2018-19 MASL Attendance Thread

If there are 500 people in St Louis, I will be surprised! As an aside, the Broadcast from Rochester is clear as crystal...Camera angles are superb.

 

Did anyone else watch the Turlock game? I turned it on with about 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter with Turlock up 5-2. The Express scored two quick goals to make it 7-2, then they completely imploded (including giving up three power play goals in about four minutes) and Ontario tied the game in the last minute.

Then in overtime, Victor Quiroz committed a penalty in front of the Turlock goal and the Expess converted the shootout for the overtime win.

That range of emotions from the hapless team running out to a big lead, then holding or for dear life (then failing to) before eeking out the win is why this game is so much fun.

 

Everyone-us 15 people on here-should be really worried about the lack of attendance overall. Specifically, Kansas and St Louis, maybe Dallas. I talked to Terry Woodberry yesterday-former Sidekick-at our rec center in Richardson. He was at the game a week ago in a suite. The broadcast took a camera up at half and caught him, Tatu, Kevin Smith, Gordon Jago, Billy Phillips, Willie Molano and a couple of others. Woody-as he is known by says this to me. "We enjoyed being there, but they don't have any marquee players, nor does anyone. The overall product is not really that good"

Who will come see a bunch of good guys that are good-good meaning average really but have no star power? This is one of the many problems indoor has at this point-not the main problem-but certainly a big one. Landon Donovan himself can't save this sport....

AND, that St Louis number, is not real.

 

I believe the St. Louis numbers now. I didn't believe them when Andrew Haines owned the team and the 5,000 seat lower bowl was half empty and he announced 6,000.

Attendance is a major concern of mine. I think the all-local schedule is sapping a lot of fan enthusiasm. Even if there were more big stars, you would only be able to see one or two of them locally because you play the same two or three teams over and over.

I disagree about the product on the field. I think most teams are doing a bad job at game presentation and that sucks all the potential fan enthusiasm out of the arena.

Some players are make a more concerted effort to entertain. Players like Joey Tavernese and Gordy Gurson are bringing flair back to the game. More players need to do this. The league and teams need to do a better job of creating storylines. People watch wrestling because of the storylines. They know the history of each wrestler. They remember when someone became a heel. Their characters evolve. People want to see what happens next.

Each MASL game seems to happen in its own vacuum. No one is keeping track of long term stats. No one can tell you what Kansas City's record is against St. Louis or who the all-time leading MASL scorer is.

 

I'm going to be giving my perspective as a Blast fan.

I do believe an all-local schedule will be detrimental to attendance if it keeps up, for hardcore fans would probably attend less games. Right now, I think it's early enough to where it's not hurting the energy of the fans. Granted, it depends on who you are a fan of. This Blast fan finds Utica and Harrisburg to be a joy to watch. Somebody in San Diego might be tired of seeing Turlock.

In places like Kansas City and Dallas, I think the novelty has worn off. Utica has been a nice story this year. But in five years, will they be around, and what will their attendance be?

And I agree with you about the product on the field. There have been a lot of enjoyable games over the years. The Blast have been doing the same game day presentation for years, and it has gotten to a point where it is contrived. They did hire Mickey Cuchella to be the roving announcer, but outside of handling the fan trivia question segment, he's been MIA during games.

The wrestling metaphor is an excellent one. When playing the Wave, the Blast needs to bring up their playoff history with them. When the Blast play the Heat, bring up Pat Healey coming back as coach.

Right on. I think for a lot of fans who could maybe become casual and maybe even hardcore fans, they look at it as a performance that you see once and that's it. And unless a performance is something like Cirque de Soleil, with different shows that have different stories and themes, people probably aren't going to come around for a second time any time soon.

 

I know it's a Monday, but remember when Monterrey used to get almost 9,000 a game?*




*It was 2003-2004 and was probably specious, but, still...

 

That was La Furia and they folded a couple games into the next season didn't they?

The history of indoor soccer in Monterrey is strange. It seemed like the original La Raza enjoyed national notoriety even when they only averaged 2,600-3,000 a game at Monterrey Tec. Even today they seem to get pretty good media coverage but their attendance is terrible. And then in the playoffs they get 6,000-9,000.

 

Got taken over by Tigres and did not play a home game before being bounced out of the league, yes.