Looks like it filled in a little more as the first half progressed.... not great... but I don't think it will be as bad as Dallas.
On a positive note, I like the little terrace thing they got going behind the one goal. The only downside is that it's cut off from the other seating, so it won't be as easy for that passion to spill over into other sections, like what happened with the Nordecke in Cbus.
No passion among the fans, they're just sitting there and waiting for the game to be over. I guess your soccermoms all over the stadium.
The banners were visible. But yeah there's probably more noise from the rooftops across from Wrigley. Anywho, 11,641 at the Dick. Yes, 11,641
wow. looks like dallas might soon have some company in the "we are pathetic and cannot draw better than a D2 team" club ... poor FCD and Colorado Rapids. maybe MLS needs a pro/rel based on attendance? (snark)
i didn't say they ARE in FCD territory. i said they MIGHT be getting there. tho i do love all of the excuses by folks when it comes to MLS attendance. unless a team's stadium only holds about 10K (SJE/KCW) if they cannot outdraw a D2 team (Montreal Impact - 12K) then they deserve to be in D2. it is as cut and dry as that. now it won't happen as we all know but to not be able to outdraw a D2 team, no matter how many excuses the fans can come up with, is a pathetic embarrassment to the league.
Thats a few hundred over their median attendance from last season.. And FC Dallas had a few hundred below. A saying I have been a fan of is "pay me now or pay me later.." Apparently FC Dallas and Colorado are paying the price now for errors that they have made in previous years.. The only way to fix a free fall is to stabilize your fanbase and then make slow, incremental steps back.. Which is what hopefully is occuring in both cities.
that strikes me as ridiculous. i bet if you took Newcastle (D2), their attendance is lots better than 1/2 dozen Premiership sides. it doesn't strike me as odd that the best attendance side in D2 is better (or equal to) a couple of D1 teams.
A. the US/Canada is no England when it comes to established football. there is a clear delineation between MLS and D2. B. Newcastle is getting promoted to the EPL where they belong. They spent 1 year in the Championship. That is often what happens with the larger, well drawing teams that get sent down. They come right back up. Not always mind (Leeds). Plus most of the teams in the English lower levels that outdraw the bottom few EPL teams are teams that have the history and tradition of top flight clubs and the teams at the bottom of the EPL in attendance are essentially jumped up lower division teams that get relegated. Montreal has never been a "top flight" club if you will. So essentially. It proves my point sort of. Look. I know the FCD/COL and MLS apologists are going to be all "whah, what but ... but" and I was only half kidding but seriously, get a grip ... getting outdrawn by a USL/NASL team is sad and there is really no way around that.
good thing you are ignoring the fact that Newcastle is historically a D1 team and their sojourn in D2 is a brief one year anomoly and they always outdrew Chelsea (due to their smaller stadium) when both were in the EPL. way to make a totally irrelevant comparison. thank you for your clueless input.
uh huh. reality is a cold, harsh mistress no? how is it trolling to point out that an established MLS team(s) is being outdrawn in attendance by a D2 team even tho the advantages and gulf between the MLS and D2 are vast and clear unlike in say the EPL/Championship (where the bottom 6 EPL teams and the top Championship teams are essentially interchangeable and quite often are). don't take it personally. it is simply a factual observation. why do MLS fans get so defensive about stuff like this. you would think you guys would be the first to be concerned/upset about this kind of attendance. i mean at least the MLS is doing the very wise "if you can't beat them have them join you" thing but seriously get over it, it is just a critique and one that every MLS fan and every fan of FCD/COL should share.
Because you made a blanket statement that no excuses were acceptable for a D1 side to have better attendance than a D2 side, so I found a quick counter.. However now you want to discuss nuances rather than make general statements, so I can oblige. We can all come up with numerous examples of how the mgt. have misstepped from 95-06 (prior to KSE buying them). This is a similar case as Dallas, except their mistakes were seemingly more apparent as they made them. The Impact have been around since '93, and (according to wiki) there was a CSL side there since 88. So there is a slight bit more history surrounding the Montreal team (7 years isn't much).. The fact of the matter is that it's much easier for all of us to make decisions when we aren't responsible for them. I would hope that MLS makes decisions with data to support them, although at times it seems to have magical data that we can't imagine. I still reflect back to the early years of the league, when seemingly every sponsorship deal was going to end on the same day.. Doomsday was looming every week.. And we got through that.. We will obviously hopefully survive this as well.. As for the "gulf" between our leagues, you must have missed the part where Montreal advanced farther than MLS sides in the CCL two years ago. As someone who lives close to Rochester, that gap really isn't that great (espescially when comparing D2 to Colorado or San Jose). The reason why I (and others) get defensive is that we all want first division soccer in America to succeed.
Jeff Plush (Rapids M) was out at the pre-game tailgate. He told me that they sold 3000 less group sales tickets this year than they did for the home opener last year. The primary difference? Last year the home opener was the weekend before Easter, this year it was Easter weekend. He said the primary negative response they got from their group sales was "We'd love to, but we're going to be out of town/have family obligations". He's expecting better numbers for our next home game in 2 weeks. Not that its an excuse for a paltry 11K+ I was expecting closer to 14K. Also at the tailgate were 2 bigwigs from MLS club services. I and a couple of other supporters had a long conversation about what the problems were and what solutions there are to get the Dick to be full and rocking. Mainly its going to take time, and that's only after KSE gets things turned around.
In spite of the overall low turnout, I can say with confidence the the Supporters Terrace was a big success. We had over 800 people down there. I'd like to emphasize that the Rapids have never had that many legitimate standing supporters together for any game in their history. Fan support in Colorado has reached an important step and I now think we can expect a rosy future for our vocal support. This is the kind of thing that builds loyalty and will ultimately help fill the rest of the building down the road.
20,664 for DCU, according to the twitter of the DCU director of marketing communications, whatever that means. http://twitter.com/kylesheldon
it looks great on the tv machine (ok actually free internet feed but whatever). too bad they went from being in a close match to getting toasted in 2 minutes.