Only 2,100 paid attendance at yesterday's game versus the Silverbacks. Mother's Day may have had a little something to do with it. Changing the original start time from 4PM to 6PM doesn't help. Doesn't really matter since South Florida has always been a tough market. Too much "Jimmy Buffet" mentality down there, peeps would just rather sip on Pina Coladas while swinging in their hammocks by the beach. But I heard on the radio one of the main reasons more people don't come out last night. I was listening to Radio Caracol out of Miami around halftime listening for an update since Caracol ususally sends out a reporter to give a live report from the match. When he came on, he interviewed this Honduran lady and she said that while she was happy to be witnessing futbol back in Miami, she was disappointed the team didn't have more Hondurans on the team. She said Miami FC needs to go to Honduras more and get more players from there. The reporter tried to explain to her that a team is chosen to win games, not necessarily to appease the fans' sense of patriotism. She was still adamant that they needed more Hondurans and she said that she probably wouldn't be back. Then they interviewed a Peruvian guy and he said that there's plenty of talent down in Peru and that he was dissapointed in not seeing one Peruvian on the team. While not a problem stating his disappointment, I don't understand why people gotta break out the nationality card in the first place. Ok, regulations about foreign limits per team aside, this is one main reason nothing happens in Miami soccer wise. Too many damn allegiances to one's home country in terms of a team's makeup. If the rules about foreign limits changed overnight, I could care less if Miami FC brought in 11 guys from Zimbabwe. If they're the best out there, then I'm behind them. If Ray Hudson had brought in 11 Chinese players to play for the Fusion, I would have still been behind them. None of this "No Chileans??" or "Where are my Argentinos at?" crap. Damn shame that lot of these people think this way. If I were in Holland and followed Ajax, I woulnd't be complaining about a lack of Americans on their roster. WTF is going on here folks?!?! Follow Miami FC for what they are. Stop complaining about the team's lack of a certain nationality on the roster. I want you to still attend even if the team were all "gringos". It's the only game in town.
??? I won't even address this particular inaccuracy given it was your rant and often people say things that don't make sense in rants. I will however point out that Mother's Day was probably a key factor in yesterday's attendance. I also think that the comments of two people do not make for the general sentiment with regards to fans of a football club. It is a no win proposition to try to attract and retain the type of fan that is there as a show of national pride. Hopefully, MFC is trying to target and is attracting fans of the game. This is a process that takes time, particularly with the spotty football history this part of the country has.
When I used to try and get my friends to go with me to Fusion games, 90% of the time, I would get the "I'm going to the beach/club, maybe next week." excuse. Next home game would come, I'd try and I'd get the same response. Rinse, repeat. I mean, if the Dolphins can't sell out their games and Channel 4 has to buy the remaining tickets so they can show the game on television, what does that say about fickle fans? Add to that, a "nationality clause" excuse and it starts to get ridiculous.
I think this thread just proves that many things are against successful pro soccer in Miami. Ethnic/national pride, beach, time change...everything will/is adding up for challenges. Hopefully Traffic and MFC will stick it out and become Miami's "team" and that will gain more crowds then any one player, even Romario.
SoccerPrime is right to hope Traffic should stick it out. We saw it with the Fusion. The team started to win during the last season and the fans were starting to show up. Attendance and season ticket sales went up. Unfortunetly Horowitz didn't stick around for another season and pulled the plug. I'm not saying we will ever fill the Orange Bowl or Lockhart Stadium, but I think the Fusion would have been getting an average of close to 15K per game at this stage. We need to establish a Soccer tradition in South Florida, Traffic needs to stick it out for the next 10 years so that kids can grow up with the team and we as fans need to keep buging our friends to go to games. We need to recruit fans from the local Colleges to become part of the Barra Brava!
So far we got... 3243 2433 2125 also food for thought...why hasn't Miami gotten a nickname yet? You can market so much with a nickname. Not saying that the team has to go by the Miami Sky Blues or the Miami Surge (although it wouldn't sound bad). They can still go by Miami FC, but it can be like it is in England. For example Liverpool doesn't go by the Liverpool Reds, but everyone knows that Liverpool's nickname is the Reds. But one thing is true, getting a nickname would only help the marketing cause, people get attached to nicknames...it defines a team, Miami NEEDS to get this done.
There is no quick fix for attendance. You have to also remember that this franchise only started 7 months ago. Building a fan base takes time. Putting the team on the field is actually easier then building your brand and fan base. Seven months is not enough time to do that. It takes time to sell season tickets and groups. Well, the season has started so they have to pretty much have to concentrate on groups. And having a winning team is not enough to increase your attendance. It helps, but it just makes it easier to see the product. You still have to sell the product. If signing someone like Romario doesn't give a boost, I doubt that coming up with a flashy nick name is going change that. And also, if you take into consideration that this Brazilian ownership group, and that their target market are South Americans, Central Americans and those from the Caribbean. So a nick name doesn't really have that much of value to those groups.
Yeah, I don't think they are a charming nickname and a lovable mascot away from success. I went to the Miami-Montreal game and it was a very comfortable atmosphere and a fun game. Considering that the main language spoken at the game was Spanish, I'm guessing that having the representation of a variety of countries on the roster would be important. Nothing wrong with that. To market soccer in Miami and not expect that that would be important would be silly. They can't be marketed like a minor league baseball team. I think Traffic realizes this and is acting appropriately.