop to it is just pathetic. What I've seen in some cases is a mostly younger, male group wanting to behave as young intoxicated males sometimes like to behave, and then they get mad when it's curtailed, and they lash out at a different demographic, namely families who also want to be fans and attend games, and blame them for the cutting short of their "fun." Let me also say this about the Ultras and Flight 19. I don't know any of them personally, but the behavior I've seen from them pre-game, during, and post-game I'd characterize as first class all the way. The monsoon night here for your first trip in, I did see two Tampa fans harassing and messing with a Strikers fan, but that was the only time all year I saw anything even remotely questionable, and even that was diffused by cooler heads stepping in from what I saw. My young drunk guys statement could have been a little stereo-typical, and I certainly didn't mean any offense by it. If I was a 20-something with no family right now instead of a 40 year old with a wife and kids, I would for damn sure be right in the middle of those tailgates, the supporters section, and all that beer!!! Not to mention the awesome italian suasage sandwiches they had at the stadium this year...damn those were good...I hope that vendor comes back this year... Anyway, young guys will be young guys, I was one once too. And as I already said, our guys were nothing but first class rom what I saw, and I was at every single game. It's really just a more organized version of what I recall seeing at Lockhart as a kid when my dad brought me. We'd tailgate with his friends and co-workers and then go into the stadium and cheer our lungs out for the Strikers to whip some Rowdies arse! LOL So, once again for the record, my comments weren't aimed at any specific SG's, just some general commentary about some things I've seen from some SG's out there, and to be fair, mainly from MLS ones. And I'm not sure what to make of your whole "poorer than me" comments. I'll be the first to tell you I'm not anywhere near being rich! LOL I've never been a season ticket to any professional sports team in my life until last year with the Strikers. And if it hadn't of been for the $99 special, I'd never have been able to afford it. But my passion for my boyhood team really hit me last year, and the opportunity to bring my son to games just like my dad brought me, forced me to find a way to make it happen again this year, despite a 25% increase in price. I have maximum respect for anyone willing and able to spend their hard earned money on their passion for their team. Like most people in these hard times, my discretionary income is very limited, so it's a hard choice to spend so much of it on one thing. Thankfully my wife is a doll, and the kids enjoy it, so it works out! If you took my comments as some sort of puffing out of my chest, or a knock against anyone, SG's included, sitting in the GA section, sorry, but you got it all wrong. I simply was adding to my comments and belief that teams can't ignore any potential customers just to cater to one group. Just like families or soccer moms shouldn't be ignored to cater to SG's, the reciprocal shouldn't be either. Actually, the SG's are the last people the clubs should want to risk pissing off due to the great support they give teams. This is even more true in the lower divisions where teams can do very little to market themselves, so the passion and work of fans spreading the word plays a very important role in growth of the fanbase. I've actually been considering asking the leadership of Flight 19 or the Ultras if they accept members who don't necessarily sit with them in the stadium. I think what those two groups have done down here for the club is immeasurable, and I agree with you that they are definitely on the rise. I expect to see a much bigger group of them this year.
All fair enough, I wasn't angry about anything or attacking you, for the record. Just wanted to lay out a little more clearly just what I personally feel SGs bring to the situation. I can't imagine the SGs down there would turn you down for a membership. We accept anyone who wants to become a member and support what we do, no matter where in the stadium they sit (or even if they can't make any games or rarely make games). I was checking out the The Red Patch Boys the other day, the main Toronto FC supporter group (I think they are the main group) and they have an application process for joining. I'm not sure if they still do, but it made me laugh. Just seems silly.
Yep anyone is welcome to join, regardless of where you sit. We'd love you to sit in the GA with us, but as long as you support the Strikers and sport the scarf with pride(and perhaps spread a bit of the supporters section fun like chants etc. to the other areas of the stadium), you're all right by us!
Mark your calendars... March 21, 2012 - Fort Lauderdale Strikers at Florida Atlantic University. http://www.fausports.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/020212aaa.html I wonder if they'll have more warm-up matches.
what's with both the Strikers and the Rowdies waiting until the last minute to announce a preseason schedule? Don't they know we have plans to make?
Cool! Have to pay our respects to the ghost of magicJack while we're there lol. That's late in March, I'm sure there will be other matches during the preseason.