Y'alls saw the game, so it's not really a review. But after two fantastic playoff series (Wave v Comets and Wave v Blast), it kills me that this sport can't be made viable to the public or to sponsors. The players are engaging, they are accessible, the tickets are reasonably affordable and though they are not MLS caliber, some teams have quality sides. The Wave had an unexpectedly brilliant season. After jettisoning many of the old timers who were just spinning their wheels in Milwaukee, they acquired all sorts of young guys from Canada (Lemos, Chamale and Renaud), St. Louis (Vandegriffe and Hayne) and Detroit (Mattos and Ricardino). After a bit of a rocky start, everything clicked into place and they cruised through the second half of the season and came one "indoor soccer" goal away from this year's Finals. The Wave was so much fun this year, that it kills me that the fiscals can only manage 10 home games per year. I didn't walk out of the Arena tonight lamenting an (in effect) overtime loss in a deciding series, but I want to see more! More games! More teams! More close games! More surprise wins! Maybe, if we all close our eyes and wish hard enough, we can showcase these two playoff series to prospective fans and sponsors, and grow the financials to the point that we can maybe get 24 or 30 games with an average gate of 5,000 fans. OK, that won't happen by closing our eyes and wishing. But it sure would be nice.
Definitely some very entertaining playoff games this season. Give the MASL a chance, they have made great improvements this year, and maybe we will see some viable sponsors in the future. The player talent has really improved this year, like you said its not MLS talent, but very good indoor talent. I surprised how good it actually is under the low budget that the teams deal with. One thing the league needs to do is do a better job at marketing the players. Get their names out there! Maybe do pre game interviews/promos on social media/Masl.com etc. Create some hype for the upcoming games. The MASL needs to find a way to develop more of a fan base. Similar to the fan base that the MISL had in the 80's, of course it wont return to that, but have more of a fan base that they have now. For example, the Blast, among of teams, had a large fan base in the 80's. They did not need to rely on group sales, like they have since them. Nothing wrong with group sales, all teams should use them, just would be nice to have a bigger fan base. The new MASL website and You tube games are a great start it doing this! Of course in doing this you would have to stay within budget and not break the bank. That's great that you want to see more pro indoor soccer action, but unfortunately there just are not enough fans out there like you to have a 30 game season. Twenty regular season games/per team is perfect for this league right not. From looking at past seasons, when you start adding more games, you just start to dilute the product and attendance gets even worse. The MASL teams should concentrate on the 10 homes given and promo each of them to their best ability. They do not even league average 5000/game for the 10 home games each team currently has, so there really is no reason to add more games. But I'm with you and would like to see more MASL action!
I really think the PASL model is working. Sadly I doubt we can organically grow to a truly pro league with 5k a game attendance in the near future. I want to see it. If I had the idea(s) on how to solve attendance I'd buy a team and do it. I think the only way this grows is for MASL teams to start their own indoor soccer leagues in schools. If 15 Milwaukee schools had an indoor soccer team that would generate interest in the sport.
Actually, They can do the same thing without schools. Have each team run a statewide soccer tournament in different age groups & have the winners of each play its championship game at the team's homes games. Each person participating in the Tournament gets 2 tickets to a game. Now if you do this over 5 age groups for Boys and girls , you could sell a ton of tickets to upcoming games.
That will cost a ton though. Statewide tournaments are a huge underaking. I mean in Rhode Island and Delaware it might be doable, but no teams in either market. If Harrisburg tried to run a state wide anything it would rapidly overwhelm their finances. .......and if you are giving two tickets to each participant, where is the selling of tix coming from? Most kids (if they redeem it, which i doubt) would simply show up with one parent. I personally think you need to keep it local, and work with the schools. They already have a network established with other sports.
The tickets would be given to the teams as apart of the entry fees of $350.00 per 12 man team. -$180 for ticket cost , That leave you with $170.00 per team to cover cost of rental of arenas awards and Trophies. The Parents would also buy tickets to go to the games. I do like your idea about getting into the schools since it is already set up, Give them a kick back so they can raise money.