Playoffs: Houston Dynamo v. Seattle Sounders, Tuesday, November 21

Dang, so last night did happen.

 

BRING ON DEMPSEY AND THE SOUNDERS!!!

C'MON H-TOWN!!! GET BEHIND YOUR OTHER MEN IN ORANGE!!!

International break is here and it actually might favor both teams to recover n let both sets of players be in their best form for the Conference FInals.

 

Joe Willis already robocalled all my contact phone numbers asking me to buy tickets!

 

There’s a special promotion with Kroger to broadcast over Cap’n Crunch decoder boxes on sale at Houston-area stores

 

I’ll let someone linked in to the FO correct me, but this may be an inaccurate representation of things . Go look at empty seat pics from Portland game, sections 209-212 were almost completely empty, team purposely restricted sales to force folks to buy tickets on east side to look better for TV


http://mobile.twitter.com/victoraraiza/status/927753811598376960

 

They did the same before the SKC game. They opened up to all seats as the game got closer.

 

In some ways that says just how far this franchise has fallen locally in terms of relevance and interest - biggest game we’ve had in 4 years and they have to rely upon ticket sales tricks and games to ensure the crowd looks OK on Tv.

 

9pm weekday start means that BBVA will probably look like some of these empty NFL stadiums.

 

Maybe I just haven't been keeping up, the NFL games I've watched have had pretty good attendance. Which NFL stadiums have been empty like the Dynamo?

 

http://www.chron.com/sports/dynamo/...-arraignment-hearing-rescheduled-12338968.php

not a lot of new info

 

Rams, Chargers, Niners, Dolphins, Giants, Colts to name a few. There’s a Twitter account called Empty Seats Galore or something similar that shows the worst every weekend. Even the Texans are really starting to push ticket sales.

 

Eyes off the ball again. How about it looks like the ticket price is a significant premium from normal everyplace in the stadium for Seattle? Y'all too busy obsessing about empty orange seats or watching the secondary market to notice that you can't get reserve tickets in the building for less than $37 right now?

I know I was interested and may still buy the price rise tickets after I see what the forecast looks like. But the prices killed the impulse purchase I started to do yesterday.

Empty seats to me is an effect in search of more interesting causes. This is like going to the many wrecks on the freeways every day, taking photos, and making a regular blog condemning the bad drivers of the city, without digging to the level of asking anyone involved questions. On this particular game if the stands end up sparse I'd instead ask if we earned the right to charge 50% more per playoff ticket. Or ask people what else is the deterrent. Stopping at the superficial crowd appearance level you never reach the deeper critique. And if we went there you might get a lot deeper (and more novel) into why this is floundering as a product while it improves on the field.

I mean, yes, seats are empty and they may be playing games with where they sell the tickets that show up on camera. These are not news. News would be figure out the different reasons it's still happening. Empty seats to me is emotive photography and unless it disproves the official figure, I more want to know what the official number is supposed to be. The seats thing is like ASPCA running Sarah MacLachlan over its ads. "Sob sob sob the empty seats honey...."

Last, like I said before, y'all have to consider that with a third postseason home game plus 2 road fixtures plus perhaps one more, that they might come out economically ahead on this playoff run no matter what you thought the regular season looked like on attendance, or whether you find postseason attendance unimpressive. Very simple. 20>17 (leaving aside the possibility of CCL and other competitions, as well as increased friendly interest). I've been arguing this in favor of increased payroll for years. If you giggle self-referentially at empty seats and they giggle to the bank is there that much pressure to change.

 

You lost me a bit with the ASPCA references. I think prices have very little to do with getting people out for a big game like this one - even if tickets are $10 more a head that's not going to deter anyone who was going to come out.

Here's an example of how the Dynamo have lost local fan support: in 2012 & 2013, the Dynamo drew 20,000+ in the home leg of the conference semifinals with 3-4 days notice and sold out leg one of the conference finals (22,000) with 3-4 days notice. And for anyone who was there, the sellouts were legitimate full stadiums (I believe the 2012 conference final crowd picture was used on one the BBVA Visa cards)

In 2017, Dynamo "announced" crowds of 14,100 and 15,100 for the first two home playoff games with visual imagery (twitter @EmptySeatsPics) indicating those figures clearly seem inflated - I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that the tickets were sold but it seems a big stretch.

Average "announced" attendance was down 8.0% this year from 2016 and is down about 15% from its peak in BBVA. Unscientific observations look that turnstile counts are down even more but who knows how they counted the tickets distributed. And they hired a whole bunch of sales folks to move tickets in 2017.

I expect they will "sellout" this game, especially with 2 weeks notice and although the 9:00 on a Tuesday night time is tough, quite a few schools are off that week.

This organization frittered away a tremendous built-in fanbase they had to the point where they are having to hustle way too hard to sell out the 2nd highest profile game a team in MLS can host. Once you lose that base, it is very hard to get it back - go look at Astros attendance, even in 2017 they drew below what they did in 2009 and they hadn't made the playoffs for four seasons in 2009. Ticket prices for Astros are a lot higher but the fact they just now are reaching levels from 8 years ago is a sign of how hard it is to regain ticket sales.

 

let talk about the empty seats...it the playoff and like juvechelsea and Westside Cosmo mention the empty seats....I blame it on Dynamo Marketing Dept...
maybe they should go to all those Sat and Sun hundreds of club HYSA / Dynamo Dash League soccer games at all the surrounding soccer parks - give away 1 ticket to each kid at the soccer game - those parents will buy additional tickets ...c'mon even if you give away 1 ticket to each club players - imagine how much $ they will make on concession stand - foods & drinks. I am sure they can write off those free tickets as marketing expenses...I am sure we can fill the BBVA stadium up come Nov 21..... example - this coming Sat 11/11 and Sun 11/12 - except Bear Creek Soccer Field park is close - almost every soccer field park is open and lots of soccer game will be taking place - from Katy Park to Lost Creek Park to Burrough Park ...I lost track of all those Soccer Field Parks. Imagine each young soccer player get a free Dynamo playoff ticket - mom and dad will buy their tickets as well right ... or maybe I am wrong !! oh well...

 

i'm confused....there's "limited awesomeness" for sell and yet people aren't buying?!? lol

I'm in the camp that increased ticket prices are not a factor for attendance this upcoming game. if you can't afford a $40 ticket, you have bigger worries than a dynamo game. The lack of attendance this and other years has everything to do with the lack of zeal, juice, buzz, excitement, engagement, and general give a sh^t factor of the populous of the fourth largest city in the US.

WARNING--TRIGGER ALERT---WARNING

A factor in this is the lack of "connection" between the fan base and the players/coach. Specifically the language and the culture. Most of the STHs and causal sports fan community in the city don't recognize or participate in the same language and culture as most of our players and coach. Thus there is no strong connection to the participants. The formula to sell something is very simple--give em a reason to care. Folks don't care because they don't have a rooting interest in the players and coach because they have a hard time connecting with them. The people with the largest expendable income and leisure time can create a quicker emotional attachment to players like Davis, Robinson, Mullan, Ching etc. They have a harder time with players like Torres, Elis, Manotas, Quioto, etc. Winning brings some people to the stadium but you have to create a sense of connection to make them return customers. Same with any entertainment form regardless of medium.

TRIGGER ALERT OVER--RESUME NAVEL GAZING

PS

We need a "white yeti". Wait...isn't the yeti already white? Crap.....

 

“Limited Awesomeness” slipped my mind. I think you hit some good points and it’s been proven that no matter how many times Glenn Davis or others on twitter mention it, Honduras fans just do not turn out for anything that isn’t their national team or Olimpia.

 

This one pulled my trigger.

Just from a personal standpoint I had a connection until this year. Of course my circumstances are entirely different as I'm retired and had the time to attend just about every training session from 2008 and on through last year. This year all of that changed with restrictions on attending training (first 15 mins and last 15 mins to watch the team warm up and cool down). So I don't bother anymore.

A lot of this disconnect started when the teams originals began aging out - I noticed it particularly at away games where if the team lost, the players would just go directly back to the locker room and not even acknowledge the traveling supporters. That would never have happened with Eddie or Waibel still playing. Last year it looked like Wade was trying to revive a connection by urging the team to acknowledge the supporters after every game. It's more of a leadership thing, but team has changed so much that perhaps its hard for some of the team to connect because of language or culture.

 

Altuve is from Venezuela, and it appears that no one from Houston has a trying time connecting with him via Astros sports lore.
Soccer is less heralded so there is the possible loss of a connection for being less seen in our media but I seriously doubt that Torres is a tougher man to "connect with" than Altuve outside of the fact that Altuve is one of the best baseball players on the planet and Torres is just another striker in a league in the Americas.

On the erosion of our core soccer fan base. This I lay specifically at Canetti and our suits that got gift wrapped such a soccer savvy and outgoing sports crowd right off the bat, aiding in AEG's relocation project so that the team was well received and Houston made good on a terrific MLS town. Canetti and his bean counters have zero clue how to grow a pro soccer club in any nation, much less a nation like ours where pro outdoor soccer is still a tough sell being that we have so many vast number of other sports and entertainment options in our culture. Pro and college sports to all the music, dance and other live entertainment options in large cities like ours.

This is another factor that is in play in an immigrant friendly nation like ours where so many that do immigrate here are from soccer hotbeds but at the same time have little to zero connection/identity with their local city's MLS team. Thus the "why go" has to be either a very big, global name player or REALLY GOOD futbol on display.

 

im just wondering if there will be anything from the team about not insulting Deuce a la Crew and Red Bulls? not that their yellow card system did anything but annoy and upset the very fans theyre trying to keep.