Exactly, every fan has to start some where. They want the fun of food, bars and the energy that can create. Until then they check out a game or two a year. When I lived locally they went to more games.
And I think what's on display here is the historical mindset (accurate, by the way), that one can attend a Crew games in this manner because there have always (with few exceptions) been plenty of walkup tickets available for casual fans. That reality is going to have to change if we're going to transform into one of the league's attendance success stories. Crew games are going to have become a tough ticket to get, or at least one that requires advanced planning and commitment..
Sure, people wandering around the mezzanine level means seats look empty. To an extent. But so does having thousands and thousands of unsold tickets for each match. Sporting actually sells out all of their matches, well over 100 in a row. Mezzanine or no, their seats all look full because, well, they are. As an aside, I dimly recall Lamar Hunt saying that one if the few regrets he had about the stadium design was that empty yellow seats really jumped out on TV.
I could be proven wrong but not sure that will happen until the new stadium opens OR the team becomes really really good.
I think you are right but I think over the next couple years we have an actual shot at making that happen. If we can get a solid number of STM this year and then retain or grow them next year that's a start. The new stadium in 2021 will help. Then it's about marketing and in game experience. We can elevate those, both the fans and the team. Momentum builds on itself, we can resist the skeptical nature that comes with being an Ohio sports team we can continue to push up and generate more and more buzz around the season and games.
Confirmed that Nordecke is officially on a waitlist! Not sure how many single game tickets they withheld but in terms of season tickets, the corner is sold out.
Good news and good observation on holding back some seats for singles. Still, though, entire areas of the stadium waitlisted before the season starts has to be rare air for us, if not uncharted territory. If Nordecke is joined by other areas (North Corner, Lower Sideline, Center Circle, Premier East, Upper Midfield, South End, Upper Sideline), then we are really in business.
Un-typically, I've been following this conversation over the last few days and while there have been some excellent points made, there's one I think deserves mention: As the fans of a team founded by absentee benevolence and then run recently by intentional neglect, we - all of us - need some serious recalibration. We have sat here for a long time echoing the attitudes of the ownership, which was to say "Hey, we put this team there, but the stadium is only half full. So clearly, you stink" Well, no. A professional sports team engages in stuff like, oh I dunno, marketing, to pick one. Planning. Strategy. Outreach. Hard work. Spending money. While most people are aware that the team has changed ownership, and are happy about it, this is not - cannot be - simply repainting the washrooms and changing the names on the office doors. This is a whole new day, and part of the challenge - the JOB if you will -will be to change the local mindset, developing new attitudes and new expectations. Everything changed last week. Everything. This is no longer a "gosh I hope people show up for games and if they don't, woe is us" outfit. We all need to lose that mindset.
Just left the team shop. Banana kits are the only ones that are BOGO. They confirmed it's because we'll have a new gold kit in 2019. For those interested in taking advantage of the deal: Shop is open until 3. Normal prices for jerseys are $130 for authentics, $90 for replicas. Customization is an extra $30 per jersey. There is a chance you'll need to bring them back for that since some letters and numbers are out of stock and being reordered (e.g. the letter T and number 1 are both out right now).
Well I was at Chuck E Cheese today. Since I know you already have a new Crew jacket, what did you pick up? Also, I would have loved to have gone to the Crew shop today. Just was too long of a week to even put out on the table. Need to save my favors for more likely asks.
You can call in and place an order over the phone and they'll give you the same discount. They were processing one from someone out of town when I walked in.
It was very steady traffic while I was there. No less than 10 people at any point in time. I called ahead around 11 and they said they'd sold close to half their inventory of authentics in the first hour of being open.
So I both asked and observed a little since I was wondering the same thing. There were 10-15 people (not including kids) in there when I was. Everyone was buying multiple things and it felt busy. When I got to the register I asked how it was going. They told me they had been swamped. They were totally sold out of long sleeve jerseys, kids jerseys, and most player jerseys (he said about only a dozen were left). They said they only had 5 or 6 women's jerseys left at all. He also told me that they had a wait on custom jerseys because they had sold so many custom jerseys that they no longer had most of the common letters you would need to do one and there was a week-long wait for it. The other person working commented that they had sold out on several scarves and hats. So it sounds/looks like they are just as busy as we could hope...especially given the snow.
I got a jersey for me and one for my wife, then a hat and a sweatshirt. Went in there fully intending to just get a jersey for each of us...that was naive.
I remember a friend of mine saying, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I kind of got bored seeing [boobs] so much."
Was there any discussion when they unvailed the rendering for the new stadium about one of the sets of stands by the goals being removeable to accomodate concerts like Mapfre can do with the stage? I would imagine they have a functional plan in place but couldnt remember if details for that were highlighted