All props to Portland. Say what you will - in the absence of all those players due to NT duty - that is massive support.
A parent of a U-9 teammate of my granddaughter told us that he called about season tickets for the Timbers and the Thorns. The Timbers waiting list now is about 8 years. The Thorns waiting list is over a year to get season tickets. Maybe for next year they'll have to open up more of the stadium -- or maybe they'll keep a pretty long waiting list intentionally.
I thought the attendance this weekend, with almost all the stars and name players gone, was encouraging across the board. KC's attendance was maybe a bit down but still good, and the other three improved or held steady. For the league to survive, it has to be more than just the national team stars, and it's showing signs of that.
Yeah, KC's was kinda disappointing, as was CHI's midweek, but the other three weekend games were all second-highest-attendances for their respective teams.
One game against Chicago. 3,113 at that game. But we got a ton of rain this week and it threatened to rain all afternoon today. The stands are right on the banks of the Alewife Brook (we lose a ball every other game into the drink). Hoping they settle soon -- it's a bit closer to the action, right behind the benches and doesn't have to deal with the sunset.
To me the fan connection to KC is WIN at home, and they have dropped two in a row now. They were high flying when they were undefeated at home. Washington fans are unreal. Have they even won a home game, but the people keep packing the stadium.
Sounds like KC had some pretty bad weather this weekend. Ella Masar tweeted this from their hotel last night:
The Jeld-Wen soccer capacity is 20,674, which is what the Timbers get for all their games. I'm not sure how many seats they are opening up for the Thorns games. I think it's around 14,000. I remember that for the opening game they opened up more seats. They hold a significant number of seats for one-time or limited package ticket purchasers. I am not sure what the season ticket v one-time or limited package ticket split is, but I believe the season ticket sales are capped somewhere around 7,500. In the seating chart, the purple General Admission area is where the Rose City Riveters (fan support group) sit. The seats not open for Thorns games are the black area behind the purple general admission area. My family's seats are in the blue area, section 119, just beyond the midfield line at the top of that area (Row R). They are great seats and, as is the case with almost all Jeld-Wen seats, provide a great view of the game. The way the stadium is set up, with a crowd such as today's 13,800+, it gives the appearance that the stadium is full. I'll add that of the 10 friends we saw at the game, 2 are season ticket holders and 8 had purchased single game tickets-- but will be repeat customers for at least a number of additional games and previously have been to games. The 2 season ticket holders are University of Portland season ticket holders whose daughter played for the Pilots. One of the single game purchasers is a long-time soccer fan whose daughter played high school soccer. Seven of the single game purchasers are family groups with daughters currently playing youth soccer, in the U-9 to U-11 range. Of the four families with single game purchases, three have fathers who have played soccer.
Use the info cpthomas posted and this seating chart* to do whatever math you want. *Disclaimer: chart was created from initial Timbers STH selection map and could be slightly different from reality. Example: tearing out some seats, pouring a concrete camera pad.
I have to take back what I said about KC fans. 4200 came out in rain. now, 3400 come out in flooding. I guess they are the REAL DEAL, so why can't Sporting KC see this and put them in that MLS stadium.
I think that by "put them in", newsouth meant that SKC would either let them use the stadium free or reduced charge, or just outright bought into the team so it was more similar to the Timbers/Thorns setup. SKC advertising power and existing fanbase would easily double the current FCK City attendance, I would think, but that'd still be rather empty in their stadium, so I'm not sure I'd be for it...
SKC does have their eye on watching FCKC. Certainly not a given, but they are indeed paying attention. An MLS group is always going to think if there are already 4,000 women's fans going to a match, and they can convince 3,000 of their MLS fans to attend, then that's up to 7,000 fans in total. Then they have to do the numbers crunching to see if it's worth it. You also have to remember, that they're looking at those 4,000+ women's fans already going to FCKC home games as a potential target market to attend SKC (MLS) games as well (double season packages, or special packages with select tickets to attend particular FCKC and SKC matches for a discounted price).
Also, how much money do the Timbers make for food and liquor per person at Thorns games? Isn't that revenues plus any money from parking? Those girls bring in 4500 on a football field with crazy ball bounces on a sunny day. What happens with their fans and cheap packages to SKC fans like the Thorns did?