Damnit Chris. I blame you for this. I blame you for making me agree completely with WC here. That's another black mark against him.
I agree w JC somewhat , win and people overlook shortcomings like less than desirable scheduling or how hot it is etc etc. Robertson and concessions / amenities were crap and we complained but we got crowds because people liked winning entertainment. A concern I have is how expensive everything has gotten. They are pricing the working class families and walk up ticket buyers out of the market. Keep in mind that Brener is the only ace you see. There is also a group of local venture capatilists. They are waiting for all that eventual expansion money and then they will sell out.
Everyone go try to buy a single game ticket for the NE game on the 31st. A whole bunch of sections on the West side of the stadium are showing no tickets available, including corners and half of end zone seats. It showed that way for the Vancouver game as well and we know tickets weren’t sold out in those areas based on visual evidence. But what I think is happening is the Dynamo are restricting ticket sales to those sections to force ticket sales on the east side which faces the TV cameras to give a false sense of the attendance at the games. This is tactic they’ve used for women’s and CONCACAF games before. How pathetic is it that the 2018 Dynamo FO feels it has to manage ticket sales to give off better TV shots for home game 3 of the season.
This is an interesting Reddit thread http://www.reddit.com/r/dynamo/comments/85sgwb/dynamo_fans_and_attendance_are_we_trying_to/
I missed the ATL game as I was in Denver on vacation but made the Vancouver game. I agree it was annoying that the seats were still sticky where the name plates had been removed. I was disappointed with the crowd as well. The team is finally playing a more interesting style of soccer but still lost. I think part of the problem is the Dynamo are stuck in playing a MLS 2.0 style. Counter attack and lobe passes forward. Teams like Toronto, LAFC, and ATL play a much quicker, beautiful style. Teams like Houston still typically play the "MLS" version of soccer that Eurosnobs like to point to and say is ugly and shows the lower level of talent. Teams that spend and use TAM well are getting play makers that make it more fun to watch and not shake your head as another pass is over someones head or hit way off target. Houston turns the ball over too easy as well. But for me, as I have said before, BBVA has never captured the atmosphere Robertson had. It has always felt stale. I wish they would learn from teams like SKC who turned things around. It is frustrating to be lumped with FCD, Chicago, DC, and Colorado instead of SKC and Orlando. On a side note, according to ESPN's poll of players, Houston is a tough place to play because of the heat, humidity, no fans, and crap field. A,so, WC is the coach that players would least like to play for in the league. Great to see those two accolades.
The move from Robertson to BBVA should have enhanced the atmosphere but IMO it went the other direction. Something was lost in the move that I can’t put my finger on, but I suspect as the club transitioned from a “just there for the soccer” crowd to a more nuanced and sophisticated ticket base (corporate and otherwise) there was a loss of energy. That’s not to say there haven’t been some great games at BBVA, but we will never see a crowd or energy like the Dallas 2nd leg playoff in 2007 or Pachuca Superliga night game. Those days are gone forever The FO also compounded the problem by trying to charge premium prices for pseudo-premium amenities and one look at the available clubs seats tells you the story on that.
The team needs more roster investment from the investors, attention from the local media, and a ton of marketing. I'm not sure that happens anytime soon.
My favorite memory was the playoff game against LAG in 2009 or 2010 (the year is foggy). Huge crowd and got a can of beans after the game. I really thought BBVA was going to take the team to the next level. SKC has transformed their fan base the year before with their new stadium and I thought Houston was going to improve on what was already a great fan base. I went to the first game against DC and had to buy tickets on resale because it was "sold out". The stadium wasn't even full and I have been waiting ever since for the magic to come back.
SKC spent about twice as much on their stadium as the Dynamo did and it shows. SKC is an interesting comparison because their stadium is in an outlying suburban area surrounded by an outlet mall and a NASCAR track yet it is one of the best stadiums (and hardest to play in according to the MLS player survey). Dynamo went somewhat cheap and they are paying for it now. And you can never really economically retrofit BBVA to get to a SKC stadium level in terms of amenities as it isn’t cost-effective. Thus, a lot of “Taste of EaDo” cheap remodels. There were really four stadium options: - expensive location, expensive stadium (LAFC, TFC, maybe new DC) - expensive location, cheap stadium (BBVA) - cheap location, expensive stadium (SKC) - cheap location, cheap stadium (Colorado, Dallas - school district paid for some of it) Dynamo picked expensive Downtown location, got the land donated, but got no surrounding real estate and went somewhat no-frills on the stadium. They bet on location to drive stadium demand and were somewhat off. Downtown isn’t a draw for BBVA, or at least not enough to offset the perceive hassle.
I think it was when our supporters groups were treated like outsiders in their own stadium. But I do think they went more corporate instead of building something with real roots.
We have a great stadium in a great place - anywhere else would have another unique set of problems. The main problem with the stadium is that it is too hot to sit or play in the full summer sun but a different structural design with a roof wouldn't completely solve that. Parking is an issue but usually it isn't that bad when they aren't playing during Astros / rush hour / or Houston rockets games Like we have said before win consistently and more people will show up. If they want a completely full stadium they need to lower prices for families to be able to afford bringing kids. Right now ickets parking food would be 40 - 50 buck a head - a family of 4 would cost $200. You may get that family for one game to see Giovanni Dos Santos but forget having them for multiple games. Win more games (what would that take) and lower the prices to facilitate walk ups and single game ticket buyers.
If we had a David Villa, Lee Ngyuen as #10, and a Roman Torres at CB in the spine - I would guarantee more wins, better soccer, and a full stadium. Come on Canetti, Jordan: so shall it is said, so will it be done!
Westside is right about the KC stadium. I remember when I first wrote about it on these boards when I visited in 2011, I got a lot of shit: KC BBQ sucks, Houston is the best rah rah, KC fans are racist blah blah. No one actually paid attention to the point I was making. The KC stadium is really well designed and kept their Supporters best interest in mind when building their northern end. The stadium didn’t take any cheap construction corners and I went back a couple years later and the fan stadium-wide free WiFi connected backup immediately. BBVA Stadium is a plain concrete stadium surrounded by a fancy steel and plastic mesh frame to make it seem more expensive than it really is. It’s like a neighbor that lives in a shitty neighborhood in a shitty house but brings up the appearance because he power washes his facade and lays down mulch/plants flowers on time...but it’s still a shtty house in a shtty neighborhood with shtty AIRFLOW.
btw I’m not poo-pooing the concourse updates. they were much needed even though I wish they wouldn’t gone the $25 hot dog route.
Here’s a tweet from the new marketing VP on March 13th talking about the new Pitchside Patio for groups and implying available dates are moving quickly so “ act now and don’t be shut out” http://mobile.twitter.com/AManNamedBrady1/status/973724478910926848 Today: individual seats are available for the Pitchside Patio for this weekend’s game, no minimum purchase: http://mobile.twitter.com/HoustonDynamo/status/978645631072915456
I love some of the Reddit comments about the ticket people pushing the multi-year renewal and trying to scare people that they will lose their seats if they don’t renew early http://www.reddit.com/r/dynamo/comments/88d96x/does_the_front_office_not_care_about_fans/
Dynamo announced a crowd of 17,156 - about 80% roughly of capacity. The photos below show that figure considerably questionable - you can only draw a conclusion that they are giving away a ton of comps, fudging the figures, or a lot of people don't mind lighting their money on fire by eating tickets. Either way, this is not a good trend. Look at the club seat area in the second picture - the 2nd level club seats are especially empty (and they aren't all in the club, lot of seats available on the Dynamo site for premium single game seating) Yesterday in the AM you could buy Presidents Club seats in every section they have, are they not sold or are they givebacks they resell? Empty Seats Galore @EmptySeatsPics From yesterday: Announced crowd of 17,156 for #HOUvNE. #MLS (http://bit.ly/2Gr7NF5 + http://bit.ly/2pXytCf ) 8:54 AM - 1 Apr 2018
The Dynamo reddit page is pretty active with folks today complaining about the FO - I'm not sure about if BigSoccer or reddit are representative samples (probably not) but it seems quite a few people are figuring out the FO only runs on spreadsheets that yield the minimum needed at the lowest expense possible without caring about quality. BTW - the notion that you should keep buying tickets to "support" the team or are worried they may leave is garbage with the Dynamo; it just means they won't do any more than the minimum to keep drawing 17,000 a game (even if that figure is fictional).
These are my two favorites: "The whole organization is a joke. The product on the field is lacking, but everyone has bad years, I can kinda forgive that. What I can't abide is everything else about the organization. Understaffed stadium, overpriced food and beer, and god forbid you finish your beer in the middle of a half, you'd miss the entire rest of the game waiting in line for another one. The stadium isn't that old but obviously isn't being maintained properly. The seats are faded. STILL no name stickers on the seats. My Dynamo "Season Membership" card is already splitting in half, (I'd hate to see how fast season ticket holder scarves would unravel if they ever thought to reward their season ticket holders with something). And worst of all, what's the point in being a season ticket holder? Looking at the games so far, I could get tickets on StubHub for every game and it come out cheaper than buying season tickets! I'm done with this whole organization. I'll come out to see Zlatan score a dozen times on us, but the rest of my season tickets are going up for sale." "I’m a season ticket holder and after this past off season and last night, I think I’m done being a season ticket holder. There is zero benefits at all. This organization is maybe the cheapest in the league! I still don’t have a ticket rep. It’s been a couple of months now. Trying to get a hold of anyone is a guessing game at this point. This is how you lose clients in any other field. Find someone or reward the guys there so they aren’t leaving every year. Everyone else in the West went out and got better. What did we do? Stood pat and hoped that literally everything that happened last year repeated itself. Terrible strategy. Why should I spend my money on this organization. When they don’t spend theirs? Did they really think that Bird, Ward, K Garcia, and Malki would actually help them win s championship? I don’t have a problem with those guys being on the team, but you can’t have all four of them and then turn around and tell your fans with a straight face that you are serious about winning and competing for the championship! 2 DP’s on the entire roster!!!! Are we the only team in the league that is trying to win with only 2? Cheap cheap cheap. I don’t care that they sold Cubo late in the season, there is zero excuse for a team that wants to win to only have 2 DP’s on the team. That to me was a clear sign that this organization is the cheapest in the league. Dallas has an amazing academy that they get players from. Colorado has gone out and grabbed players. That leaves us an Minnesota as the cheapest, and I personally can’t imagine they are worse than Houston. And anyone that is going to say that they are going to bring one in during the summer and they’ll help us disillusioned. Just look at last year with Tomas! Brought him in and we are still waiting for him to mesh with the team and get fit. What a joke! Their track record with DP’s is one hit and a whole lot of misses. No shirt sponser!!!!!!! It’s 2018. Absolutely no reason not to have this done. The fact that they don’t have one tells me that they don’t have enough resources to get business done. How long did they know they would need a new shirt sponser? I’ll tell you, the second they signed the BHP deal they knew when it was set to expire. We literally look like we are a 2007 team out there compared to the rest of the league. For the life of me I don’t understand how they haven’t gotten a deal done. They just extended Jordan. For what? He has terrible roster management!! We have an international roster spot that can’t crack the game day 18 in 4 straight games and he has been health. What a waste of a international slot. CAsk yourself this question, what can you point to that he has done that makes you think he can find players that will help this team win a championship? If all you can point to is Elis, not enough. Is Brenner too cheap to spend money on finding a better option? I would say yes. The worst part if all of this is there is nothing we can do about. You can’t make Brenner care. You can’t make him spend his money. All you can do is stop caring. Why should you care when the people that can make changes are either, too cheap to do anything, too poor to do anything, or the just don’t care. Not sure which is worse.
Even the Dynamo Fan of the Year has a complaint about something in stadium ops, and he’s as Orange as they come!!! http://mobile.twitter.com/webtilton/status/980592016320065537
Some more satisfied Dynamo customers!! http://www.reddit.com/r/dynamo/comments/89fyvx/tried_to_contact_the_club_to_point_out_all_the/