I thought we would have more than 20K..on my side ( section 203 ) it was pretty crowded, EB side was pack and TA side were pack as well...I disagreed with the count 17,151.
It did seem full, and the ends were full. I don't know about our West side, but the East side wasn't real full, but still seemed about 20ish. 3,000 people could have walked through the northwest gate and not been counted.... I went thru there since I had to go pick up a jersey, they sort of looked in my bag for a second then I just strolled in until the guy was handing me my poster thing. I said "who scans my ticket?" and the guy said that they were supposed to have back there. I looked around and the ticket scanner was talking to somebody, so I went back and had her scan me so I'd be sure to be counted. They always seem to be a little more laid back on that side. At the main gate last game they almost didn't let me in with my Dynamo flag, she said "it was too big." It's just a normal Dynamo flag like everybody has. I talked my way thru though....
Right before game start it didn't seem that full but I looked around after the game started and it seemed more crowded . . . I thought they went by tickets sold? Having your ticket scanned may not make a difference for attendance . . .
This is a good thing to disagree about. Usually, other MLS fans are complaining that the amount of people in the stadium was far less than the attendance announced. Houston on the other hand may have had a lot more
The last two games they have filled in the sections on the westside furthest from midfield - you can't see it on TV and I think before recently they funneled most single game tickets to the eastside stands. I also noticed a group trying to start a "let's go Dynamo" chant in 204 at the start of the game. The crowd got into the game I think mainly due to Maruffo's abortion of the game
Down 7.5% at this point from 2008, which is fantastic. Code: Game 2006 2006R 2007 2008 2009 1 25462 25462 16404 20102 16053 2 20342 20342 16519 20058 19494 3 16904 16904 13392 15024 12708 4 21448 21448 18232 17204 16932 5 15742 15742 13199 13179 12619 6 14215 14215 12017 14655 16037 7 13824 13824 14184 16933 14516 8 8497 8497 14072 15371 17151 9 11735 11735 15033 13579 10 10210 10210 11114 10908 11 10334 10334 19501 22554 12 70550 10964 14351 14297 13 10964 15510 13530 17531 14 15510 20029 16104 12327 15 20029 17191 30588 30361 16 17191 Average 18935 15494 15883 16939 15689 Median 15626 15510 14351 15371 16045 StDev 14533 4828 4640 4879 2333 Total 302957 232407 238240 254083 125510 High 70,550 25,462 30,588 30,361 19,494 Low 8,497 8,497 11,114 10,908 12,619 % <10K 6.25% 6.67% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% % <15K 43.75% 46.67% 53.33% 40.00% 37.50% % >20K 31.25% 26.67% 6.67% 26.67% 0.00%
Sorry about that. We are currently down just over one percent from 2008. That sounds great, but it will change next home game unless we have a 22K+ game. It will also be interesting to see if Houstonians turn out in 30K numbers for the final LA game after being bamboozled the last two Beckhamless games. Code: Game 2006 2006R 2007 2008 2009 1 25462 25462 16404 20102 16053 2 20342 20342 16519 20058 19494 3 16904 16904 13392 15024 12708 4 21448 21448 18232 17204 16932 5 15742 15742 13199 13179 12619 6 14215 14215 12017 14655 16037 7 13824 13824 14184 16933 14516 8 8497 8497 14072 15371 17151 9 11735 11735 15033 13579 15179 10 10210 10210 11114 10908 14694 11 10334 10334 19501 22554 12 70550 10964 14351 14297 13 10964 15510 13530 17531 14 15510 20029 16104 12327 15 20029 17191 30588 30361 16 17191 Average 18935 15494 15883 16939 15538 Median 15626 15510 14351 15371 15608 StDev 14533 4828 4640 4879 2085 Total 302957 232407 238240 254083 155383 High 70,550 25,462 30,588 30,361 19,494 Low 8,497 8,497 11,114 10,908 12,619 % <10K 6.25% 6.67% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% % <15K 43.75% 46.67% 53.33% 40.00% 40.00% % >20K 31.25% 26.67% 6.67% 26.67% 0.00%
I'm cautiously optimistic about Sunday attendance. Blanco could still have a pretty nice affect on attendance. In fact, that 11th home game last season was a game against Chicago too. I'm hoping for 18,000+.
What else do we want or need as fans?, we are in 1st place, we played against the team that has score the most goals this season, the game was on a saturday night, and we got only close to 15,000?, and in faith night, supposedly we had a lot of people from different religious organizations, how many would have attended then without being faith night?, 11,000?, 10,000?, I don´t think regular fans decided not to attend yesterday because it was faith night, so why only 14,694 fans?, someone else said we need to wait to high five Sounder fans, but come on, we are not even close to their support, not even our first year, we have respectable numbers, but nothing great, nothing to brag about.
If you are not a season ticket holder and you want to see Beckham, you have to buy a 5 game mini-plan, those mini plans are, the LA Galaxy game, the Chicago Fire game, the first playoff game and you get to choose the other two. I know Beckham´s star is losing its shine, but because he has never played in Houston, I´m thinking a lot of people in the city wants to see him play, and I know for a fact that they don´t have any more seats behind the goal lines for the mini plans, add to that the people that will go to see Blanco and I´m hoping for more than 20,000.
Yes, last year him and McBride (In I think McBrides first or second game) got togehter on a score and then had a big hug afterwords. I commented to whoever was next to me that it was a really really weird site, the two old USA/MEX rivals hugging.
Blanco was here last year but will he be with the Mexican national team next Sunday before the game on the 12th vs. US? I think what you are seeing this year is normal flattening of the attendance curve as a franchise matures. The negative may be no one game with a huge turnout but the positive is that we have a pretty consistent turnout each week (14 -16K or so). Given the economy and other factors, just being down single digit percentage from 2008 is not a bad result. Usually nights like Faith & Family get a ton of church groups out but that didn't seem the case last night. My sense is that they are gettting less mileage and return out of their promotions than anticipated this year. I expect if they ever get the stadium deal done that they will get a season ticket bump by promising them priority in the new stadium. But i think this season validates not building a new stadium for 30K seats like some lobby for
Every season has validated that. Selling out for the playoffs doesn't justify a stadium that the rest of the time is ~50% full. If MLS can finalize the All-Star opponent early, the Dynamo could see a bump in STHs for 2010 as well.
I see it the other way around. If the Dynamo are able to get a 30,000 seat stadium over 50% full as an average when that stadium happens to be Robertson Stadium, imagine much more of an attraction the Dynamo be in a better stadium in a more central location.
I don't believe that a downtown location is going to provide a long-term increase to attendance or anything more than the new car smell factor. Robertson is about 2.5 miles from Downtown so distance isn't a factor in making the decision to go the game. Now, the neighborhood and amenties at Robertson may be a bit below average so that can be a deterrent (although the other side of 59 Downtown isn't a treat either). The past 3.5 years pretty well shows that the Dynamo draw on average 15-16K for the season. Additional fans will go for the newness, the stadium seats with chairbacks, etc. but others will fall out when ticket prices rise (and they will rise). The net gain in attendance I predict will be minimal, but the net revenue gain will be much greater than that for the Dynamo.
Agreed. And besides, let's say attendance increases 10% as a direct result of a nicer stadium. That's a whopping 1,500 to 1,600 fans and still doesn't justify a 30,000 capacity stadium. It would take an expectation of attendance nearly doubling for a 30,000 capacity stadium to make sense and there is no way that's happening just because the stadium might be nice. Now, I do think that over the next decade, Dynamo attendance can slowly increase 5% a year or so, all other things being equal, if the overall gameday experience is managed properly. That's something that I don't think is possible at Robertson because the gameday experience really can't be improved too much. It might even increase more than that if MLS improves as a whole and/or the Dynamo improve at the international level.
I disagree. Distance itself isn't a factor, but you're talking about a stadium that would likely be visible from a very busy downtown freeway (while Robertson is hidden somewhere between UH classrooms, some project housing, and a Frenchies), and basically walking distance from the other two downtown stadiums. Sure, I haven't actually walked from Toyota Center to Minute Maid Park after a game because I'm lazy and enjoy the modern-day horse-and-carriage rides now since some of the carriages and horses are now bullet-proof, but it's the relativity that counts. That, plus the location of the new stadium is in an area that's poised for a major revitalization, will have better sight-lines for a soccer match, and will have a more intimate atmosphere. If the Dynamo play their cards right, they could be seeing quite a few sellouts there (assuming that the capacity is at 22,000 as has been reported).