Guys we need 10,000 at this game! Already started tweeting like hell! Use this #10000atLockhart Whoever has a twitter account use it and follow me: http://twitter.com/#!/footballsoccerm and of course follow that damn dog Burrito: http://twitter.com/#!/Burritofutbol
Something tells me 10,000 is a little too ambitious. I think topping opening night is a definite possibility, but I'm wondering if it's just a bit too soon to be expecting 10,000. We can build to that for sure if the team does well on the field, and gameday continues to be an exciting and fun experience. I just don't want us to set the bar too high too soon because then it will seem a little deflating if we don't get there. I'd love to be able to crow all over the web about 10,000+ at Lockhart for the rebirth of one of the oldest and strongest rivalries in North American soccer - Rowdies vs. Strikers. But I'll be absolutely ecstatic with 7,000+ at this point!
I agree, but it's a realistic goal. It's what the team SHOULD be shooting for. They've been hitting the youth clubs and city of FTL hard promoting this one and presumably selling lots of tickets. 10K is something we'd all like to see but if we end up in the 7K range I will not at all be deflated or disappointed. That's still like 7 times the amount of fans that showed up for any game last year.
I agree. Shoot for the moon, we've got nothing to lose by doing it. Realistically, I'd be delighted with 7k to 7.5k. That would be great. More would be gravy, and the Herald still won't report it...
Here's an idea... Go to the game and bring several big signs that says something to the effect of "The Herald Sucks" or "Boycott The Herald - They Hate Soccer" and see if they sit up and take notice. It would be fun, at least. Maybe a competing paper would run a picture of the Strikers fans' signs in their rag. That would be great publicity! The fans need to unite and use their power to promote the game. At least make a few chants.
That's not a bad idea. The Sun-Sentinel(not so coincidentally based in downtown Fort Lauderdale) has done a very nice job covering the team. They even covered Miami FC on a more consistent basis than the Herald. The Herald covers MLS, UEFA, everything else, even magicJack, but not the Strikers. Seems they are afflicted with the same nonsensical anti-Fort Lauderdale, anti-D2 nonsense that some Miami fans have.
This. I am happy someone else is thinking it. I didn't want to be the only pessimistic "old man" around. That number is probably a good one for the team to shoot for in the future. However, the nature of the So Florida sports fan leads me to believe that we will never attain it with D2. Remember, we were once happy with an 11K average in 2001 with the MLS's Fusion getting good press and well known by their best fourth year (and that number is slightly skewed by a double-header or two). I would love 10K, but another 6K-ish number is perfectly acceptable to me.
I think these are all excellent points, and I tend to agree that 10K may be a bit of a stretch goal, but it may just be attainable. My first Miami FC game was the last home game vs. Tampa last year, which if my recollection is correct attracted the largest home crowd of the year - slightly more than 1,900, which was well above (almost double?) the season average. If we exceed this season's average by a similar margin, we should be in good shape. The reason I attended the game was the memory of the old rivalry between the Strikers and Rowdies, and I wanted to have my 10 year old son get a taste of it (even with less than 2K, the atmosphere was great, we were treated to a competitive game, and there was even a bit of a fight when some of the Tampa supporters got a bit rough with some of the kids running around with MFC flags!). My point is that I wanted to be there for the game against Tampa, even if we were not the Strikers. I have to believe that the rivalry against Tampa is enough to get a bump up in attendance from the first few home games, and hopefully it will be 10K+. I also agree that anything above the opening game attendance will be great and should not be considered a disappointment. I for one have been talking the game up non-stop at work and believe I've convinced a good bit of folks to head out to the game this weekend - we'll see!
Gater, Last years average attendance was around 1,250. We'd have needed around 2,500 to double it. I don't think we ever doubled it. This year, thus far, we're getting over 5,000 (5,400?) per game, nearly 4 times last years average. Last year 37 season tickets were sold. This year it is over 1,000, pretty close to last year's average per game. All that ain't bad.... Still, we have to nearly double this year's season average to get 10k in Lockhart. Maybe the pull of the reborn Strikers v FCTB can bring a game that nearly doubles our current average. Maybe. We'll see (those 2 words are my line, FYI, but since you are also from Davie, I'll allow it to be our line......). GO STRIKERS!!
I know someone else said not to take it to mean too much, but if you go to the ticket link and try to purchase two reserved tickets at this point you're looking at section 119, about 2/3 of the way up. Now I don't know if the team is purposely holding some of the reserved seats back in anticipation of walk ups, but it just seems like unless there is a late push or a very large walk up crowd, we might not sell out the north side reserved seats again like on opening night. I'm a conservative guy by nature, so don't think I'm trying to be a downer here with the whole 10,000 number. Believe me, if the Strikers got 10,000 for this game, I'll make a new post calling out the infamous Kenn and his preseason dismissal of the effect of reviving the Strikers brand. Nothing would please me more than to slap it in the face of the nay sayers who said the Strikers wouldn't do any more than slightly better than the putrid numbers of Miami FC. But I just don't want to set the expectations too high too fast. Everything about this season so far is exceeding expectations I think, and I'd prefer to exceed expectations rather than not quite meet them because we set them so high. I'm going to throw out 7,900 as my attendance guess. I think all the ticket specials they've done plus it being the Rowdies can definitely help us beat opening night. To me just matching it would be awesome as you rarely see that in lower level soccer, as opening night is usually where most teams peak attendance wise. And I'll say this. If we have the same kind of electric atmosphere at the stadium, AND the Strikers win an exciting game, maybe the next trip in for the Rowdies we can start talking about 9,000 - 10,000. In the meantime, here's hoping for a respectable mid-week crowd for the faithful in Cary tonight, an uniterrupted live stream feed , and at least a point for our boys tonight!!!
Guys, even if "only" 5k show up those of us traveling down for this one will be nothing less than impressed. Any more than that would be sick. I'm telling everyone up here that you guys will have 10k to try and get more interested in going down. Oh and it was just one idiot who assaulted a child and stole their flag last time we were down there and that person's actions were neither sanctioned nor condoned by the Mob. Just wanted to clarify that because you said "some" when mentioning the incident. The rest of us, by a 99.999% majority, prefer it when your team's reserves get lippy or when Sloth gets all uppity and starts throwing tampons.
Antique, Thanks for the clarification on attendance, and thanks for cutting a fellow Davie resident some slack - didn't realize I was poaching your line!!! Whatever the attendance average was last year, the important point is that we destroy it this year. Can't wait to see how many turn out this weekend...
Speedcake, Good to know it was one 'outlier'....its a shame how one loser can stand out from an entire group....didn't mean to slam the entire group! Either way, as inappropriate as it was, it added to the mystique of the rivalry (at least in my mind) and the atmosphere at the game. I hope you guys are able to get a huge group to come down for the game, and I certainly hope we get the 10K and you all leave impressed by the numbers!
Speedcake being impressed by a 10K turnout? I'll be impressed to the point of being flabbergasted by that many. So would all of SFU, the Ultras, and Flight 19. Tim Robbie, too, I'll bet!... But, we gotta start winning consistently to keep the good times rollin'.... GO STRIKERS!!!
Well cr@p.... I finally got around to looking at tomorrow's weather report and I wish I hand't. Supposed to be a very good chance of rain all afternoon and night. The only thing that could be a detriment to us having an incredibly large crowd is apparently going to rear its ugly head. I can't believe the luck of this. I'm going to have to revise my attendance guess down in light of this to maybe 7,000 tops, a good portion of which may actually be paid but empty seats. Why oh why did the rainy season need to start tomorrow?!?
Weather.com is showing only a 30% chance of rain during the entire game with isolated T-storms. I don't live anywhere near Ft. Lauderdale so I hope the isolated storms stay away. I'll add this to my prayer groups list of daily prayers - dry weather in Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow all day & night!
I usually follow wunderground.com and they've got it at 50% for the afternoon and 40% for night. At any rate I think it's pretty clear that it is going to rain tomorrow. How much and when will play some factor, but any significant rain at all reasonably close to game time will hurt attendance regardless. Ok, enough with my pessimism. LOL Still want to see a huge crowd for a Rowdies beat down!
The old days of checking the weather. I remember a couple of years ago when I would check the weather in hope of not having practice, and it would always say 50%, and then no clouds would pass. I also remember a couple years ago, during a tropical storm, weather channel had 100% chance of rain, and it didn't rain a drop all day
Also, fwiw, after 6 PM the chances of an isolated thunder storm go away. I will be there, after I stop reffing (where I will be telling all the players and parents about the game). I don't think the rain will stop us unless the weather report is wrong
Weather report is a usually a crap shoot anyways. As the summer comes in and rolls on it's almost daily afternoon rain, but it's usually not a problem once 7:30 comes around(unless you're trying to go to a Marlins game, I swear there is a unique weather climate over Sun Life Stadium lol). Rain or shine we'll be fine on Saturday.
We have a 30% chance of rain from 1PM until 9PM. It is a crap shoot, and there is nowhere else quite like Lockhart Stadium in a downpour....,but it is still worth the effort & risk to go.
6,500+, 5,400(?), 4,700. I've heard the canceled game had over 7,000 expected. Personally, I expect another 4,500 for this Saturday's game. We'll see if the rest of the season maintains these figures. I do expect the Strikers to be well over last seasons 1,250 average.