Re: Week 29 Attendance Prediction They were in MLS Cup 2 years ago and practically sold out the joint. There was no attendance bounce the next year and that blame has to fall on management. The Metrostars have been more futile than the Revs...and DC has not had a good team in years sine this year. I think this points to a management problem or indifference to the Revolution by the owner...not the play on the field.
Somebody asked why Kroenke can't get attendance up for the Rapids since he is a major player there in Denver. I could be paranoid ... but it seems to me that we see a drop in every MLS market where an owner of a team from a "major" sport gets involved as investor/operator. This is despite the supposedly superior business acumen and connections of these major-league sports team owners. Let's look at the record. Kraft has been crap in New England. The Sharks did a lousy job in their stint in San Jose, which is now bouncing back. And Kroenke is mucking things up in Denver. Could be coincidence. Could also be that these guys want to destroy MLS! There, that's the full-blown conspiracy theory. Nothing to back it up, but enough circumstancial evidence for an Oliver Stone movie at least ... The big exception to this rule is Lamar Hunt. His desire for soccer to succeed in America is far, far beyond question. Let's not touch St. Phil either.
Re: Week 29 Attendance Prediction Yeah I've gotta agree with you on this one. I've read where Rev's fans have been trying to get replica jerseys for a few seasons now to no avail. I mean what's more fundamental and better marketing than having a few thousand people walking around in your team colors? Pathetic... I feel for the Rev fans because they've stuck by their team but their Front Office has let them down miserably.
Re: Week 29 Attendance Prediction They should play more attractive soccer. Hate to sound like Paul Gardner, but the boring Liverpool stuff from Steve Nicol's team is not attractive to the big Latino immigrant communities in the Northeast. It barely gets results, can't use that as a defense. They have some good, young American players. Most, like Ralston and Twellman and Dempsey, are hustling types, not guys who will wow the crowd with their skill. One guy that has nice skill, Cancela, could not get a game for a while this season. The Revs did indeed pack the place for the MLS Cup final in 02. And what do they do? They packed it in, hoping to make it to PKs at 0-0. At home! Can't blame the fans for not coming back months later to see that again.
Average should go up next year for many reasons. I wouldn't be suprised with a 17k average attendance. Here's why. 1. New stadium in Dallas. That will get rid of the eyesore that has been Dallas' average attendance this year. 2. New teams. New teams usually have an attendance boost at least in the short term. SLC should have a big attendance in their first game, and have high numbers for their first few home games. Chivas: see #3. 3. One of the new teams is Chivas. We all hate them, and will come out to boo them. Hopefully some Latim americans will like the idea and come out to cheer for them. I expect at least as big a boost as the Adu factor this season, PLUS them averaging about 20k at home. 4. The trends of increasing attendance in San Jose, a possible attendance increase in Chicago, and a possible attendance boost cause by whoever wins the title this year. The negative trends are: 1. The Adu factor will likely die down. 2. DC home attendance might be hampered by baseball. 3. I don't see Colorado or NE improving their attendance. Overall doesn't seem bad for the league. We have stadiums coming teh season after in New York and Chicago, both will possibly average around 20k a game. Expect 17.5k attendance within the next few years.
Re: Week 29 Attendance Prediction Irrelevant. Back in the old days, the Revs played unattractive, unskilled soccer and lost a lot. They were the jokes of the league. And yet, they drew 18-20,000 fans a game to watch unattractive, unskilled, losing soccer. By the same token, the San Jose Clash drew a lot more fans to watch absolutely dreck team than the San Jose Earthquakes draw to watch a team that has won two championships in three years. (Though I readily acknowledge their improvement in that arena.) Results don't matter for attendance in American soccer. Style doesn't matter for attendance in American soccer.
Well, if nothing happens in 2005, then I would say the team has a problem. But I think most of us are willing to give Kroenke 2004 to figure out what he wants to do with the team. Besides, a new stadium shows a lot of commitment in my book.
Re: Week 29 Attendance Prediction The attendence was ok this year. Of course LA was on top but, it was better than last year. When Chivas USA come to the MLS then the attendence should skyrocket because there are alot of Chivas supporters in the USA and there are alot of people who hate them and they might come to the matches just to watch the team lose.
Re: Week 29 Attendance Prediction skyrocket ? if they sell out every home game that is 27 k, then it depends what kind of players they have. If its regular MLS players recycled and 3 mexican stars away matches might see what the Adu factor did this year. Then deduct that the Adu factor is gone you end up the same , minus whatever the Galaxy will loose in fanbase. I do want mirracles but i rather dream for less and get more.
Yes, two of the 4 Chivas-LA games will be credited as Chivas home games, but since they will be at the exact same stadium as the the other two Chivas "away" games, it still nets as 4 more sellouts at HDC next year, and thus more money to the AEG bottom line, though not as much as 4 actual Galaxy home games. Either way it should help MLS's numbers, both attendance and money. I would imagine the Quakes-Chivas rivalry will quickly approach the intensity of Quakes-Galaxy as well, which would theoretically add another couple sellouts as well, but we'll have to wait to see exactly how quickly that occurs (if at all, of course).
But that is not what the original poster was saying. That person was saying that the 4 sellouts would help the LA Galaxy maintain their high average despite potential fan loss to chivas. LA will only be able to credit 2 sell outs towards their attendance numbers as the others will be on Chivas' books. That said, I am pretty optimistic that both teams will be well supported next year. Perhaps putting a hispanic soccer team in LA will be the equivalent of building another casino in Vegas, people will appear out of no where to support it.
Re: Week 29 Attendance Prediction I think MLS is doing pretty good. MLS's average attendance is comparable to the number 3 and 4 sports league in America. As far as the league getting highlight's on Sportscenter. I believe it will happen,we just need to be patient. When the league adds more team's and the majority are playing in their own stadium's it will be treated more seriously. Changing some mindset's at ESPN wouldn't hurt either.
Re: Week 29 Attendance Prediction The attendence should go up and possibly skyrocket when Chivas USA plays next year. Why? Because Just the name alone should get some more people at the match. It also gives the MLS something it hasnt had a In-City Derby La vs Chivas.The reason why the MLS almost has as many fans at the games as the NBA does is because the NBA arenas are only like 20,000 seats an Arena If the NBA had 60,000 seat arena then it would probably get that full 60,000 for a playoff game.
Re: Week 29 Attendance Prediction Paul Gardner's a dinosaur who's writing well past his "sell date" at this point, and takes a further credibility hit by incesantly pandering to Eurosnobs through a portrayal of MLS that is both biased and deliberately misleading. FWIW, Nicol's style, while pragmatic, is hardly the bunker-ball he's stood accused of. Hell, the Revs have had one of the more prolific offenses in the league for a couple of years nowk, at least in 2002 and 2003. Also, the "large immigrant communities" in New England haven't shown up since day one, and the team's particular style is only part of the reason for that: the club has willfully courted the suburban youth soccer crowd more than anyone, has done little to court the local Latino or Hispanic communities, has not retained the services of a high profile star (in his prime) that might appeal to them, the team has not had the results, and there's a decided lack of atmosphere compared to soccer they might know from back home. Trust me, Dempsey has more individual skill than either Twellman or Ralston, retaining ball control and dribbling skills that when fully developed, should impress the most savvy of fans. Cancela, who has good skill, has not seen a lot of playing time for any number of reasons, early on because he was not linking up well the Revolution forwards. Quite frankly, Twellman can't work with him, and showed earlier in the season that he favored balls in from the flank, mainly through Ralston or a similar wide player like Richie Baker. That being said, Cancela did well to get the ball through to Noonan, but his lack of early finishing rendered Cancela more-or-less ineffective. Thankfully, Cancela's making an impact late in the season. That being said, I could care less of he were a pasty white Englishman sending the balls in: as long as the play's effective, that's what I really care about. The bulk of the "fans' who showed up for that match were fair-weather, curiosity types, and not your variety of fan who shows up regularly. That bein said, you're right: the Revolution played a disruptive, unattractive style... that actually served them well until Ruiz won the game in OT. I don't think they were looking to go to PK's, but they were certainly playing to limit chances while being opportunistic on the counter. But the fans have not bee coming back for a number of reasons, most all of them due to circumstances that have largely been influenced by the front office. When you strip down MLS to nothing more than a weekend field-trip for youth soccer types, then you'll lose fans too.
Re: Week 29 Attendance Prediction Uhhhhh, no. On all counts. We've discussed Chivas to death. And I believe the NBA's all-time largest playoff attendance is still 41,732 on June 16, 1988 at the Pontiac Silverdome, an 80,000-seat football stadium that usually was downsized to 22,366 when the Pistons had it as their home court. They drew 61,983 for a regular-season game against Boston earlier that year, so it sat at least 60,000 at max capacity. I think Atlanta had a big ol' crowd at the Georgia Dome once when they were playing there while Philips Arena was being built, but it was for Michael Jordan (I think). I don't remember what the figure was. But, no, the ceiling on your basic NBA playoff game is way, way, way below 60,000. Only the Dallas and Sacramento played to 100% capacity at home last regular season, and 14 teams were below 90% capacity. Demand for NBA tickets does not outstrip supply in most places.
I wasn't bashing Dallas or it's fans, but giving some love to Rochester. Here are the Burn versus Rhinos attendance figures since the inception of MLS. I like the fact the Rhinos have had consistent averages over 10k in the A-league. Right now they are a big fish in a small fishbowl. Syracuse does average 6k a game, and that's only a 2 hour drive away. By the way Rochester is a bigger city than Salt Lake City. It's not some little town. Year...Burn....Rhinos 1996...16,011...9,991 1997....9,678..10,677 1998...10,227..11,499 1999...12,211..11,551 2000...13,102..11,628 2001...12,574..10,780 2002...13,122..10,008 2003....7,906..10,169 2004....9,004..10,181
The MLS to NBA and NHL comparisons are stupid. Why? Because the NHL and the NBA each have 41 games. The fact that with only 15 home games, we are barely close to them in attendance is kind of pathetic. They get many more fans into their games, and with higher ticket prices have higher revenues. It's black and white folks.
Exactly. The NBA has 41 home games for each team.If the NBA had 15 games for each team then the attendence would be much higher.When a team has 41 home games most likely people arent going to go to each and every game. It would be like if the NFL had 41 home games for each team every stadium would most likely not be sold out every game. The MLS has 15 more home games than the NFL and the difference in attendence is huge.The average for the AFC in the NFL in 2002 was 67,085.How any MLS teams even had 1/3 of that?The MLS team dont have big time attendence Its a 5th sport in America and it might be even below 5th.
For every positive in attendance, there will be a negative. Next year, Dallas will have higher numbers due to Frisco while some other team will have lower ones. I bet DC will fall off somewhat with baseball coming to town. What is important is the overall increase in attendance.
Re: Week 29 Attendance Prediction and if you read my post then you see i did say away matches will bring in about the same as Adu did this season
Ha! Stolen from one of your posts on the USL boards. I think it's an interesting comparison. The move to southlake killed them obviously in 2003. Before that they were getting in Dallas a couple thousand more per game. In 1997 and 1998 the Rhinos had a higher attendance. Why? It appears the people in Rochester are soccer fans, regardless of the quality. Can the attendance bump up to 14-15k when DC is visiting instead of Charleston? I don't know, but I'm willing to give the people there a little credit.
Maybe Io, but the bulk of the people I spoke to don't recall anything being said during the game, nor any literature being handed out before or after it, yours truly included. You figure with such a discount, at the last game of the season, and people on a high from the result, that Revs staff would be stationed at each exit handing out information. I can sure as Hell tell you they weren't at the North Gate. The Magpie