2019 USL Attendance

Discussion in 'United Soccer Leagues' started by Macsen, Mar 25, 2019.

  1. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #1 Macsen, Mar 25, 2019
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2019
    Let's start compiling the 2019 attendance for USL-C here.

    After the first week, USL had a write-up about first-week attendance, boasting capacity crowds for four expansion teams. They posted total attendance over 90,000 across 17 matches. 5,305 average overall, and 6,400 average across independent clubs.

    12,896(!) in Albuquerque
    8,324 in El Paso
    8,062 in Memphis
    5,807 in Birmingham

    10,086 in Sacramento
    8,058 in San Antonio
    8,017 in Las Vegas
    5,356 in Nashville
    4,561 in St. Louis
    3,915 in Charleston
    3,432 in Tacoma (smart move changing S2)
    3,213 in Raleigh
    3,122 in Tulsa
    3,024 in Reno

    2,037 AU2
    727 NYRBII
    689 Los Dos

    All information pulled from the USL Championship Subreddit. This is the article for Week 1.
     
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  2. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I found the tracker images, also from /r/USLPRO

    [​IMG]
     
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  3. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]

    Going into Week 2, pretty good retention for Memphis and Birmingham, nice increases for Nashville and St. Louis. Decent starts for Tampa Bay, Phoenix, OKC and RGV. Also a very good start (for them) for Orange County.
     
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  4. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]

    Sacramento is actually showing signs of settling. They failed to sell out their first two games of the year.

    They're still phenomenal numbers for the second tier, though.

    Louisville with an SRO opener. They have to be VERY energized with their new stadium in the works.

    Fresno also had a great opener. T2 with a good opener for an O&O club. Liking the retention in El Paso.
     
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  5. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You may have noticed, I found I was able to change the title.

    [​IMG]

    First USL-1 week did pretty okay.

    Except OCB.

    Which wasn't surprising. It's out in the sticks, difficult to get to even for being out in the sticks, and it's an O&O.

    Las Vegas had a promotion with the Golden Knights, so that rebound was kinda expected.

    Phoenix is currently persisting above capacity. It will be interesting to see how it does once the heat is on.
     
  6. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]

    Sacramento actually sold out.

    Ottawa did very well on their season home opener, continuing their gains since switching to USL. It will be interesting to see how things change next year, when (if) they're (really) forced to play in the CPL.
     
  7. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]

    As expected, two of the obvious O&O's are dragging USL-1 attendance down. North Texas hasn't even reported yet. Tucson didn't have as good an opener as Lansing.

    Some very good sustained numbers from USL-C newcomers New Mexico, El Paso, and Memphis. Pittsburgh with an extremely good opener; if they can sustain near that level, it will be an enormous gain.

    Overall, USL-C numbers appear to have stabilized.
     
  8. newtex

    newtex Member+

    May 25, 2005
    Houston
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    I'm going to complain here about the same thing that I complain to the USL on Facebook. This week isn't over yet. Monday night games should be part of the previous week. Tonight's SPR-Indy game should be considered part of week 6.

    The sports week runs Tuesday-Monday as far as I'm concerned.
     
  9. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    All I can do about that is shrug, since both teams play again on Saturday.

    Not that it matters, since the game drew 232. SPR has settled nicely in the O&O malaise.
     
  10. The Marquis

    The Marquis Moderator
    Staff Member

    Aug 13, 2007
    Washougal, WA
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It's too bad that so few of the MLS affiliated USL teams get decent support. On the whole I go to more T2 than I do the Timbers main squad as it's easier to obtain tickets and FAR less expensive... and my family prefers T2 as well. In fact, dollar for dollar I'd say I get the best experience going to see T2, but I appear to be a very rare sort.
     
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  11. song219

    song219 BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 5, 2004
    La Norte
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Vanuatu
    Don't T2 play in the same stadium as the Timbers? Few MLS teams have this.
     
  12. Owen Thornhill

    Dec 22, 2012
    Club:
    Cork City
    They used to play only in Merlo Field, then only in Providence Park but now bounce back and forth. With the construction in Providence Park right now there is no game's played there by anyone. I'm with the above poster, I prefer T2 over the first team partially based on cost. Away travel is also less, not that I have made an away game yet but Tacoma is Closer than Tukwila or Century Link. In London, you can watch Arsenal for 100 pounds for one ticket or go to a lower league team for 15 pounds. Portland has a choice for 2 professional teams and is one of the better supported 2 teams in the league as a result. Expensive and higher quality or cheaper and lower quality.
     
  13. Centennial

    Centennial Member+

    Apr 4, 2003
    Centennial
    Question:

    When is the USL going to force MLS2 teams to move to USL league1?

    Isn’t that what Europe does?
     
  14. newtex

    newtex Member+

    May 25, 2005
    Houston
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Probably never. The MLS2 teams help USL-C with density across the country. Those 9-11 teams (depending on how you count) mean that USL-C can have the two full conferences reducing travel for the teams. Depending on how things go USL-C may even split into three conferences. They need lots of teams to make that work.

    If some teams, like Toronto II and Orlando B have already done, decide they would rather drop down then the USL is not going to prevent it, and may actually encourage it but "force"? That seems very unlikely.

    Not exactly. As I understand it, European leagues that have reserve teams active in their ladders usually just require that the reserve team be at least a level below the first team.
     
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  15. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The only reason that mindset exists at all is because of Monday Night Football, which wraps up a given cohort of NFL games.

    Going back 20+ years to when I worked in the A-League, we all understood (and it operated as) that a given week ended on Sunday.

    (There are so few Monday games in soccer that it's total pedantry, anyway.)

    Sports weeks are normal weeks. They start on Monday.
     
  16. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    As someone who has been to three home games thus far, I can safely say, "bollocks."

    Late every week that there's a home match, one of their guys reaches out to me to get "deals" on tickets. (I bought the games I wanted all at once anyway.) They made a big deal out of saying last night was their seventh consecutive sellout or whatever it was, while they should get a yellow for embellishment.

    The last two home games have had the best weather in the history of the game and there have been swaths of empty seats. Good on them if they actually sold those and got the revenue and the people just didn't show up for whatever reason. But I am skeptical.

    Look, Phx does almost everything right, as opposed to the other iterations of USL here and most garden variety USL teams. They do sell a good number of tickets and they have a ton of sponsors. They do things in a professional manner and come off with a good veneer. It's worth the money (my son and I like going together and we love our seats) and they provide a quality experience (the stadium needs a bit of infrastructure they don't seem interested in putting in pending the MLS decision).

    But they are not selling out every game. They just aren't.

    As for the heat, they'll lose me after May 18 because you are right on the edge then. Could be nice, could be 120 during the day. (101 or below at kickoff is not really a huge issue once the sun goes down, but games in June or July or August are dicey.) We plan to come back in for games at the end. The summer heat has not seemed to be a huge impediment for a lot of folks, though they tend to try to be smart about it and front-load the schedule a little bit.
     
  17. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Also, the NBA and AL-NL players of the week are determined by performances covering Monday-through-Sunday periods and those sports play basically every day. They consider the sports week to run Monday to Sunday. The NFL is, again, the outlier because of MNF since 1970.
     
  18. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]

    One word for USL-C: OUCH.

    Lots of O&O's dragging down the numbers, including two for RBII.

    That being said, I think it's safe to say Phoenix has a good foothold at long last.

    USL-1's numbers would look half-way decent without OCB dragging it down. Chattanooga and Greenville look about where you'd expect third tier to be.
     
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  19. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]

    Memphis is certainly not a fluke. But Albuquerque is insane. They tapped a market that was hungering for ANYTHING.

    Madison is beginning to look like a borderline USL-C club. (Keep in mind, that’s over 4,000 in snow for the third tier.)

    Any idea why suddenly 3k showed up for North Texas?

    A shame we had no report for Tucson.
     
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  20. pletch99

    pletch99 Member

    Nov 14, 2007
    Winchester, England
    Didn't the North Texas game follow an MLS match at Toyota Park?
     
  21. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #21 Macsen, May 9, 2019
    Last edited: May 9, 2019
    And I just realized I forgot this.

    [​IMG]

    Very good start for Hartford. But they’re going to need to start winning matches if they don’t want to see a rapid drop-off.

    Indy back in their nominal home, and 8k on a Wednesday is a good showing.

    Good bounce backs for Reno and Colorado Springs.

    And of course Madison is gonna do well in fair weather.
     
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  22. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]

    On the bright side, no one was under 1,000 in USL-1 last week.

    Then again, no one reached 2,000 in USL-1 last week.

    Ottawa had a good weekend. Phoenix, for as well as they've been doing, hit a new high. Nashville had two good showings.
     
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  23. soccersubjectively

    soccersubjectively BigSoccer Supporter

    Jan 17, 2012
    Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Phoenix at 108% full lol
     
  24. Centennial

    Centennial Member+

    Apr 4, 2003
    Centennial
    108% full of what?
     
  25. Macsen

    Macsen Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 5, 2007
    Orlando
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Phoenix declares seating for 6,200, which probably includes the capacities of their luxury suites. They probably don't include SRO areas in that number, which is why they're constantly over capacity.
     

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