And given the emphasis by the league to make inroads into this market such they mandated a 2nd team, and given that the teams have such a huge population base from which to draw, it's not unheard of to ask what's up? Nothing meant by it I would imagine, merely that we're used to NY typically being in the upper echelon of pro sports draws. I personally think it would be better for the league if one of these teams had a stronger local scene. (In addition to wishing everyone drew larger crowds.)
This may be common knowledge but according to ticketmaster Atlanta is not opening full stadium for the game tomorrow. I thought for sure they would. Didn't they open the full stadium for every playoff game last year? Edit: Just looked it up and they had 3 home playoff games (including MLS cup) and all were over 70k. They had a bye first round last year. This year only 1 of their 3 have been full stadium. Would be interesting to know why. Is demand down, is there just not enough time between the games for them to sell full stadium? I am not saying this is an issue. Obviously 41k+ per game is amazing. Just curious why it is different than last year.
I guess this ends the debate that was beginning to pop up about whether United is actually more popular than the Falcons in Atlanta. They are not.
NY is - by far - America's biggest media market, one with global reach and significance. It's also the centre of the Tri-State area, one of America's two largest conurbations. eattle Seattler or Atlanta aren't exactly provincial villages, but if MLS has aspirations of being taken seriously on a global level and, ultimately, closing the gap on Europe's Big 5 (and it most definitely does), that's going to be hard when your core media and population centres treat their MLS teams as afterthoughts, with fanbases that are on a level with mid-table D2 provincial cities in England, Germany, Spain, etc.
And the one weekend game this year drew 66,000+. Speaking of which, why didn't Seattle open up the full stadium for their game on the same day? I feel confident they could have sold more than 37,000. 37k plus or minus seems to be their "standard" configuration, but they often open up about 10,000 more seats for a 40-something-thousand seat configuration, too.
WOSO has had a place in Portland since the Clive Charles days of UofP soccer and Tiffany Milbrett. It was well attended then relative to other WOSO college. There is a sizeable overlap of Timbers to Thorns, but not by any means overwhelming. It is a fanbase unto itself.
Falcons play fewer games, for one. You basing your claim on apples and orange metrics is as bad as someone claiming United is more popular. I'm sure the Falcons are more popular overall, after all it is an NFL team. Would it bother you if United were more popular?
Yeah most MLS/USL owners who also have an NWSL team say that there is overlap, but it's not a majority for either team. The existing fanbase is always nice when launching a women's team, but a generally different fanbase for the women's team will end up growing around the core of fans that support both teams. And Portland in particular do love their Pilots even now - IIRC they regular have some of the best, if not the best, WoSo NCAA attendance numbers.
Maybe the Thorns have siphoned off some Portland Pilots fans? Portland Pilots women's soccer had average attendance above 3,000 for at least 8 straight seasons, and now are down to a little below 2000? Could attendance decline also be a result of decline in performance for the Pilots?
Well.. MLS Cup should be well attended.. It sounds like about 60,000 were sold in the pre-sale yesterday and the remainder were sold out within a few minutes when tickets went on sale to the general public at 10.
A few tickets on seatgeek. Not sure if this is second hand market or or what. Some seats for $2500 each!!! Never thought I would see that day in MLS. Seats in a 70k stadium for $2500 each. It also says plus $800 in fees. Cheapest I see are $350 each.
Seatgeek is second hand, and most likely nobody will buy at those prices. It's one of those speculative things where a Sounders fan decides how much money it would take to make them miss this game.
Ok, that is the link Seattle has directly on their website for tickets. Does that mean all tickets are sold and second hand is the only market left? If not, why would Seattle official website link to seatgeek for tickets? P.S. now $400 is the cheapest tickets.
Seatgeek is the Sounder's ticket provider, so they do both the primary and secondary tickets for the Sounders. All of the primary market tickets are gone, all that is left is the secondary market tickets. That's why the prices are stupid high. For the most part tickets were between $65 and $95, depending on when you bought them and the demand pricing.
Thanks. That is what I thought. I didn't think seatgeek was only second hand as @crookeddy said. Is there a way to tell by looking at the ticket if it is primary ticket or secondary?
I think LAFC also uses Seatgeek as primary... at least they did for preseason. It sucks. They need to keep primary and secondary markets separate.