Safeco Field in the foreground, CenturyLink Field is a block away in the background, the building between is CenturyLink convention center and WaMu Theater. Can't claim there isn't significant season overlap with this one.
no...but a) there is some overlap in customers, I bet......and b) Seattle is a little bit bigger than Dundee and most of the cities that multiple teams in British soccer.....the population of all of Scotland is less than what we have here in the Greater Toronto Area....but there are far more professional teams and they all play the exact same season. The point I was making, and I still stand by it, is that comparing MLS attendances to countries with different sporting cultures is a waste of time.
And the popularity of soccer and lack of significant competition inflates the attendance for European teams... It is foolhardy to ignore the competition for sports dollars in American/Canadian cities just because the teams are in different sports.. Just because their is overlap in fans between the sports, it doesn't mean people can support the teams financially...
Are you friggin' kidding me? Two (TWO!!!) games into the season, whereby 19 of 22 teams have played only 1 home game, is enough data to signify a trend? I guess this is part of the price of the internet. All these sites need content, so invariably the quality of that content will often be decidedly sub-par.
Yes, and Fox News as well. If you're going to be political, Fiosfan, as you often try to do in a roundabout way, try to recognize that both sides are equally stupid in different ways.
Once the 3 new stadiums are completed, the maximum possible average attendance using "official" stadium capacities will be 23,433. Attendances at NHL are 95.888% of official stadium capacity. To equal that MLS would need an average of 22,495. However if you factor in the games where attendances significantly exceed official capacity SEA-POR, SJ-LAG etc (105k?), that comes down to about 22,226. So what I'm saying is that if the average home attendance is 22,226 + whatever extra the big games bring in, MLS will have a higher % of attendance/capacity than NHL. By the way EPL 94.02% BL 93.06% La Liga 73.1% Ligue 1 - 66.05% Serie A 53.49%
Not the first time they've used cherry-picked data to paint an incomplete picture of MLS. That agenda-driven, Europoser circle-jerk website really needs to screen the content they allow to get published.
I would not have guessed this. I know the top teams regularly sell out but thought for sure the bottom dwellers would've had more impact as an anchor. Bully for them, then, especially considering the number of games they play. An interesting comparison, one that I initially disregarded but now that I think about it is part of the MLS objectives. Ideally they want to match/exceed attendance rates of the other big US sports to make the business model work, both for gameday revenues and as a demonstration to sponsors of the dedicated audience. Even for the smaller stadiums crowds at 95%+ capacity should be within acceptable ranges for recouping gameday operating costs and provide a nice environment. So perhaps for the next generation 18-21K will be the settling-in range for MLS much like 30-35k for baseball, 18k for NHL, etc. If MLS could see these types of figures consistently, especially from the teams currently trolling the 13-15k range, then I'd be thrilled. Imagine Garber and company would be, as well.
One positive for the teams, if not the ticket buying fans, is that running over 90% capacity allows teams to drive more revenue per ticket. Back when the Wizards were at Arrowhead and I was publishing the ECG, then president Curt Johnson, in a shocking moment of candor, admitted that the team needed to average 18,000 at Arrowhead to break even. But that was "18,000 at Arrowhead" and not "18,000". OnGoal wouldn't have built an 18,500 capacity stadium if that was the case. Especially with the debt servicing needed to pay off the construction - an expense not present at Arrowhead. Arrowhead had 80,000 seats and the Wizards generally averaged around 12k (with seasonal averages just below 10 to above 15). Even there best season was only 20% of capacity. Good seats were always available. Group sales, giveaways, $5 Zard Card tickets were the norm. My guess is that average revenue per ticket distributed is at least 5x what it was at Arrowhead, maybe more than 10x. Running at 100% capacity for most of the last 9+ seasons (since the move to 10,385 seat CAB) has allowed the team to continually raise the price to keep demand just beyond capacity.
^in the hotel industry they call it REVPAR....in sports, I guess, it is REVPAS and, I agree, it is probably a metric that has greatly improved in most of the league's cities.
Both the NBA and NHL have HUGE business market bases. What this means is the a ton of local business companies buy season tickets and then hand them out as rewards for their employees or as perks for their customers.
I don't know what kind of rent the Wizards were paying, or if it was one of those intra-Hunt deals where the left hand pays the right hand a huge sum of money, and it gets counted as a tax loss trick. I can imagine the expense of operating a large stadium like Arrowhead must have been significant. The Revs situation was similar. When they were playing in the old Foxboro stadium, it cost them $40,000 just to open the gates, never mind anything else. But with the Revs attendance in the 15,000 or so range, they were able to break even, or have a modest profit or loss, depending on how you slice it. But then they moved into the new stadium, and their expenses skyrocketed. They had to lay off almost all their Revs-only staff and they almost folded the team late in the 2002 season. It seems as though the Savvy Businessmen in Kraft Inc. bought the "If you build it they will come no matter how much it costs" theory hook line and sinker. Parking was more than the cost of the cheapest ticket. One of the biggest problems with the Revs (and the old Wizards and DC United, and anyone who is playing in a way-too-big stadium) is that people can always walk up and get a ticket. In fact, a lot of the time, youth coaches who have a bunch of group tix and not enough kids have given me tickets for free. No incentive to buy advance tickets, much less season tickets in that scenario. Unlike KC or Portland or Toronto or...
I am not totally sure but I don't think the Hunt's owned Arrowhead. I think it was built, owned and run by the local county.
And MLB. Every large company in New York City seems to have a box at Yankee Stadium or Citi Field. MLS teams that sell out out every week are resisting the temptation to hike up prices in order to build a bigger fan base, which is fantastic "the people's game". I think MLS 4.0 should include stadium expansion as one of it's goals. San Jose should kick off negotiations with the city now because they have room but from what I've heard it will take years. Safe standing is another option to increase capacity.
Championship - 41.5% Aston Villa 42,785 Barnsley 23,287 Birmingham City 30,016 Blackburn Rovers 31,367 Brentford 12,763 Brighton & Hove Albion 30,750 Bristol City 27,000* 16/17 season Burton Albion 6,912 Cardiff City 33,280 Derby County 33,597 Fulham 25,678 Huddersfield Town 24,500 Ipswich Town 30,300 Leeds United 37,900 Newcastle United 52,405 Norwich 27,244 Nottingham Forest 30,576 Preston North End 23,408 Queens Park Rangers 18,360 Reading 24,200 Rotherham United 12,000 Sheffield Wednesday 39,812 Wigan 25,133 Wolverhampton Wanderers 31,700
During cricket matches at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on a Saturday there are a lot of empty seats between 2:45 and 5:15. Right to left. Trent Bridge, the Donkey Sanctuary and Meadow Lane. Fortunately the players take a 20 minutes tea break during that time, so you only miss a couple of hours.
I CAN"T EAT ANY MORE CROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ========================== Atlanta United FCVerified account@ATLUTD Following More 2 Matches, 2 Sellouts The South Got Something To Say