3472 in Jacksonville according to nasl.com. No huge surprise given that it was a Sunday afternoon and the kickoff temperature was in the mid 80s for a team that didn't know where it was going to play six weeks ago. The good news? The Armada won and played a nice brand of soccer which hopefully can bring out a few more fans.
Code: Team Season Average(2016) Weekly Total Indy Eleven 9064(8421) 9064 New York Cosmos 6274(3775) 6274 Carolina Railhawks 6058(5114) N/A Puerto Rico FC 5692(3801) N/A San Francisco Deltas 4133 N/A Jacksonville Armada 3472(3499) 3472 Season Average (Mean-Median) Week Average NASL 2017 5782-6058 6270 NASL 2016 4713-4412 Difference 1069 1646 NASL Spring2017 5782 NASL Spring2016 5071 Difference 711 League Total 2017 34693(6 games) League Total 2016 862532(183 games)
3,933 in Puerto Rico 9,515 in Miami 3,269 in Edmonton 1,739 in San Fran Overall a terrible week for the league.
Code: Team Season Average(2016) Weekly Total Miami FC 9515(5426) 9515 Indy Eleven 9064(8421) N/A New York Cosmos 6274(3775) N/A Carolina Railhawks 6058(5114) N/A Puerto Rico FC 4812(3801) 3933 Jacksonville Armada 3472(3499) N/A FC Edmonton 3269(2059) 3269 San Francisco Deltas 2936 1739 Season Average (Mean-Median) Week Average NASL 2017 5314-5692 4614 NASL 2016 4713-4412 Difference 601 1280 NASL Spring2017 5314 NASL Spring2016 5071 Difference 243 League Total 2017 53149(10 games) League Total 2016 862532(183 games) Disappointing, but not unexpected to see the Deltas' attendance fall so quickly. Hopefully they find a way to replicate what Miami FC did last season.
Not likely. They're in an untenable situation in the city and stadium they chose to play in. Deltas need to consider relocation to another location in the East Bay or beyond if they hope to survive.
WRT to city, everyone said the same thing about Miami then that they're saying about SF now (not a sports town, only interested in major league...). Not sure what you're referring to about the stadium. Downtown. Decent size.
Miami is far from a success story. When they didn't pad their numbers last year with free tickets no one showed up. I expect the same from them this year too.
Do you have any evidence at all of Miami giving away tickets? The home openers the last two years have consisted of combo deals with the South Florida Fair, so there's that, but otherwise I don't see it. If it's discounted tickets you're referring to that's not uncommon for almost any team in any league not named the NFL.
Isn't the attendance in Edmonton the highest they've had in a couple of years? As for the rest of the numbers, they're not much different from what I expected, with athletics68 looking more and more like a prophet with each passing week regarding San Francisco. Hopefully they can turn it around. Only two matches next weekend, with Jacksonville and NCFC at home, likely an effect of having to draw up a schedule so late.
Kezar is anything but downtown... It's also cold, old and inaccessible. It's a glorified High School stadium, nothing more. Trendy SF urbanites aren't going to go freeze their butts off to watch second rate second rate soccer when they can go to pubs and bars to watch top tier footy, or go down to AT&T Park to be trendy and "seen" in an area that caters specifically to them.
OK. I mentioned the inaugural game, with that combo deal. I honestly don't know about the others. I think FIU Panther Fan mentioned in a past thread some discounts to students, but not many takers. There is a promo code on the club ticket page and I found a Groupon which gets the tickets for $10. But I could do that for selected seats at Magic games too. Bottom line, I think Sean Flynn has done a pretty good job in Miami. Most of the higher attendance numbers started after he got there. No matter what you're paying, people have to be willing to take the tickets, and there have been takers. They've certainly exceeded my expectations.
Barely. But home opener, it had better be. I still think they're a joke. By this point, they've been at the bottom of everything for their entire existence, it's obvious that either the market doesn't care about them or they have no ability to connect with that market. If they averaged 3,269 for the season, they'd still be woefully short of league average. Fath is more headstrong than savvy. It's just not happening in Edmonton and likely never will.
I have no idea if Miami gives away free tickets en masse. But their attendance surge last year was largely down to big latin heritage night promotions and concerts. They seam to do the same this year with every home game. https://www.miamifc.com/match-themes Would have been interesting if they would have had at least one game without promotions, just to see what their core base is. Ricardo Silva has money and is happy to throw them away at Miami FC, nothing wrong with that but to hail them as some sort of role model to follow for other struggling NASL teams is wrong in my opinion.
A couple things worth noting about the Deltas in this regard: 1. They pad their attendance with a minimum of 200 free tickets to every home game. 2. Reports from the stands in the first match suggest many (even most) people there had gotten their tickets for free.
I'd bet that is pretty common across all MLS, NASL, and USL teams. The exact number probably varies, 200 probably is on the high end, but sports teams do typically give out a certain number of free tickets for every game. As long as they are not giving out so many it undermines their sales free tickets is not a bad thing. They can help to grow your brand.
This is true, but 200 freebies out of 8000 isn't a big percentage while 200 out of 1700 is. Plus, as I noted, it's 200 minimum, and at the first game there were very clearly many more than 200. For all we know, there were more than 200 freebies last night too. (Think about that possibility!) The Deltas have the ability to pad their numbers, and in the name of community outreach they do, but that won't pad their bottom line. If they continue to plod along at 1500 to 2000, that 200 plus is worth bearing in mind. I also look at it this way: back in 2007 the California Victory averaged 1116 at Kezar. Maybe they gave away some tickets too, but even if they did, last night the Deltas didn't do too much better than that average. The Victory lasted one season, and their operating costs were a hell of a lot lower than those of the Deltas.
Open Cup games could fit the descriptor of a match that reveals the core base, though the midweek thing probably depresses that some. But any club would be unlikely to forego promotions on a decent date just so someone could see what their base is.
I am not talking about forgo promotions on a decent date. But to have just one or two home games when you don't have promotions would help the club itself knowing what their core support is and if their promotions is improving support. They still can have heritage or baywatch nights for the other 16 out of 18 home games. Somehow I get the feeling Silva doesn't care if the money he spends on promotions gives an increase in genuine supporters for the team, attendance numbers is all that is important.
So they should deliberately not try to sell tickets for one of their limited inventory of home games to see how many people there are in this ethereal "real fans" group? Quite frankly, that's dumb. Teams in this country need every dollar they can get. Why they should conduct such an experiment, when the cost would be injurious to their bottom line, is beyond me. "Genuine supporters." That slays me. They have been around for an hour and a half. Becoming relevant takes time.
The whole point is that they should try to sell tickets with the aim to make a profit. There is no way Miami is doing that right now. Promotions should have the purpose of getting people who normally don't go to the games there and hope those who came for free hot dogs or a mariachi band like what they saw on the field and come back later and pay for the ticket. If every single home game is a promotion of some kind the organistation has no idea if they are getting new paying customers or just people who are there for the side show. With genuine supporters I mean people who come to the games regulary to watch Miami FC.
SF scares me. Couldn't make the game last night, I was out of town. But wow, I watched on the broadcast and was a bit surprised to see that many empty seats. I figured being the 2nd game, it would be between 3,000 and 4,000...but wow, 1700? SF are an exciting team to watch IMO, they are fast pace and have many skilled players. I will admit, I had high hopes for this team, even in a smug elite city like SF, but I had hoped for every game to be somewhere between 3,000 - 5,000. Still early and maybe they can change their outreach strategy, but wow...I knew there'd be a decent chance SF would draw flies, but I didn't think in the 2nd game. Hopefully this summer, area dwellers will come check them out.
It all depends on if the cost of the promotions is greater than the revenue from the increased attendance. Without their accounting books in front of us it is hard to say if it is or not.
I'm just not seeing it happen ... 1. They've done some outreach. But here we are, 10 years after the CA Victory (who did basically no outreach), and the Deltas barely outdrew the Victory's average last night. In other words, their outreach doesn't appear to have gained them many ticket sales. 2. Summer won't save them. They'll be competing with peak Giants season, peak summer travel season, and they'll be impeded by peak tourist season. A lot of people in the Bay Area don't want to brave traffic to go into SF on the weekend. (And people in SF don't necessarily want to stay in The City either.) 3. And further, when the fog rolls in, that part of SF can be pretty damn miserable in the summer. It's not like SF has warm summer nights. SF has cold, damp, windy summer nights.