The very first Dynamo game I went to was in Round Rock in February or March 2006 when they were still the 1836, they played RSL to a 0-0 tie and there were several people in RSL jerseys there. I thought that was pretty amazing.
I would suspect they rode bikes to the match and had those jerseys on over the short-sleeve button up w/ black necktie. And NEVER cursed.
It's all about limiting expectations. Thursday night could be more of a problem then opening day is a plus.
I'm still going with 32,000. I want to be as far from FCD's 8,000 as possible, even though we are on a weeknight. One positive with this Thursday deal is that kids don't have school on Friday, maybe a lot of adults don't have to go to work either. I think the attendance might surprise some people (in a good way, not like at PHP).
Received an email from a friend who knows that I'm a Dynamo fan (but perhaps doesn't realize I'm a season ticket holder)--The Groupon Deal of the Day is a $25 party package to the Dynamo vs. Galaxy game. The ticket includes tailgating and some food and whatever. But I thought the description was funny: Cam Weaver is "The Shin"? How did I miss that? Anyway, it shows that 210 tickets for the deal have already been bought (explanation for thread choice).
I am one of those buy 2 get 2 fans that would have bought tix to 1/2 the home games this year. (That is about what I have done for 2 yrs) The ONLY reason I sprung for the season tix was because of the deal. All in all I got 8 tix for the price of 4. The reason I think the FO wins here is that I will be more likely to give some of my tix to people who don't normally attend games. Getting new fans is crucial to a soccer team in the states. If I bring 10 different families to games over the course of the season I would bet the chances of at least one of them will really enjoy it and come back is pretty high. (Even if they are sitting next to the loudest "boo-er" in the stadium.
And the people in the stadium actually made noise. The crowd did feel a lot bigger. Someone who likes to dig into numbers, compare that ESPN2 game to the year (was it 2007?) when we had a lot of ESPN2 Thursday night games, and they were all exciting ones with big crowds. But I don't remember how big the crowds really were, they just seemed big for Thursday nights. Compared to other opening nights, not so good, but for a Thursday night I guess it was ok. But still no school or work today.... could have been better.
Easter weekend didn't help as a lot went out of town yesterday. Still, I was happy with the turnout in spite of that.
Any guesses on Saturday night against LA Galaxy? I'm gonna say 19,320. Looks like the BOGO season tickets are going to help to overall numbers this year.
I haven't seen any major advertising promoting Landon Donovan (or bait and switch w/ David Beckham), so I'd say 15k-17k
Saturday night, LAG in town, free flashlights, 2 game unbeaten streak, beautiful springtime weather.... I'm going with 32,618
21,318. Galaxy is a bigger draw than RSL and it's on a Saturday. I know I'm discounting the opening effect, but dang it that was an 8:10 kickoff on a Thursday night.