Same with the women on Saturday. The 4pm starts to both games were brutal for the fans, and it showed at the box office. It was pretty oppressive here this weekend. Almost Houston-esque. The humidity was suffocating.
I know they said they were gonna do it one fan at a time, but if they lose hundreds at a time going the other way I'm not sure that will work. Ran into the PR match on BeIn and man that looked brutal. Not 3K sitting there, that is for certain. Anyone have any skinny on what's going on down there. I just can't see Carmelo, divorce and all, having a long term view if they are going to lose that much money. Are there other backers as big? Cosmos in Coney! There was much rejoicing. Edmonton putting up numbers for them. Waiting to see when these expansion teams come on. Better be soon.
NASL ranked by percentage difference from the same number of games as a year ago: New York has yet to see a benefit from the move to Coney Island, except in intimacy, I guess, where they're playing to 60% of capacity. It makes sense that Jacksonville would be down, with a far less robust front office to drive crowds, but NCFC's drop bears watching and Indy continues to deflate. Here's Indy's attendance trend since launch. It's going in the wrong direction, though because of their strong start, their lifetime average is still over 9,300 (but they have not hit 9,300 but for three times in their last 20 home matches, and haven't drawn 10k since late 2015). Edmonton has done well and Miami is well up over the same number of home games as in 2016. Should everyone hold their averages, the league would finish at 4,468, or just under 300 a game off last year (which was 1,200 a game off the year before).
On the ground the impression is that it's an adjustment period as the fan base absorbs a vastly increased inventory in games (the additional 12 NWSL Courage games to be exact). The two teams are definitely being treated as equals and siblings by the organization with a large amount of cross-marketing. The main supporters groups have also embraced the NWSL team.
It seems they are doing much better the last few games, I wonder what has been the difference.....? Anybody have any inside information? Crowd got to see 6 goals tonight which is always good.
My guess would be school being out and warm weather is helping a lot. It still looked pretty sparse there last night though. Maybe around 3K in actual attendees.
Bad weather and re-scheduled games are the main reasons early season attendance was down. This is a good news/bad news situation for the Cosmos; The stadium on a beach is great in the summer not so much in the early spring/late fall. On the whole I expect attendance to be slightly better in Coney Island than Hofstra. MCU has the limitations of a baseball stadium, which it is, the local Mets affiliate will begin play there this week. Those limitations aside it's a cool location and probably best place for the Cosmos to play at this time.
Eleven are straight up garbage & yet we still dominate attendance. If ownership cared more, maybe we can go to USL next year because the games against Cincinnati & Louisville will be something.
Seriously? You think the ownership does not care enough? I can guarantee the ownership cares more than you do. He just isn't enamored with USL like you are.
Look, I know how crazy passionate they are on the Ohio River, and want to see that be a regular thing. We often have the same talking points (you are pro NASL, I'm all for USL), so I'm leaving it at that. It's not as exciting when Edmonton comes in.
1,849 would have been a better prank. (Like when Peter Wilt had the Fire announce 12,345 in Naperville one time.)
There is a lot to be said for regional rivalries. They really can take the game, the meaning of it locally, the experience, the coverage...you name it, up a notch. Watching the lower leagues over the vast decades this has been something I have always thought was desperately needed to help the game grow here. We are talking way before MLS was a gleam in anyone's eye. I still see it as a huge need/great asset moving forward. It's unfortunate that we have this whole USL/NASL divide. Really hurts the game right now at this level IMO. Especially these possible regional rivalries. The only thing that will solve it is if one league goes under. That isn't "hating" or "rooting for one league"...that is reality. Many of us scoffed at what NASL was selling a few year back because we are vets with battle tested experience when it comes to lower division soccer here. They were praying on the naive, young and inexperienced (a JK specialty), and it rankled. The outcomes were obvious to us. I don't want to see any team or league go under here. There has been to much divisiveness and struggle, but what NASL is doing now (without most of the idiots from a few years ago) smells exactly like the old way of doing things.....which never worked over the decades. When we finally start to regionalize our lower leagues we will have something truly worthwhile IMO. The whole national D2 league footprint just reeks of what has come before. A slow, brutal struggle, that never ends up well.
Something worries me that this may be a one year deal for the Deltas. They had over a year to build a fanbase & the team is actually decent, but if they are drawing well below league average, that's not something to be proud of.
Always fun when people finally come to realize us "doomsayers" were right all along. God forbid locals actually know how the local area is going to respond to something. And as I've maintained from the beginning... I agree. Deltas will fold in the next 6-18 months. Really just depends on if their owners want to lose a lot of money, or even more money than that.
They probably will come back, their initial investment/start up costs are done, most start ups see 3 three years as the time to build their brand and I think they signed a contract to play for that time period [yes OKC, set that unsustainable joint venture aside]. What's troubling me is their inability to try different marketing approaches. Miami was in the creek a year ago and have pulled themselves up. SF ownership, like Miami, seems to have ample resources and commitment; but money and commitment does not equal good decisions. When do they make a serious commitment to go out into the diverse area communities and meet people, you know, face to face, shake folks hands, talk to people, make connections to their club. One of the great things I like about going to Cosmos games is the people I get to talk to, the owner, the coach, players & opposing players and their relatives, broadcasters, etc. I don't think I get those opportunities at NYCfc or NYRB games; I have met all those folks already in Coney Island this year. SF has to make connections to their fanbase outside their stadium before they can expect to in the stadium. Will they?