Attendance Question

Great points, everyone. All very true. One could make the argument about the quality of fan in the suburbs vs the city but they can't argue the quantity which, as Dustin pointed out, should be easy with the population of Collin County.

 

#preach

I'm about as burnt out on this subject as one can be. I don't know why there's any debate at all over location simply because it is a moot point brought up by people who are ignorant to the history of how the stadium came to be.

Anyway, Dustin - as usual - is spot on here.

At the end of the day this is not about location, but appeal of product. Next time someone tells you "Frsico is too far north" ask them this question:

"If Barcelona was playing at Toyota Stadium would Frisco be 'too far north' then?"

If the answer is "yes" - they're ********ing lying.

And while we can all agree Barca is never going to play in Frisco and FCD will never be Barca - the point remains, if the product - not just on the field - but the game day experience was so danged kick ass, that drive wouldn't matter. People would fall over themselves to get here.

2016 is a byproduct of 21 years to utter, total distain for any sort of proper brand building or marketing. There is nothing for the general soccer fan to glom onto with this club. HSG's "build it and they will come" model is tone deaf to an established market place for soccer.

Additionally it ignores the realities of how they went about alienating the biggest pool of potential customers - the youth/club structure - in their failure to manage those relationships with all the other clubs to this day. Texans, Solar, DeFeeters, Liverpool, etc - all see FCD as a competitor and it is no secret coaches of these clubs warn their players against attending FCD games. "The Heart of Texas Soccer" campaign is an insult to all of those clubs today and those that came before. It highlights the arrogance of the Hunts towards the rest of the youth community and really shoots themselves in the foot by distracting from all the actual good and progress they brought to the local system.

blah blah blah... *shoots self in face*

 

While all the youth clubs are potential customers, in the last few years I've thought this group isn't the best target for building fan base. With all the practice time, game time, and out of town tournaments youth soccer kids are forced to do now, what does a soccer family want to do on a Saturday night? Go see more soccer!!!! I think they'd probably prefer a break from the game.
I think the long drive argument is pretty weak. From Fort Worth, the drive to Frisco on a weekend is better now than it was to the Cotton Bowl. The distance may be more and I have to pay tolls, but at least I know how long it's going to take to get there. It generally takes me 1 hr, 1hr - 15 mins to get there. It takes me about 40 minutes to get to The Ballpark in Arlington (yeah, I know they changed the name) - not a significant difference. Plus there's that 1 mile walk to the game from the parking lot in Arlington.

 

So we know lots of excuses and reasons for why people don't go to the games. What would you do to get people in the seats? I'm no marketing guy, and tend to have little feel for what motivates people to spend money (Why the f is that popular?) so I'll leave it to the rest of you to brainstorm this.

 

an associated note: The Hunts have owned this club for 10+ years and it still doesn't have a nickname.

Before you mention "Hoops" - few faithful fans and many uneducated media still use it, despite the club abandoning it several years ago. But there has never been anything that stuck. Hoops doesn't even make sense now because the team doesn't wear them.

I tried "Huntsmen" after a listener suggested it to me, and I liked the tie-in with the family name, but pretty clear I'm the lone soul who likes it.

Point being, another thing about how HSG runs this thing without consideration into how the fan base can buy into it. As a broadcaster I can't tell you how much it annoys me there is no alternative way of referring to the club. "FC Dallas" - which is like saying "Mr Hyndman" exclusively. It's just so ridiculously formal and sterile.

 

Hoops works just for history sake and the fact that this team has had horizontal stripes (in one form or another) on their kit for 15 of their 20 years.

 

Confession- I hate the nickname Hoops. Makes me think of basketball. FCD rolls off the tongue.

Is it just me, or is there a total lack of community outreach? Other than seeing the players at the stadium, I don't see anything or anyone related to FCD. Last year we attended an open practice in Lewisville, but that is my only memory of the organization outside of Frisco. To steal a term from the non profit world, FCD needs to work on friendraising.

 

I liked the Waldo's when they were red and white but comparing the new uni's to the old in my closet I greatly prefer the new so I hope they don't go back to red and white. Now red and blue isn't bad as many teams wear those in either vertical or horizontal stripes but what they wear now is pretty nice. I would like Red Stripes but they would need to change their secondary kits every two years so that the blue and white isn't a permanent alternate. That would make the red striped variants the only consistent look and the nickname could make sense. If they keep both looks then just The Stripes would work. The Huntsman is also pretty good but what would happen if they actually did sell? Not opposed to having several nicknames but agree with Peter that hearing FC all the time is mind numbing. Can't they just say Dallas as in doesn't everyone just say Barcelona instead of FC Barcelona?

 

Huntsmen? Do we really want to give our owners more attention than they deserve?
I've often heard the Spanish language guys use "Toros". That's not bad.

 

Yeah, for real. I like Huntsmen in theory but every time I hear it or say it, it sounds icky because it gives too much (undeserved) love to the Hunts.

 

so, I would suggest the Hunts deserve all the credit and blame for the current status of the team on and off the field. Hence, why "Huntsmen" totally makes sense.

 

Soccer America reports FCD attendance was up 2.6% over last year. This was the 5th best percentage attendance improvement in MLS this year. Even so, our average attendance was in the bottom 4 at 15.5k.

 

Baby steps. But it’s also a bit of a false comparison because of the number of games this year where the capacity was back up to 20k due to opening the south end. So credit to getting a few near capacity or sell out games - if you want a real comparison do a percetage of capacity calculation.

 

HSG is the reason we dropped seven season seats. Until ownership changes, tv will do.
They treat fans like fools.

 

I am a lifetime futbolista with a son who plays as well.

I drove out to the Open Cup Final and drive out to Dallas Cup games as well. I'm just not interested in watching a team who by all appearances regularly look like they're cool with playing some futbol, losing, and bowing out. It's just not interesting to me and not worth my time or money.

I got an email from FCD last week requesting that I buy a set of tickets for the Halloween Massacre and the subsequent playoff game. I laughed because I knew there wouldn't be a subsequent playoff game. They included a disclaimer that they wouldn't have refunded the second set of tickets for the subsequent game.

You have to really wonder about that. Knowing this franchise and its propensity to bail in tough games because they don't spend money on players who cost money, what kind of sucker makes that gamble?

 

Club sent out an email today basically offering a credit to next year's purchase. There was a bunch of needless explanatory language that attempted to paint themselves as doing you a solid - and I guess, if you were willing to take the sucker bet of the package purchase, their willingness to give anything back is a better than expected gesture. (setting aside the idea the refund is actually dependent on you giving them even more money, lol)

But..

I just wonder, if they were to announce they were refunding the cost of not just the unused ticket, but any tickets purchased yesterday by a STH, the value in marketing and media attention would have far exceeded any lost revenue from ticket sales.

 

I quit MLS and the Hunts opening day 2009, so with the exit last night i'm now officially celebrating my 10-year anniversary of Hunt-Free-dom.

It's amazing to see them floundering for the same reasons 10 years later.

Sometime during the past decade i coined the term soccertainment specifically to describe the situation in frisco.

Somewhere i have the only pictures taken the night jason, chad, pappi, andy & alper stood up in front of the frisco city council and the future of pro soccer in north texas was sealed for 100 years.

 

A Brushes Sand appearance. These truly are the end of times.

 

No kidding. How are you Brushes?

 

One of the oldest football clubs in the world is simply "the Reds."

-SD

 

I like Hoops because it’s just as irrelevant as the Hunts.
However, I think Misers is more appropriate.