This came out of nowhere it seems. It's going to be different to see the Blast NOT at the arena for the first time ever.
Baltimore has had a professional indoor soccer team playing at the Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore Arena, First Mariner Bank Arena/Royal Farms Arena since 1980, so, yes, 37 years in a row. Not sure about your confusion about this.
I'd be really interested to see this layout for Blast games. Looks like a gorgeous arena, and perfect capacity/sight lines for indoor soccer.
I've been to a few Tigers basketball games and there really isn't a bad seat in the place. I am curious how an arena soccer field is going to look there though.
Here's the rendering just put out by the Blast. It appears that floors seats on two sides will need to be collapsed in order to fit the field in.
Was just going to add the same. I don't like the look of it. The one section behind the goal is completely blocked by the banners, and that's an entire side of the field that won't have seating.
http://www.wbal.com/article/261498/3/blast-to-relocate-home-games-to-towson-university Per this article, available seats will only be 4,000, not 5,200. I'm assuming this is because seats on two sides will need to be retracted to make room for the boards and turf. Blast averaged 6,299 last year at the Royal Farms Arena. I'm sure the Blast front office ran the numbers and still believe they can turn a profit, assuming rent for the SECU is less than Royal Farms. Now the question will be: will every game be a sellout or has Hale alienated enough fans that they don't even get 4,000 a game?
Okay, seriously, outside of the schadenfreude, this is probably a pretty good move. It appears to be a better venue overall. (As most would be. The Arena has its charms, but we all are aware of its drawbacks.) Any time you move, you risk losing some folks from an inconvenience standpoint, but you inevitably pick up others who would not schlep downtown before. The small capacity could be an issue (not for most MASL teams, but for this one). If they can legitimately sell all 4K tickets most nights, that would be a positive. Obviously they can't average 6k, but they have gone from averaging 7500 eight years ago to where they are now, and outside of a couple of big dates, they were not pulling many crowds that would not look and feel better in this arena than that one. I initially wondered what Soccer-Man would say, but we all know he would be as sycophantic as always, touting the Blast and the Honorable Ed Hale as being visionary and at the vanguard of leading the sport as they have been for 20 years and blah blah blah blah.
I can speak as a lifelong Blast fan that it's going to feel weird not going downtown to see the Blast play at the Arena. While the Blast averaged 6,300 this season (going by what the MASL reported), I really question that as a true number for attendance. 4K I can see being sold, especially with the group sales that the Blast seem to always have a good handle on. Towson's an excellent area for a lot of the youth teams and their families to get, especially since most of these teams usually come from north and northeast of Baltimore (Perry Hall, Parkville, Carney, etc.) That's a shorter commute and a lot less effort to get to than downtown Baltimore (not to mention it's not downtown Baltimore!). One negative is public transportation, or the lack there of, for people getting to the game. RoFo Arena is centrally located on a number of bus lines, Light Rail and the Metro subway, while SECU Arena isn't served by a bus line nearby, the closest lines are 7/10th miles away on Charles St. or York Road. While this isn't going to affect a great deal of people, it does hamper some fans getting to games. That being said, you also create a possible fan base on the Towson campus itself, perhaps getting some students to head to a game or two as a promotion on campus. I'd guess most games will be close to capacity this season. Edit: Plus I can hope tickets might be less due to less fees by not being in the city.
How 'accurate' are paid attendance numbers for any MASL team? I am sure every team has different standards for what constitutes a 'paid ticket', or whether a ticket distributed to a sponsor (which is sort of a paid ticket, though likely at discount value) but not used for the game still counts as 'attended'. And how many tickets are freebies, groupons, or giveaway gimmicks like BOGO or 'free kid tickets with adult'. Not saying the Blast are doing anything incorrect, they actually have had very good attendance. Just that any indoor soccer attendance number should be taken with a grain of salt. The new arena for the Blast is certainly smaller, but if they can truly average the capacity in paid attendance, they should do well.
Excited to see the Baltimore Blast in their new home Towson Will definitely miss the days in royal farms arena
Great long overdue move by the Blast! SECU Arena,Towson area, is much more safe than Balto. City. Plus SECU is brand new (built 2013) and I thought it would be great if the Blast could move there, when it originally opened.. The arena will only seat 4000 due to the MASL size field is any where from 180 to 200 ft long and 80 ft wide. Compared to a basketball court which is 94 ft long and 50 ft wide. This I why they can't use all of the 5200 seats (arena capacity). This size arena is much more suitable for MASL soccer and I would think the rent might be more affordable. Days of pro indoor soccer teams playing in 10000 plus seat arenas have been long gone. It should be a more fun and loud atmosphere with a packed house of 4000 fans, as Mr. Hale stated. Not sure how many Blast fans take the bus, but I do know bus line goes right past Towson University up and down York rd. and Charles St. Not 100% where the stops are though. I just wonder if they will get a new turf for this arena? Will miss and remember all the games and history in Baltimore, but think this will be a great move for the Blast.
I could never verify its authenticity so I never published it, but an MISL2 executive once sent me a spreadsheet that would stun you.
The smaller the venue, the harder the group sales... You have to be really careful not to oversell, and in doing so the amount of group tickets available can be capped. Before long, you have less and less in group sales. In the 00s when the Wave moved from the 18K seat Bradley Center to the 9K seat Arena, the drastic decline in group sales was quickly evident. At the BC, some of the larger area groups would bring thousands of fans and they would easily take up two full sections. Those types of groups instantly vaporized when the Wave moved across the street. I am sure that reduced the group sales staff, which reduced group attendance even further, and the cycle continues. Right now, the Wave has relatively few groups at games, and the sizes of those groups seem barely worth a mention. The offset, of course, is the (likely) lower per-game rental of the facility. If the Blast can average 3000 paid, they might actually be further ahead than last year.
Tickets will be increased by $7 http://www.abc2news.com/sports/baltimore-blast-leaving-royal-farms-arena-for-secu-arena
Plus parking is included with price of admission. Will have to say, if the field size is the same as Sonora, not sure if I will attend many games. Seems to be working in Sonora though. But from looking at the picture, the field looks to be full size or close to full size. Would be nice if the were able to install clear boards, like they had in Dayton years ago, but not sure if they would go to that expense. Then put advertisement banners/signs around the arena/on turf, instead of on the boards. Giving the fans a better view of the game from all seats. I was also wondering about group sales, like mjames1229 mentioned above. If the Blast season/partial season ticket numbers increase, then their will be less seats for group sales. The Blast have done very well with group sales over the years and have always thought half of the crowd in attendance, if not more, was from group sales. Also agree with UIWWildthing about the announced attendance being inflated and agree that the actual average attendance is closer to 4000. Anyway, I think this is a win/win for the Blast with season ticket holders, group sales, and probably an increase in walk up sales. If they continue to put a decent team on the field and have very good to great game day presentation, they should have no problem filling SECU every game.
This is what i can tell you about the attendance numbers . If the Blast played on a Saturday at 7:35 PM , The Blast rent the floor to youth teams for 1 hour . Let's say they sold 50 Tickets and did not stay and watch the game those 550 tickets got counted in the attendance numbers. I am not exactly sure how many tickets were comped. When I received Comp Tickets , They were player tickets that were not used by the player for that game. Or tickets a sponsor left for me. Those tickets were still scanned in and counted.
Can you give us an example? IE- Team A says Announced 3000, actual bodies through the turnstiles was 2186. Paid Sold 1996. Paid redeemed 1874. Some arenas have to report actual bodies in the building to comply with a state or municipal law about number if Police and ambulatory workers that are needed for staffing projections
Ok. That is a square, not a rounded hockey footprint. Anyone have an idea of how many teams play in this type of field. My thought is a muscle memory injury happening.