2007 Carolina RailHawks F.C. thread

Discussion in 'North Carolina FC' started by wjarrettc, Jan 1, 2007.

  1. Brandon313

    Brandon313 Member

    Aug 14, 2006
    Raleigh NC
    Not atlanta, but i think i will be making the Charleston trip...ive always like thier stadium and i think it would be a good one to go to..
     
  2. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    I thought the USL1 was doing away with back to back games.

    Minnesota opened the season with a pair, including the RailHawks opener, now the RailHawks do the Friday/Saturday dance.

    That can't be good for the product on the field.
     
  3. Chadwell

    Chadwell New Member

    Jun 29, 2005
    North Carolina
    I don't know about other teams, but the RailHawks didn't have back-to-back games until Virginia Beach folded last month and USL had to revise the schedule.
     
  4. wjarrettc

    wjarrettc Member
    Staff Member

    Oct 1, 2002
    Cliffs of Insanity
    Club:
    Carolina Railhawks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Some teams did have back-to-backs, or at least a situation where they had 2 games in 3 days before Va Beach folded. Most of these were parts of long roadtrips to save money, for example, Carolina plays Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver over the course of a 5 day trip.

    I THINK USl used to have a policy that teams had to have a certain amount of back-to-back games to keep the playing field even, but I THINK they did away with that policy this year.
     
  5. Mikey mouse

    Mikey mouse Member

    Jul 27, 1999
    Charleston, SC
    Club:
    Charleston
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    your right. the league did away with mandated back to backs this season. It is up to the teams weather they want to play back to backs or not.

    VB forced a couple teams into back to backs, and of ocurse some teas opted to do do back to backs (or 2 in 3 days) to save travel cost.
     
  6. Brandon313

    Brandon313 Member

    Aug 14, 2006
    Raleigh NC
    hey mikey, im looking forward to travelling down to Charleston for the RHawk/Battery game!!
     
  7. wjarrettc

    wjarrettc Member
    Staff Member

    Oct 1, 2002
    Cliffs of Insanity
    Club:
    Carolina Railhawks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  8. superdave

    superdave Member+

    Jul 14, 1999
    VB, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Don't think advertising is necessary.

    A couple of weeks ago, I began talking up the Railhawks with my U-7 team. One of the kids, a Hispanic, doesn't have e-mail, so in finalizing the number of tickets to get, I gave them a call. They're busy this Friday, but unprompted, the mom asked me when the Railhawks are playing Chivas. I checked it out and told her. In any event, SHE knew about it and is interested in going.
     
  9. wjarrettc

    wjarrettc Member
    Staff Member

    Oct 1, 2002
    Cliffs of Insanity
    Club:
    Carolina Railhawks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm pretty sure they are doing some media placements with La Ley (spanish language radio in the triangle)
     
  10. nchorn486

    nchorn486 New Member

    Aug 2, 2006
    Well folks it looks like I will be able to make this game after all. And as usual I will be there early, so I can tailgate :) .
     
  11. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Do you listen to 96.9FM?
     
  12. aimorris

    aimorris Member

    May 2, 2007
    Orlando, FL
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No, I don't listen to the radio. I said I was surprised about the lack of advertising at the game, anyways.

    Yes, this makes perfect sense. No advertising is necessary. Every soccer fan in the area will instantly know the local USL team is playing an MLS team. Or maybe you meant Hispanics didn't need advertising because they're playing Chivas, and the Hispanic community sent out a signal to Hispanics all over the world alerting them of the game.
     
  13. wjarrettc

    wjarrettc Member
    Staff Member

    Oct 1, 2002
    Cliffs of Insanity
    Club:
    Carolina Railhawks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Did you not get your secret decoder ring? :)

    I think Andy's point was that just because you haven't seen it, doesn't mean they aren't advertising. They may be focused on a different market.

    That said, I agree with you that they should do more promotion of the Chivas game at the home game tomorrow night.
     
  14. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    That's pretty much it.

    If you can sell out a match spending $0 in advertising, why spend $1 better spent advertising a game that probably won't sell out?

    They're running a business. The Chivas game will sell itself. WYMY La Ley, La Connexion, Que Pasa, WUVC Univision, et al will provide all the free advertising in the Hispanic community needed to sell every seat in the house.
     
  15. aimorris

    aimorris Member

    May 2, 2007
    Orlando, FL
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah, that's a fantastic idea. Let's market the team only to Hispanics. So, because I'm white... I don't deserve to know about an MLS team playing in the area? Give me a break, your reasoning is a joke.

    Running a business isn't just about making sure one game against a mostly Mexican fan based team is sold out. It's about getting local soccer fans excited about a professional team and building a fan base. You're going to need more than just Hispanics to do that.
     
  16. superdave

    superdave Member+

    Jul 14, 1999
    VB, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It's only a friendly, but it's gonna be kind of funny when the Railhawks step out onto the field with 98% of the fans pulling for the other team. :D
     
  17. TeeDubs

    TeeDubs New Member

    Jul 5, 2006
    the honduras guatamala game was barely advertised at all, and it was more than a sell out.....word will get around, no doubt about it
     
  18. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Carry that chip around on your shoulder much?

    It's a one-off exhibition game. Maybe they're not paying to market that one single game towards you in the papers and on the radio, but I'm sure it'll be brought up at this weekend's game numerous times.

    It's just an allocation of resources. Try not to take it personally.
     
  19. ButlerBob

    ButlerBob Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 13, 2001
    Evanston, IL
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    It's called ROI. If you have a limited budget (which pretty much every organization does). Your going to spend you dollars where you will get the best return. And dollar for dollar for the Chivas game you will get a better return in Hispanic related advertising then say the general English media outlets. If you can sell out a game without very little cost, that will provide additional funds to promote the league games. And actually Andy's reasoning is very sound.
     
  20. wjarrettc

    wjarrettc Member
    Staff Member

    Oct 1, 2002
    Cliffs of Insanity
    Club:
    Carolina Railhawks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Do you even understand why they are playing Chivas USA? Why not play DC United (they are lot closer) or Red Bull NY with Claudio Reyna and Josmer Altidore who would be big draws?

    They're playing Chivas USA because they are making an effort to get the team in front of the latino community. The whole purpose of this friendly is to bring 5,000-6,000 latino fans, who might not have ventured out to a RailHawks match, into the park and show them a great time. If they succeed in showcasing the park, the team, and the environment, some of them will come back and the game will have been a great success.

    They are doing a great job of marketing the team to the CASL/soccer mom crowd...2nd in the league in attendance after two weeks. Now they need to tap deeper into the markets they haven't reached yet and that includes the Chivas game. It was a great move on the management's part. The only thing that would have been better is if they could have gotten Guadalajara or Club America.
     
  21. RevFan

    RevFan Member

    New England Revolution
    United States
    Jan 1, 1999
    East Lyme, CT
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I would advise them not to play any music then. Hispanic fans will laugh all the way to their cars and never come back if they play music during the action.
     
  22. wjarrettc

    wjarrettc Member
    Staff Member

    Oct 1, 2002
    Cliffs of Insanity
    Club:
    Carolina Railhawks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You mean like Gerardo, the Club America supporter that sat at the top of 204 the first week, then came back with 5 of his friends the second week, their own homemade supporters flags, and a huge banner written in spanish?

    I'm sure they would, like me, prefer that the music be gone. But clearly they aren't as shallow as some of the "so called" soccer fans that have threatened to boycott the team simply because they don't like the name or some occassional piped in rock music.
     
  23. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Bingo.

    If we're making broad generalizations of fan sets, my experience of the local hispanics is that they'd rather be at the game than sitting at home pining for some team hundreds or thousands of miles away.
     
  24. TeeDubs

    TeeDubs New Member

    Jul 5, 2006
    now now, lets not get ahead of outselves, we're only gonna embarrass an mls team....don't want to hurt too many feelings

    besides chivas would be the next logical step anyways;)
     
  25. anewsoccerfan

    anewsoccerfan Member

    Apr 15, 2007
    Chapel Hill, NC
    Are there tickets left for the Chivas USA game? Can you buy a ticket at the game?? Haven't seen the RailHawks play yet but would like to come out and see them take on an MLS club.
     

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