Friendly speculation

Wow Cleazy speak of doom and gloom and pissing on peoples parades and such. And actually, no not EVERY post is about how the Crew are screwed; only 97% to be accurate. You exaggerate Soooo much.

 

I like the idea--but who is gonna pay for it?? These teams do not come cheap (or for free). You need to be sure you can draw a crowd for it.

 

Paying for the set up is the big question, of course, just as it is with all of these kinds of things. There would actually have to be a creative plan and a sustained effort to sell some local and regional corporate sponsorships, tie it in with Experience Columbus and the convention and visitors bureau, get local politicians involved, and so on. I think the attendance would be the least of the problems, however, so long as 1) people were made aware of it, and 2) ticket prices weren't ridiculous. Those seem to be the two major self-inflicted problems we have holding non-MLS matches in Columbus (see CCL).

 

97%? Hmm, I think you just used this post to pad your numbers.

 

Actually this post right here lowers it to 96%!!!

 

Ticket prices are almost never ridiculous for these matches, they're perfectly in line with prices for similar matches around the country. The problem is that Crew fans are used to paying the prices for Crew MLS games, which are generally cheaper than tickets for most other MLS clubs.

Though yeah, from a simple logic point of view, it makes little sense that tickets for a meaningless match are more expensive than tickets for a regular league match or playoff match.

Who really wants to see Tottenham play in front of 8-10K at Crew Stadium, with at least half the fans being Spurs fans?

 

Some of the CCL prices are mandated by CONCACAF. Remember, they "own" the games (just as USSF "owns" the Open Cup). The Crew just rents the stadium to them along with the game day staff. It's a bit different from the regular MLS season.

Again, your idea is good, but it probably won't happen while we are qualifying for the CCL, excepting a special circumstance. At least Genoa and Samp are realistic choices. I would also expect to see Boca someday. I am also not sure that if "people were made aware of it" that they would come, even if you gave the ticket away. I think our market is what it is--about 15-20K at about $20 per head average, excepting for the National Team--and even then it would have to be a decent opponent. We have not sold out other national team games (other than Mexico) in the past. There are other connections that would make sense--I always thought they should get Dynamo Dresden over as we are a sister city with Dresden and their colors are also black and gold--but the Huntington Bank CEO guy that was from Dresden and instrumental in making the sister city relationship was kicked out and Dynamo dropped into the lower reaches of the German soccer pyramid.

 

I drove down from Lansing a few years ago for the Everton friendly and those tickets i don't remember being expensive. Everton is not a huge name, but they are in the top half of English football.

Now if ticket prices doubled for a friendly, then that would be an issue

 

As I started typing this, I just read that the Montreal Impact are about to announce that they will play host to Fiorentina on May 23 at Saputo Stadium and AC Milan at Olympic Stadium on the 2nd of June. Here's the story. That's an NASL side hosting two Serie A sides who were in the UEFA Champions League this year. It's pretty amazing how somehow these sorts of things get done when people start off by thinking that they can be done.

I simply and respectfully disagree with the argument that ticket prices are not too high (in general and for CCL matches in particular). I exchanged emails with MM after the PR Islanders match where I asked him about how ticket prices (which for the Islanders match were as high as those for MLS Playoffs) for CCL matches were determined. He said that while the Crew did have some wiggle room, their hands were more or less tied by CONCACAF in regard to ticket prices. This, of course, was followed up by the Dynamo making available $5.00 tickets for their match against, I think it was, Aribe Unido. It's pretty clear that the MLS teams have more decision making capability in this regard than some of them are saying, but there's an element of pride there (see MM's "minor league baseball" quote from last September) which accomplishes nothing more than justifying how the mark keeps being missed. I doubt that a Crew vs. Islanders or Crew vs. Metapan CCL group stage match on a Wednesday night will ever sell out Crew Stadium, but 10,000 should not be a difficult number to reach. It just takes a little humility, creativity, and effort.

 

i agree for sure, i dont think the crew should play friendlies bc of all the real competitions we have to focus on and if they do they should only be testimonial matches like this for guillermo or one for duncan oughton as i remember someone mentioning before in a thread

 

Montreal is also viewed as a much better soccer market (it's also bigger and more "European"). These are the guys that had like 30,000 in attendance for a CCL game.

Totally agree that you can't settle though. I think part of the problem may be that the Crew bring in minor league baseball marketing people with little to no other marketing experience and expect them to have a "major league" attitude about things.

 

I hate the every time CCL prices are discussed it is brought up that ticket prices for CCL are mandated by Concacaf, yet Houston and some mexican team I can't remember ran specials during last year to get more fans. Pure BS.

 

It is quite possible that Houston and Mexican teams met their ticket guarentees to CONCACAF--perhaps by "buying" the number of tickets required (or having a sponsor do it) and then "reselling" them at the lower price. Or the Mexican team knew someone at CONCACAF HQ....

Truth is out ticket prices are already lower than most/all of MLS anyway--we're just cheap here. I recall going by the Rose Bowl just after the league got started and GA for the Galaxy was $30. We were charging around $10-12.

 

One important factor here is population. Montreal is at least twice as large as Columbus and Saputo is trying to make a splash and can use his company's ad budget for these games as well. Montreal also no longer has baseball for the Spring and Summer months. Even there, it's still a small market--they lost their baseball team and their CFL football team only plays in Olympic Stadium in the playoffs--they use a much smaller 20K or so college stadium most of the year. And they are twice our size and have a world-wide reputation as a major world city. Oh, and Canada doesn't have to worry about a World Cup break either. With our schedule congestion exacerbated by the World Cup break and given that we have a minimum of 3 CCL games at home, it would be silly to have an exhibition this year.

 

Exactly. I don't think we're getting the whole story when we hear "Houston charges $5 for CCL games." As you said, it is VERY possible that we're NOT hearing "$5 for CCL games because BigHoustonCompany is paying $35,000 for Houston Dynamo to charge $5 and setting up some sort of 'Presenting Sponsor' gimmick."

Hell, I think I bought a student ticket for $5 or $7 at one point.

 

Not to mention all the free ones that were being given away by Kroger. I expect I paid more to the Xoggz that first MLS season (and the Xoggz last) than I did to the Crew for tickets.

 

Regarding the Houston $5 CCL tickets, as I recall that was a special deal for one game only, and on top of that, it was pretty much a failure as it didn't boost attendance at all. They still only drew a few thousand for that game.

$5 tickets aren't going to get anyone to show up for a Crew/Puerto Rico Islanders game. You're either interested in going to that game or you're not.

The biggest problem the CCL matches face is that the Crew has a somewhat small and finite fanbase. There is no huge group of soccer fans in Columbus who just aren't interested in MLS games (there are certainly a few, but not really a lot). And the Crew have been playing the same teams over and over for 15 years. Most Crew fans are used to seeing the Crew play the likes of the Wizards or the Rapids. When the Crew play some team from Honduras that most casual Crew fans have never heard of this August, you'll get some people to attend, but you'll also see a decent percentage of the fanbase say "The Crew is playing who?!? Never heard of them. I'll just wait and watch them play New England instead."

 

Two things:

1. I actually don't think it'd be too terribly difficult to attract a relatively high profile player to come play for the club. Yes, Columbus is a small market when compared to the likes of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc. Having said that, listen to the way players like Guillermo talk about the city. Columbus is not some hole-in-the-wall or backwater. I find it hard to believe that no big name player would want to retire in a medium-sized city that offers strong support for the local side and also a chance to escape the attention/media driven markets like New York. I think that in some circumstances, C-bus could be pretty damn attractive to a high profile player who's looking for a change of pace.

2. When I heard about the Sister Cities Cup thing that Chicago is doing, I thought it was a great idea. I know we've talked about supporters alliances and perhaps this would be a way to start something on both the club and supporters level. A partnership with a foreign club would be beneficial for us as supporters and beneficial for the club in terms of always having a team to play a friendly with and also talent sharing. Maybe if we as the supporters get something strong going with a club like Genoa or Sampdoria, it would provide some incentive for the FO to start something at their level. *I personally think the sister cities idea is pretty cool.*

 

You're absolutely right, it's a great idea. For Chicago. Because they have huge ethnic populations in that city that will show up to support those teams.

What huge immigrant population in the Columbus area would show up to support an event like that?

 

True--there are no soccer teams in Appalachia.

 

You certainly have a point.

However, I think it could be possible to create a tournament that holds special meaning for Columbus and its population. Perhaps have a cup featuring Columbus, a club from a sister city, and two Latin American clubs.

 

Mogadishu Wanderers?

 

Columbus sister cities are as follows: Genoa, Italy; Seville, Spain, Dresden, Germany; Kfar Saba, Israel; Odense, Denmark; Tainan City, Taiwan; Ahmedabad, India; Hefei, China; Kumasi, Ghana; and Zapopan, Mexico. Of these Genoa has two major clubs, Genoa and Sampdoria, Seville has Sevilla FC and Real Betis, the latter in the 2nd division; Dresden had Dynamo in the new 3 Liga, Odense has Odense BK in the Danish Superliga, and Zapopan is home to Chivas.

 

The Somalians. We should rename the team Inter Mogadishu and build a stadium in Little Somalia.