As I said in the NASL Attendance thread... guess an ultimatum to fans, a fall season opener, a ton of free ticket giveaways, and the Cosmos being in town again was only worth 67 additional butts in the seats...
Looks like the Deltas owner still believes his own BS that ticket prices aren't too high http://hoodline.com/2017/08/low-attendance-may-doom-sf-deltas-ceo-warns Despite it being a reoccurring issue in their own polling.
So, among the 15,000 people that actually went to a Deltas game, only 10% said ticket prices were too high, so therefore it's not a problem. I see a flaw in this reasoning.
Only 10% said the prices were prohibitive. They can be too high and not be the main reason people aren't going though beyond that 10% (nevermind your point being spot on). It's like they're looking for the silver bullet reason people aren't coming to their games. Like they don't think or know that there are a ton of issues with their team that all need to be addressed, starting with the goofy ********ing team name, to say nothing of pricing or having an actual marketing strategy.
1) The ultimatum was stupid. 2) I don't have a problem with ticket giveaways TO YOUTH TEAMS, as long as someone has to pay. If you give junior soccer player a voucher and say "mom and dad have to pay", that's one thing. After all, the Deltas are charging at least $19 a seat, so if you cut it in half that's close to what they should be charging anyway. As we saw in their survey, ticket prices are one of their many issues. But going all Oprah and saying everyone gets in free cheapens your product. As we've discussed before, giving away tickets to youth teams is common in minor league sports (and whether they like to admit it or not, the Deltas ARE a minor league team). This is how the Durham Bulls (the AAA affiliate of the Rays) does it... "Selected teams will be provided with up to 15 complimentary (italics mine) tickets for players and coaches on the night of your "Field of Dreams" event. Additional tickets may be purchased for family and friends at $9.99 each, plus tax. Make sure you reserve your additional seats early to ensure your entire group will be sat together." 3) I don't know why the Cosmos would be a special draw in San Francisco, but apparently they are. As @kenntomasch has shown, they're not really an extra draw anywhere else...at least since Raul left the club. 4) The attendance for the Deltas is up since that disaster a few home games ago. It's nowhere near what it needs to be, but it's up. If Mr. Igel says they need to get to 5000 by the end of the year or he'll pull the plug, they're likely a dead team walking. If they get to 4000, who knows... Most telling is two quotes from Tom Payne about the Deltas from his interview with Nipun. There was this... "I was pretty surprised at the start of the season that they didn’t have staff yet; they were around for a year and didn’t have people focused on sponsorship and ticket sales, and I thought that was odd." and this... "I remember my ticket guys getting off a league ticket call and telling me that San Francisco had one ticket guy who had just started and he didn’t know anything." SMH
I missed this. Having now looked it up, here's a link for anyone else who missed it: https://www.soctakes.com/2017/08/01/tom-payne-optimistic-critical-puerto-rico-fc/
Problem is they weren't just giving away tickets to youth teams. They were just giving them away. And yes for SF the Cosmos are still a "big" draw as they're the Cosmos. It'll wear off for SF as it has for the other teams, but for now it's a new novelty. We saw the same delayed Beckham effect in the Bay Area the Quakes first year back in the league in 2008 as well long after he Beckham allure had worn off elsewhere. And the attendance is up... slightly. But as this season opener shows, all those added incentives and no real change Cosmos game very Cosmos game from the spring. I'd expect the next home game will fall off back to the 2000 range where they've sat all year for the most part. Well below the survival threshold.
Are we talking about this game or the last game? At the last game they gave away an estimated 800 tickets to season ticket holders. (That's on top of their standard 200+ freebies to various organizations.)
Reading between the lines, he seems down on the entire league. And saying that the owners need to be ready to lose $2m per year puts things in perspective.
Apparently they were giving out a ton of free tickets at the Street Soccer event in SF prior to the game. No solid numbers on how many, but if it's anything like before they're not above giving out several hundred tickets. And we know other NASL owners have noticed too like Payne who simply see what the Deltas are doing as another way of being dishonest with attendance figures (presuming they're being honest in the first place with only reporting turnstile).
And there are still people who believe all you have to do is win and you'll draw. Contrast this with Sacramento, which went out and hired people with actual experience selling tickets in pro sports. The results are night and day.
There are still people that think if you just have a soccer team you'll draw. That seems to the the strategy in OC.
Figured this belonged here.... As opposed to the NASL , it seems like the USL has more of a working relationship with MLS. Not sure why they can't all work together. On the one hand you have the MLS 2 clubs working with the main club in loaning players but on the other you have the B teams last in the league in attendance. Then you have the independent squads who are doing fairly well (for that league anyway) at the gate. I don't see however, how great it looks for any league when your champion , the New York Red Bull's draw 589 fans a game.
Ya THINK? They've had a contractual relationship for how long now? Four years? Are you just now hearing about it?
What else is there left to talk about? The great San Francisco Deltas attendance numbers or the fact that the club will be folding in three months?
Sadly, there has never been an Italian player playing professionally in the Bay Area. Unless you count Italy born , Italian-American Tony Crescitelli....
Yeah, let's talk about that. Deltas Home Attendance Record vs Indy 11: 4133 vs NCFC: 1739 vs Cosmos: 3302 vs Jacksonville: 2201 vs Indy 11: 1441 vs Edmonton: 1894 vs Puerto Rico: 1915 vs Miami: 2723 vs Cosmos: 3369 vs NCFC: 2094 Average: 2481