Sorry for the late post in the season, and it was actually an honor to see some people miss me (or maybe just this thread.) Anywho, it seems like attendance actually 'matters' (#SavetheCrew?) this season as people may have finally stopped blindly supporting the team, and the offseason seemed to have a lot of STHs fail to renew. The first two games of the season have been cold, but 15,000 is still low for a cold Union game. Will low crowds cause the Union to actually start financially supporting the first team? (The Crew match looked like an Open Cup crowd). Or will they continue to promote a perfect future? Yearly Average (Home Opener)---[MLS Season Average] 2010: 19,254 (34,870)---[16,675] 2011: 18,259 (18,591)---[17,872] 2012: 18,049 (19,074)---[18,807] 2013: 17,869 (18,160)---[18,608] 2014: 17,631 (18,651)---[19,151] 2015: 17,471 (18,002)---[21,574] 2016: 17,519 (17,027)---[21,692] 2017: 16,812 (16,795)---[22,112] 2018: ?????? (16,452)
I don't think it helps that they only play every other week. Or maybe I'm projecting my own complaints.
Is it possible to sell out Talen and still be in the bottom 25% of the league? This seems like a poorly written clause. It has to be normalized to capacity, correct?
We need to remember that at the time Keystone Sports & Entertainment was awarded an MLS Team the state of the league was drastically different. When the Union entered the league TES' capacity was ABOVE the league average for attendance. Fast forward to the present, and the league average for attendance was 22,113. That number is well above TES' capacity, which is the 4th* lowest in the league. It'd be interesting to see just how enforceable this clause would be given the rapid change in the league since 2008. *It's really the 3rd smallest as SKC's CMP routinely exceeds its' stated capacity by 1,000 or more fans per game.
I am having trouble reconciling this quote from Garber in a recent Tannenwald article with what I've heard fans saying, the attendance numbers given in this thread, and what I have seen with my own eyes in the stadium. Union season ticket renewals are at an all-time high and among the best in the league? Only ways I can make sense of it: - Many casual STH's had already left prior to this past offseason and only die-hards remain. - STH's are not showing up for games. - Number of people buying single-game tickets has declined, probably because single game tix are widely available on the secondary market at reduced cost, or for free from the Union or STH's. http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...arber-merritt-paulson-20180314.html?mobi=true JT: "What do you make of the Union’s attendance at the moment?" Don Garber: "I can only tell you about what led up the beginning of this year. Their group sales are doing well. Their season ticket renewals were in the top quartile in the league. Their renewals were, I think the second-best in their history. Leading up to 2018, their sales have been pretty good."* [* – A Union spokesman later followed up on this, confirming that the team last winter had the league’s fourth-highest season ticket renewal rate, the team’s highest ever amount of revenue from renewals, and its highest ever sponsorship revenue.]
I can buy the Sponsorship revenue line... that makes sense, but they must be talking in percentages year over year when it comes to tickets.... it's the only way that makes any sense. I remember the early years they reported around 11,000+ STHs.... I think McDermott mentioned last year they were around 9,500. (not sure if that included partial packages) If I was going to guess when they say renewals they are talking about a percentage.... If I'm taking a shot in the dark teams towards the top of the renewal list need must be teams like TFC, Seattle, Portland, Atlanta and SKC.... at worst one of them is maybe around 90% renewal rate (maybe SKC)... I can't imagine the Union's rate is much better than KC so if the Union are ahead of them at #4 lets estimate the Union are at a 91% renewal rate.... If they are at a 91% renewal rate that puts them at 8,656 Season ticket holders in 2018, a loss of 855.... that seems plausible since I think you are right the drop from 11,000 to 9,500 probably trimmed off most people that weren't die-hards and the last few years things normalized around that 9,500 number with people who are here for better or worse, and last year obviously took a toll on some of the more hardcore people too. I assume packages and single game tickets including March games aren't selling like hotcakes, so Saturday's game looked about right for and 8,656 STH team... that 15K number HAD to of been inflated by give-aways or something. I'm sure they'll manage to get a handful of sellouts come warmer weather.
Season Ticket prices for the Union have never been higher......so making more revenue off of less Season Tickets is highly plausible. I currently have 4 season tickets. I have two, and two of m,y friends use the other two. The first game of the year, 3 of my seats went unused. One of my seats might not get used much until August when my one friend returns from Grad School overseas. That's just me. Some STH's merely have them in order to resell them on the after market. While others might be founding members who've temporarily relocated out of the area, and are keeping them for when they move back. Early season games, and afternoon games are usually sparsely attended. Mainly due to the weather being less than ideal and also the timing conflicting with youth sports. I wouldn't use this board as a serious gauge of fan disillusionment either. There's maybe 10 people who post consistently here. That's not a big sample size. Not to mention the folks here are more of the die-hard fans who have either a realistic view, or a decidedly negative view of the team. Casual fans tend be more positive when it comes to their fandom, and casual fans don't normally post on message boards. Seriously, die hard MLS fans have been crying for the Krafts to sell the Revs or build a Stadium in Boston Proper for years now. They always cite low attendance as the reason, completely ignoring the fact the Revs attendance steadily improves throughout the season and usually comes in close to the top half of the league (>18K a game). Does anyone really think Sugarman is going to pay $10M to move out of TES??? He just spent $14M on the training complex.....Jay's not selling this team unless he gets a ridiculous offer for it ($200M+ most likely). That's the reality of this.
I went into Account manager and looked at my order history. 2010 only seems to have some ticketing fees associated with it and I can't find any of my history for 2011 for some reason.... on top of that the billing seems to be itemized really weird, but here is what I was (sort of) able to come up with in terms of price increases for my River End tickets... 2012: $250 2013: $280 2014: $306 2015: $288 (was this early re-doop discount? idk) 2016: $233 (or maybe this was?) 2017: $316 2018: $351 sooooo after some awful math and some questionable numbers..... if they were around 11K season ticket holders in 2012. and now around 8,500 in 2018.... tickets are roughly $100 more? Yeah... that difference is more than made up for with the increased prices. the more I look at this the more these numbers just don't seem right.... I don't know what to think other than the Union's account manager purchase history thing sucks.
Is it safe to guarantee that the July 21st home game versus LA Galaxy will be a sellout? Sounds like Zlatan has signed with the Galaxatives, and I'm sure the Union FO will trumpet the shit out of Ibra's visit to TES.
Did Beckham ever take the field here? I think they FO sold plenty of tickets based on his likeness and he never even played. Superstars don't travel East and take the pitch.
I think Beckham traveled once, maybe in 2010... there was definitely one game he didn’t play, but pretty sure the Galaxy only played in Chester twice during his tenure.
I'm pretty sure Becks played in Chester at least once (2010?). My ears are still ringing from the 2 teenage girls sitting behind me that game. Looked much like my avatar after that one. Think he also didn't make the trip one year also.
He did play here for a regular season game, at least once. The throngs of people who swarmed the away bench when he was subbed out - and thereby obstructing my view of the game - was absolutely ridiculous.
He played once for the Galaxy in the latter stages of the 2010 season, and even assisted on the winning goal off of a corner kick. He also played at TES in 2012 for the MLS All Star Game.
Yep. Looks like I missed 2010 for some reason. I guess the memories of all the disappointed tweens in 2011 over shadowed it.
You missed out... We broke the world record for most hands sanitized at once in a single place. Also some dude put on like 100 shirts at once.
haha the shirt guy was awesome! also, pretty sure Beckham gave someone the finger in TRE for comments related to Posh Spice. There was also a confrontation that came close to a fist fight after someone in TRE asked Becks for an autograph when he was leaving the field.
Looking at the galaxy schedule I really don't think he comes... Here's why At new England 7/14, here 7/21, Derby 7/26 @lafc , home 7/29 vs Orlando. They are gonna stay here on East coast at least a week (unless they fly back and forth which gives me less hope he comes to Chester)and then a shortened week for a massive Derby match, and Orlando home 3 days later. There's no way he's playing 4 matches in two weeks