Friendly speculation

Discussion in 'Columbus Crew' started by bsas131, Apr 13, 2010.

  1. AndyC

    AndyC Member

    Jun 20, 2008
    Seattle, WA
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I went to a sold out (?) friendly against Barcelona in Seattle. I heard more comments like "American soccer sucks" and "We're horrible" than "The hometeam may be getting embarrassed on the field, but I think I'll check out another game.". (obviously it didn't matter for the Sounders, they have stellar attendance)

    The Crew have been around for 15 years. People in the area know it exists, so some big friendly isn't going to change anything. Selling the level of quality is what's going to keep new people coming. This is done by USA having a solid World Cup and the Crew doing well in CCL. (imagine the Crew playing a good game against a team like ManU in the Club World Cup - that'll get more attention than any friendly would)

    Also, I think it's pretty much agreed that American teams play more similarly to ones in England not Mexico.
     
  2. cleazer

    cleazer Member+

    May 6, 2003
    Toledo, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'd argue that the simple fact of playing games is an important tool for drawing fans to the stadium. As for friendlies, they seem to draw smaller crowds than the average league games.

    Please explain why you feel they're important to the Crew (preferably with numbers to back yourself up). I've been to just about all the Crew friendlies over the years, starting with the game against Leeds back in 1997 (back when Leeds was a top team in England and was good enough to play in the Champions League), and the stadium is almost always emptier than it is a few weeks later for a regular MLS game. Even Leeds only drew 10K (though as we all remember, the weather didn't cooperate that day). Games against Bundesliga teams have only been in the 9-12K range. Other than Newcastle (which got around 18K), the many English teams to visit Columbus have only hit around 10K.

    Even if you factor in higher ticket prices, the Crew couldn't be making too much money from these games, since they have to pay appearance fees to get most of these teams here in the first place. (If the Crew were rolling in the dough, you can bet we'd see a lot more of these friendlies. Other CCL teams are scheduling friendlies too, so if the Crew really wanted to, they would.)

    Any arguments about these games adding new fans to the Crew's fanbase seem rather foolhardy too. Of all the West Ham fans who rode in on a bus from Phildelphia, I seriously doubt a single one ever came back to Crew Stadium.

    Are you trying to say that Cruz Azul and the Crew play the same style of soccer? I would strongly disagree. Exactly what other styles of soccer are you hoping to see? White Crane? Praying Mantis Style? Perhaps you're hoping to see some Shaolin Soccer? :p :D
     
  3. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah. I don't know how many thousands of ads I saw: "Buy whatever Pepsi product at Kroger, plus $10 in additional groceries and get a coupon for a Crew ticket."
     
  4. bsas131

    bsas131 New Member

    Mar 28, 2010
    Not saying I'm entirely surprised, but again you've read to criticize, as opposed to understand. Taking pot shots at people is fun, isn't it?

    My point is that Cruz Azul plays much same style as other teams within CONCACAF such as Saprissa, Comunicaciones, or Marathón.
     
  5. AndyC

    AndyC Member

    Jun 20, 2008
    Seattle, WA
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    OHhhhhh, I get it. I thought we were talking about Crew soccer games, but apparently we were talking about Cruz Azul games against everyone but the Crew the entire time.
     
  6. fidlerre

    fidlerre Moderator
    Staff Member

    Oct 10, 2000
    Central Ohio
    I'd bet half the initial season ticket holders had the name "Kroger" in the ticket database.
     
  7. WhiteHartShame

    WhiteHartShame Member+

    Nov 16, 2008
    Columbus, Ohio
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yes I remember the Bayer Leverkusen match. I believe Frankie Hejduk started a brawl that involved most of the players from both teams, then he ended up on the Crew. Memories.....

    Your farewell match with Boca is a great idea.
     
  8. WhiteHartShame

    WhiteHartShame Member+

    Nov 16, 2008
    Columbus, Ohio
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I disagree. I enjoy the fact the CCL is a competition vs. a friendly which is a non-competitive exhibition. I have also really enjoyed seeing the CONCACAF club teams and I appreciate the subtle differences in their style of play and their skill level. Now we need to figure out a way to get the casual fans in the Crew Stadium seats for CCL matches. I certainly would enjoy seeing a premier league team in Crew Stadium again but it's not going to happen this year.
     
  9. CrewNoob

    CrewNoob Member

    May 7, 2008
    Huntington, WV
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'll just put this out there, I hate friendlies. They mean nothing. Neither team plays their hardest, they use scrubs, and the people you come to see don't even show up. I can't even watch an international friendly on tv, because ultimately the game doesn't even show you how the team will fare. Meaningless.

    Conversely, while it may not be the top competition yet, the CCL is very entertaining to me. Even if a team like Saprissa may not be more well-known in this country than, say, Barca, it is hard to recount the amount of joy I had when we went down there and beat them. Had it been a friendly, I'd probably been doing something else that evening. Meaningful games are more useful IMO, and they also are more fun to watch. Not to mention the fact that we don't have to pay the other teams to come here.
     
  10. JB the First

    JB the First Member

    Apr 28, 2009
    Texas
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You can always count on one thing in a Crew friendly: Jason Garey will score.
     
  11. Nonesuch

    Nonesuch Member

    May 16, 1999
    Old Gridania

    ...not to be confused with the coaching staff, which appears to be vegetative, but not active.
     
  12. pace8

    pace8 Member

    Aug 17, 2006
    Miami and Montreal
    Club:
    Montreal Impact
    Nat'l Team:
    Haiti
    Actually Montreal drew a little over 55 000 for a CCL game. They also drew
    34 000 for ''Trophé des champions'' match between Girondins de Bordeau ( L1) and Guingamp ( L2). :D
     
  13. Tycon5

    Tycon5 Member

    Jun 26, 2000
    Columbus, Ohio
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Wow... they can start their own league.
     
  14. pace8

    pace8 Member

    Aug 17, 2006
    Miami and Montreal
    Club:
    Montreal Impact
    Nat'l Team:
    Haiti

    They should! Maybe the Crew can join and actually start averaging over 15 000 a game!;)
     
  15. HardHatMike

    HardHatMike DOOOOOOOOM!

    Traktor Nebraska
    Aug 31, 2005
    Lincoln, Nebraska
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Did you pay a royalty to the RPB for using their only comeback? :rolleyes:
     
  16. CrewNoob

    CrewNoob Member

    May 7, 2008
    Huntington, WV
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I swear, Canadian fans are like Beetlejuice. If you say the name of their club 3 times, you're sure to get someone from their fanbase giving attendance smack.
     
  17. Bill Archer

    Bill Archer BigSoccer Supporter

    Mar 19, 2002
    Washington, NC
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Dallas put 64,000 people in the Rose Bowl for World Cup matches in 1994. Los Angeles put 93,000 plus in the Rose Bowl for the same tournament.

    Does that have a damned thing to do with MLS attendance? Of course not; it's apples and bowling balls.

    But let me ask you a question:

    If 55,000 people in Montreal are supposedly dying to pay to watch the Montreal Impact every week (rather than for an event) then why did Joey Saputo build a 12,000 seat stadium and why is he now proposing that someone else pay to expand it to 18,000?

    Is he an imbecile? (Well, OK, actually he IS an imbecile but that's another discussion). Does he not like money? Or possibly he wants to keep the crowds down to avoid embarrassing the other MLS teams.

    (And that leaves aside the unarguable fact that Saputo and the Impact, desperate to make a big splash with that game, papered the house like madmen, handing out tickets for virtually nothing like those hooker fliers on the streets of Las vegas)

    There is no correlation whatsoever between selling tickets for an international soccer tournment and selling them for MLS games. None. Zip. Zero.

    Never has been.

    But you keep clinging tightly to those precious Girondins de Bordeau vs. Guingamp attendance numbers that you repeat at the drop of a hat to prove that you're somehow elevant.
     
  18. Tatatatan

    Tatatatan New Member

    May 31, 2009
    Montreal
    Club:
    Montreal Impact
    [ ] Solid argumentation
    [ ] Good comparaison
    [x] Fallacy

    The 34000 for Bordeaux - Guinguamp, the 45000 for some games in the U20 back in 2007 and the 72000 for the 1976 summer olympic football final shows that there's is a POTENTIAL for a football team.

    The 55000 for the game against Santos Lagua shows that people are INTERESTED to support massively Montreal if they play in a higher level (ie MLS or CCL). This doesn't mean that we need to build a 60k stadium, but it means that if we expand Saputo Stadium to 21000 it's more than possible to sell every place for each game.

    And btw Joey Saputo is not an idiot.

    EDIT : World cup matches are different. I guess that a lot of Mexicans and tourists from the country involved in the 1994 WC filled up stadium.
     
  19. Tatatatan

    Tatatatan New Member

    May 31, 2009
    Montreal
    Club:
    Montreal Impact
    Oh and for your tickets thing we have 5000 season tickets holders. I guess from the other 7000 at the stadium half of them paid their ticket the same price as a KC or Houston fan would pay. And every USL team does it and we are the only one along with Portland to have a 10k+ attendance average. Last thing, there is definitely a correlation between selling tickets for an international soccer tournment and selling them for MLS games. Two of them are the same game, if one of them doesn't work you need to find the problem because there's definitely a reason. Why would people pay for a game between Nigeria and Hungary and not for LA - Chicago?

    You never took math class after secondary right? :D
     
  20. CrewNoob

    CrewNoob Member

    May 7, 2008
    Huntington, WV
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I guess the bigger question is, Who gives a Sh*t?
     
  21. Dave Brull

    Dave Brull Member

    Mar 9, 2001
    Mayfield Hts, Ohio
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is so incredibly incorrect and ignorant of the laws of supply and demand that it instantly negates anything and everything he has posted here, including limpdick insults.

    My man, people will pay to see a one-off event because it is exactly that, it's rare, you won't see it again for a while. Which is the exact opposite description of an Impact game. They're relatively frequent, if you miss one, well, the next one's in two weeks. Big deal.

    When I worked in ticket sales in Dallas (albeit briefly, I don't want to pass myself off as some sort of expert here), there was an exhibition game between two Mexican clubs. Needless to say, the attendance for that exhibition dwarfed the average attendance for a Burn game that year (this was 2001) and these people were not attending Burn games because they didn't care about MLS but they really liked MFL.

    Also, people will buy tickets for these exhibitions because they like seeing those teams but don't particularly care about the local team. It's been shown over and over again to be the case. If there were a correlation, MLS teams would be selling out every game.

    If you're going to be woefully ignorant, do it elsewhere.
     
  22. High-Life

    High-Life New Member

    Sep 27, 2009
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Should the Crew play a (non-college)friendly this summer?

    Whats everyones thoughts on the Crew not playing any friendlies except against college teams? Lots of teams will be in the US playing MLS teams this summer from Europe and S.A... even Boca! I'd like to see someone like Benfica or Red Star come to town, and it would be awesome to see Guilie play his former club.
     
  23. DrunkandDisorderly

    Mar 17, 2008
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
  24. HardHatMike

    HardHatMike DOOOOOOOOM!

    Traktor Nebraska
    Aug 31, 2005
    Lincoln, Nebraska
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  25. High-Life

    High-Life New Member

    Sep 27, 2009
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Should the Crew play a (non-college)friendly this summer?

    Sorry I didnt realize this thread already existed...
    Mod can delete if needed
     

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