Chicago is having an "interesting" year. The reported numbers are in fact lower than last year, but the actual paid attendance is up. I believe the number reported in July was 19% higher paid attendance over 2010. There's a link to a quote but I don't have it handy. Regardless, revenue and sales are up while reported attendance is down. It's a bit of an anomaly that makes things a bit tricky to discuss.
Most importantly, when the distribution has extreme values at one end (such as when there is a special event or two like the old doubleheaders, or in the case of MLS salaries where one or two salaries are extreme compared to the rest) the median is generally a better representation of "typical" than the average. I have to say that I'm glad that sanity has been restored here. Just a few years back people were trying to argue--quite emphatically--that the median was an example of how fancy academic thinking about numbers didn't apply to the "real world."
This an important point. This year might be the best attendance year yet based on the numbers we track. But, and it's a point often made around here, we've been posting our best numbers for some time already. No doubleheaders, less freebies, and increased ticket prices. Most of what we are seeing are fans putting down hard earned money, in a down economy, to watch MLS.
Plus increased number of games. This is the part I was afraid of before the season began that it would just divide the (mostly) casual fans in attendance by more games and bring down the average attendance or offset whatever gains made by 2 new teams and a stadium. The fanbase is more hardcore than I thought!
Generally I would think more dates means more chances for the casual fan to find the right date in which to attend a game. With fewer dates there are fewer opportunities to fit one in. Plus, the new stadiums and expansions mean many teams have really helped up the number of season ticket holders, thus providing a strong foundation upon which attendance doesn't fluctuate wildly and walk ups and single-game sales are less relied upon. Some boost has come from being strong finishers the prior season [Colorado and FCD]. And in advance I think there will be 20,323 at Jeld-Wen.
i kid And now for my next performance, I will already state the Timbers season average attendance will be: 18826.5
Damn, I was a doubter at first, but..... Hey, while you're at it, what's the price of corn going to be next month?
"Very empty at BMO Field today. More empty seats than full. Curious to know the actual attendance today."-Jason DeVos Which is really surprising considering Toronto's historically solid attendance. I wonder what the reason is.
Mojo and pent-up demand can carry a team for 3, maybe 5 years... Then general suckitude (both organizational and on the field) catches up with them... The NE Revs WERE the TFC, Sounders, and Timbers of the first 4 years of MLS... you could throw the doors open and get >20K a substantial percentage of the time (I know, it sounds hard to believe at this point)... That is why I get really concerned when teams come into the league and draw big crowds and then seem to be completely complacent or, worse, where they seem to go out of their way to pi$$ off supporters... Once you have turned a fan base into the Revs, circa 2010 it is REALLY hard to get any traction (I am not sure anyone has figured out how to do it yet (though KC might be on the cusp of doing it)... Maybe that is the only recipe for a failed organization... entirely new local owners, a brand new SSS and a complete rebrand... I fear that we will never find out in New England...
Agree 100%. TFC needs to right the ship soon w/regard to quality on the field and fan/FO relations. Would hate to see them on the road to Revland... I think there is still time for them to avoid going down that road, but they're at a critical juncture.
RSL looks like they should have a big crowd tonight. The team just tweeted that they released a couple of hundred standing room only tickets. I assume they must be at or very close to a sellout to announce that.
They've already sold-out tonight. Even more impressive is the fact that the "Holy War" (BYUvUtah) game is tonight as well.
The Galaxy game tonight was the last game that unused season tickets could be exchanged for so I wouldn't be surprised to see 25k+ at the HDC tonight.
They're having a concert after the game (One Republic? I've never heard of them, but it's apparently popular). Extra tickets have been harder to come by than usual.