Does anyone know what this means? Does that mean they will open the upper deck for the entire season? As thrilling as it may seem to smash the prior attendance records, having a ton of high-capacity games where people can buy cheap tickets to individual games and there could be thousands of empty seats will greatly devalue the season tickets. So, I'm really hoping that's not the case. I really think the smart strategy is to cap attendance at the restricted configuration of 42,500 or thereabouts for most games, and then open the full stadium maybe 4-5 times per year to make each of those a special event that draws the full 70,000. Anyone know what the plan is here?
No idea what it means or what the plan is but I agree it sucks for us if that's the case. I think the empty seats will be more of a negative than the few extra bucks they'll make, but $$ is $$ and they are a business. Their bottom line is more important than the perceived or real value of our season tickets unfortunately.
Not having a cap on season tickets (for now) doesn't mean they're opening the upper deck for every game. Opening the third tier means extra security, concession staff and clean up, so they're only going to do that when the profit margin warrants. For now the lifting of the cap merely means a smaller amount of single game tickets available. Says I, anyway.
Ah, so basically they had capped season ticket holders at say 40k, leaving 5k or so to sell to general public per game. I don't know enough about sports business to care one way or the other what they do here. I've got my two season tickets and go to every game!
Maybe they'll do what Seattle does when they have more tickets sold to a game remove some of the tarps. If that's the case you'll have to tarp off or do something else to cover the non sold seats or sell season tickets row by row in the upper deck and raise the screen up. Is there a waiting list?
Yes, there are people on the waiting list that still have not been awarded tickets. Also, some of the group sales packages are being moved to the 300 level, albeit for individual games. Thus my question. When I ordered my tickets, there were only a few spots left in the entire lower-bowl or mezzanine sections where you could get seats together. I had to increase my price tier to get a block of 4 together. And I know one fan that had to buy individual seats for 2018 because he couldn't get a pair together in the lower price tier. So, it seems that aside from single tickets and a few in the highest-priced premium sections, the lower-bowl and mezzanine are essentially sold-out. Yet there are still people on the waiting list and AUFC is saying they won't cap season ticket sales. So, I was thinking that could mean they plan to open the 300 level, or at least portions of it, for every game because that would be the only way to fill every season ticket order. However, my buddy who manages group sales for his local soccer club says that won't be the case. He says his soccer club asked for a block of seats for the game vs. RSL on Sept 22 because they were able to get a block of nearly 1,000 inexpensive tickets in the 300 level. If they had opted instead for the Columbus game on Aug 19, they would have paid twice as much for tickets in the 200 level goal section as AUFC says the 300 level won't be open for that game. So, I'm not sure how to interpret all this.
I just spoke to the ticket office and they said the 300 level will only be open for select games but there is no cap on season tickets because they have created some field-level premium seating to accommodate some extra orders. Also, by moving some of their group sales to the select 300 level games, and by making some reserved seats in the upper levels of the supporters section available for season ticket orders, they believe they can fit all the season ticket orders into the lower-bowl and mezzanine.
Per my message above, I actually don't get the impression that they'll open just a few sections of the 300 level. Sounds like it will be all or nothing, just like last year, except with more than just 2 games where the full stadium will be open.
We now know there will be 4 "expanded capacity" (i.e. full stadium) games and 13 regular-capacity games. Per the club website: https://www.atlutd.com/post/2018/01...nz-stadium-300-level-four-matches-2018-season
Yes tarps might look terrible, but Seattle does it and it's not that bad looking. How would moving up the curtains you a few rows look terrible?
Doesn't really matter because it won't happen. They will either use the standard soccer configuration or open the entire venue. No in-between. When they built MBS, the plan was to have 4 different configurations to accommodate different sized crowds for different events: Lower-bowl (100 level) only - 29,000 Lower-bowl plus mezzanine (200 level) and luxury boxes - 42,500 Full stadium (all three levels) - 70,000 Full stadium plus expandable temporary seating - 80,000 (for special events like Super Bowl, World Cup, etc.) In addition, they have several different concert or convention configurations. The original plan was to use only the 100 level and have about 29,000 seats for soccer with both the 200 and 300 level curtained-off. They thought the 42,500 option would be the special, expanded configuration for big games. But due to the high demand for season tickets and large group sales, 42,500 became the standard and the full-stadium became the expanded seating option for big games. But they will just vary the number of full-stadium games based on demand and not try to come up with some new configuration that wasn't part of the original stadium design. See this article from Sept, 2016 for some of those details. Others came from interviews I recall on the construction plans for MBS: https://soccerstadiumdigest.com/2016/09/preview-mercedes-benz-stadium/
I just cruised around the ticket portal for awhile. Tickets for early-season matches are going for SEC football prices. Nice.
have any of you sat in the upper bowl for a United match yet? I went over to the ticketmaster site to see how sales were going (it's going to be a sell out) and noticed that they referred to many of the upper bowl seats, even on the sideline, as limited view. How much of the field do you miss by sitting upstairs?
Define upstairs? 3rd deck or 2nd deck? My seats are in the 2nd deck and I can't fathom any being obstructed view. You aren't close but its more like the TV view or the video game view than being up close. I personally would trade them. For the 3rd deck, My wife and some of our friends have sat there (the friends the 2nd row from the top) and they said the view was great. Is the obstructed view because the sidelines and corners are tight?
I'd be curious to hear what they consider as "limited view". I sit near the corner in the lower bowl, and when the ball is in the corner closest to us we can't see the players' feet, so I suppose that could theoretically be considered as a "limited view".
Yes. Most seats in the stadium have this problem. I'm in 214 row 2 (across from benches). If we are seated we definitely can't see the corners on our side of the field. Even standing you can barely the corners. It just is what it is.
I haven't been in the upper deck at the new stadium, but I've been to lots of other places where the sidelines and nearest corners were out of view from the stands. Every once in awhile you can't quite see the ball and the players' feet for an important foul or out-of-bounds call, but that's rare. And it's even rarer that it affects the game.
I have friends who sat in the 300 level last year and they said they had trouble seeing the near sideline and the corners on the near side. Not much is out of view, but it's enough that they have to warn ticket buyers about it. Same was true in the West Upper deck at Bobby Dodd. Also, from the higher rows in the 300 level, you can't see the halo board.