50,000+ difference. Amazing... 08/12 - Sunday Toronto FC 12,103 08/18 - Saturday Los Angeles Galaxy 66,237 09/01 - Saturday Chicago Fire 13,219
Are you really suprised with this? it's shocking no doubt, but ultimately predictable. it's too bad as NYRB does do pretty well at home, but no one really seems to care.
In large part, shouldn't the focus of the thread be on the impact in motivating the FO to promote the game? How in the world could they take a two week period and not generate a sizable turnout for Cuauhtemoc Blanco?
not nearly as impressive as your timelessness to get this information. it's september first and the game was on the 18th. what's your internet connection? an old modem from the Reagan administration?
No, what's sad is your 14 fans that go and see a Chivas game. Keep sucking on that galaxy Teet for aslong as possible until Starkville Mississippi decides to purchase your team. Keep being upset your a better team than them and you have a fraction of the fan following. Then when your done complaining about that, use the beckham approach over and over and over again as the only reason your team's fan attendance is a bit better then a pee wee tee ball game.
No, the 9/1 gave didn't happen till yesterday, no way of knowing what the attendance for that game would have been. The point of the thread is that Beckham didn't help pull in any more fans to other red bull games. They only got about 1k more then their previous home game before the LA game, even with Blanco on board. Kids, please stay in school.
I saw an interview with the Red Bull GM on MSG prior to the game and he basically admitted that there will be no major marketing investment until the new stadium is open. In other words, don't expect attendance to improve while they are at Giants stadium.
Why's that sad? Good for Beckham that he can draw a crowd. Good for MLS that they made $2m + more on a game in which he played. That pays a lot of bills, you know. You are blaming a guy for drawing fans to a game (a game, btw, which was a great advertisment for the sport). That's bizarre....really bizarre. I guess you'd prefer 13,000 show up (rather than 66,000), and get excited about John Wolyniac and his skill level (vs. Beckham's skill)? OK, whatever... no wonder soccer struggles to make it professionally (financially) in the US- freakin' irrational consumers!
So one guy on the away team brought four times as many supporters as the entire home team could manage?
And this has been said before by the Red Bull GM, yet garbage like this thread keep getting brought up. If you live in the New York area, you know that this team has close to zero media coverage, and people barely know the team exists or changed their name to the Red Bulls. They aren't marketing the games, because they know the game day experience at Giants Stadium is abysmal. No sense drawing fans out to a game at this point. Wait until Red Bull Park opens and then market a quality operation from top to bottom. Right now Giants Stadium is a black mark on the organization. The Beckham game was different, because they knew there was a chance to sell out the stadium and create an impressive atmosphere. The funny thing is that they didn't really market the Beckham game. Beckham playing was the only publicity they needed. Even if 30,000 showed up to see Chicago last night, the atmosphere would be the same as any other week with 12,000 fans. It just doesn't make sense for them to bust their butts right now. And it doesn't make sense for people to continue to complain about attendance. If it's going to improve, it'll improve in 2009. Don't expect to see 15,000+ crowds until then.
Just to play devil's advocate, why would people all of a sudden start caring just because there's going to be a new building? I grew up on Long Island, I know the team has never had any sort of media profile. Somehow not marketing at all and then suddenly going full-blitz doesn't seem a good idea. Why not begin to market the team a little now and build up to 2009?
Dude, don't get worked up over an attendance thread on bigsoccer. They are the least genuine threads out there. Anyone who has been paying attention to the Red Bull situation knows what the deal is. Honestly, the only reason fans on BigSoccer follow other teams' attendance figures is to "trash talk" rival fans of teams with lower attendances. I'm on several other sports message boards and the topic never once comes up. Its exclusive to MLS fans.
Red Bull park will bring out the fans that Giants Stadium will drive away. It's not just about attendance. It's about atmosphere and game day experience. Red Bull Park itself won't bring out a huge jump in attendance, but a classy organization that is dedicated to put out an improved product will. The management at Red Bull doesn't want to market an inferior product. Their product isn't there just yet. They're building an training facility and a stadium. When those two things are in place, we'll see what they do to bring the fans out. They're comfortable waiting till they have all their ducks in a row before inviting new fans. They know that there are 10-12,000 dedicated fans that will come out to watch them at Giants Stadium. The must think that it's pointless to invite new and old fans to the depressing cavern of Giants Stadium. I agree with them that it's money wasted.
What's more impressive is that we sold out the HDC last night KNOWING that Goldenballs wasn't playing AND knowing that our team sucks so much, it syphons. Let's see how long that lasts... tm
How'd they draw 50k+ more for Beckham then? Maybe New York likes seeing a star* * and Claudio Reyna doesn't qualify as a star
No other player in the world could draw 50k extra fans and not even close. Zidane couldnt even draw half that.
Red Bull is doing what we all feared... They are holding back on major marketing efforts until the new stadium is on line... Why aren't they studying their history? That line of thinking was employed by Dallas, Colorado, and Chicago, and it did permanent damage to the attendance base in all three cases. But hey, at least they are shaking up the front office. With a chance to build on the newcomers at the wonderful game with the Galaxy, it's hard to fathom why they are determined to piss all their momentum away. Why, oh why? *^%&$#@!