Last time I estimated a crowd between 1500 and 2000. It was 1739. This time I think there might be a bit more, but I honestly don't recall exactly what it looked like last time. I'm going off a 500 per section rule of thumb. There are 9 sections on each side -- but only one side is visible on the video.
I'm going with 2000 - a bit more than last time. Let's see if my back of the envelope estimate is at all close to accurate!
I was quite low. Perhaps the other side -- the one you can't see -- is fuller. They're saying: 3,302 Which is almost double their season opener. Good improvement given that they had 3 weeks to sell tickets, and it was against a "name" team. But let's be honest, 3302 is still very low. Better, but not good enough. Let's see what happens at their next home game on the 19th.
I didn't realize they didn't have a shirt sponsor. Oy. 3,302 is an improvement. But well below league average and even farther below a team facing the expenses this one faces will need.
I'm sitting here struggling with a spreadsheet trying to square my attendance estimate with what they're claiming. It's honestly hard to square them -- unless they're talking tickets distributed, not turnstile count. Perhaps the unseen close side is more crowded.
True. But that's kind of trouble, then. Because I'm really having difficulty finding numbers that square with what I saw and add up to more than around 2000. There's an argument to say that a team like the Deltas should comp a lot of tickets early on to generate interest. And there's an argument for an upstart team like the Deltas to comp tickets for a "big" game against the only name team the NASL has to offer. You have to get people in there once to get them in a second and third time. But comps don't pay the bills. And sometimes they don't even get you in there once.
I attended and while there did a personal guestimate based on 10k capacity. It looked to me to be one-third full. So, the announced attendance seems about right.
The key to that 3,302 announced attendance is this: how much of that was from the new age internet marketing, and how much was from the good old-fashioned hitting-the-streets? The Cosmos in town, the Deltas FO needed to hit a home run at the gates (5000+) in my view. The Twitter Periscope drew ~1,400 total viewers by final whistle, perhaps not enough interest by New Yorkers back East in viewing games on a smartphone in the middle of the night East Coast time. But overall, I think this is a learning experience for them, as they need to get a good feel for how each NASL opponent draws so they can tailor their marketing approach.
3,300 seems OK to me. It's not where they need to be in the long run, but I expect the owners have the financial depth that they can survive the year with that. I expect they'll learn how better to market a minor league team and existence is its own form of publicity.
I just realized why my estimate was wrong. This was their third home game, not their second. I had the last two games jumbled up in my head. My baseline was way off because I was thinking it looked like the first game, but had the numbers for the second game. Deltas Home Attendance Record vs Indy 11: 4133 vs NCFC: 1739 vs Cosmos: 3302 Average: 3058 And for perspective: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/san-francisco-deltas-superthread.2030779/page-20#post-35277434
I spoke with Brian Helmick at length (interview coming on Midfield Press next week). Deltas are reporting turnstile, which no one does. Tickets sold was over 3800 before any walk up. Stark contrast between them and say Bethlehem Steel who reported 3000 with 400 really there. I asked Brian why they would report less than the 3800 number as he's being harder on himself than other pro sports teams - like even the Yankees. Brian's perspective is that he prefers to be honest about how many actually came even if no one else does. He wants the fans to know they need to help get the word out to build the team and padding numbers doesn't help that. Fabio Igel, the main investor, has the net worth to keep this thing going for a long time. Brian, Ricardo, Todd Dunivant and the other folks I met are all really good guys.
What was Jacksonville's attendance against Indy11? I was watching the first half of that game in Kezar Pub (before watching the Quakes game, and then heading over to see the Deltas). There looked to be less than a thousand people in the single grandstand.
What I'm arguing is that it takes time to build an audience. The longer you are around, the more people know about you. Also, it takes time to figure out what you are doing right and wrong in terms of reaching out to fans. So the first rule of an expansion team (and league) is to survive. Maybe there isn't anything they can do, and so this is it, but I'm not willing to write them off at 3,300 in a way I would have at 1,700.
So, the next home game is on 5/19 against Jacksonville. There's no Giants or Quakes games, but it is on a Friday night against a no-name team.
Sold or distributed? Because there were anecdotal reports on this board that a lot of tickers were comped at the first game.
Not sure, but I think that free tickets was true of the Sacramento friendly from what I heard from others who were there. I don't know about after that, but I doubt it because what we did discuss is that Brian doesn't like giving free tickets out philosophically. He said data he had looked at says that people who come on free tickets are not likely to pay for tickets in the future and will spend less on average on merchandise and concessions in the park than those who pay for their tickets. He'd prefer to work harder to get paying customers than give tickets away from what he shared. His general approach is the try to build the thing with honesty and transparency, which is why he is reporting turnstile, even though optically it looks bad on paper versus people reporting distributed and giving away freebies everywhere. So I think that philosophy generally guides what they do.