Not the first time I spelled it wrong even though I know it's LoudoUn. I even titled a thread incorrectly. It really did get a life of it's own.
It suddenly occurs to me, am I looking the proverbial gift horse in the mouth? I'm equally fine with her attending the Cordon Blue culinary school in France or Alien abduction to New Jersey, if she's not back by Easter I'll step up and hide the eggs for her
I'm taking a "wait and see" attitude on attendance until we see how the seats are filled in a more normal season. This compressed schedule has been tough to keep up with. How many people are able to, or want to, go to games Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday? Next season, with a home game every two weekends or so, and fewer mid-week games, will be much more representative of the demand for DC United tickets. Of course, you'd expect the team to spend some serious money and effort on marketing in the off-season.
What game is in that photo where the upper deck was full? At first I didnt think it was a DCU game (maybe one of those ES/Hondo games) but the scoreboard indicates it is. It is post-stickball (2008) because you can see the wires for the foul-ball fences/screens and the field is still shifted way to the south. But the VW Garage aint there yet (2010). And I dont see the clock - I thought it was only covered, not removed.
Match on Saturday looks like it will be a sell out, and resale tickets are most expensive I've seen since the opener. It's a huge game and the team has been playing well, but probably suggests Saturdays are a much easier sell for most people than weekdays and Sundays.
It will be on local TV and the dead giveaway it's a real sellout will be full top to bottom right to left pans across the seats. No more "black holes" with empty seats hidden from the camera. It would nice to have a1 full house to build on going forward
Oh, absolutely. A 7PM start on Saturday is one of the most convenient options for fans. That's why I want to wait until next season to see how attendance is, once we have a more normal schedule. I have a feeling that after all of the Rooney buzz and positive attention that's garnered for the team, attendance will start to really come into its own next season. Especially if the team has a good ending to this season with a dramatic push to the playoffs, and if the team focuses on good marketing in the off-season. The current attacking style the team plays, coupled with a fan-friendly new stadium are a good formula for getting people to come to games. And, nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. A full, loud and energetic Audi Field is a great marketing tool for the team. That type of environment is very good for convincing people to come back for more games. Certainly, it's a lot easier to convince casual fans and first-timers to come back to Audi Field than RFK was (especially near the end). Just one anecdote- my sister-in-law is the type of sports fan every team in the area would love to attract. Mid-30's, upper-middle-class with a decent amount of disposable income. Long-time Caps fan, who enjoys going to Caps games at least in part due to the quality of the stadium and the pre- and post-game options in the neighborhood. She's been to DC United games at RFK a couple of times when I got her free tickets, but she made it pretty clear that RFK was a dump and she wasn't interested in going to games there, unless the tickets were free. On the other hand, she's been to Audi Field with us once this season and was immediately sold on the stadium and the location (pre-game drinks and oysters at Salt Line are a good selling point). She and several of her friends have bought tickets to the last home game, and she plans to come to games next season as well. But for Audi Field, she never would have shown any real interest in DC United games, other than occasionally going to hang out with her sister at an RFK tailgate.
But (just like this year) you cat bet every evening match from the beginning of June through the end of Aug will be an 8pm k/o due to the frakin sun!
A few thoughts on some of the recent topics: * I have had to re-sell 4 tickets this year. The Red Bulls game on Sunday was by far the hardest, the only one I had to offer a 'discount.' I think Sunday is tougher, and Sunday that early is tougher still. * Also, the 'game pace effect'--where attendance goes down if there are a bunch of home games close together, and goes up if it's been a while--was something I noticed a long time before Audi Field came around. I would be curious if other teams had it, but we've had it as long as I can remember, so the ultra back-loaded schedule was bound to have some impact this season. * I do think the dynamic pricing for the first game did have a cost in terms of attendance. I'm not even talking about the people who were pissed off by it, but as alluded to earlier in this thread, the people who just checked out the first game and thought tickets were always outrageously priced. It's not necessarily 'fair', but if the pricing had been static, those people would have just gotten a "SOLD OUT" message instead, and they might have checked out later games instead of bailing. Or they might have gone to a re-seller, but they would have understood why they were paying more. And I'm not saying they shouldn't have done it. After all, I can hear the team's argument in my head that you're just throwing away money with static prices, as the price will float up to market demand anyway, only it's the scalpers that will make the profit. And it isn't trivial money either, I back of the enveloped it at maybe a couple hundred grand for one night. I'm just saying, maybe they could have managed the long-term expectations better in terms of making it clear that these prices were a one-off. Or maybe they could have instituted dynamic pricing after the first game. It's somewhat moot now, but I do think there are people out there who believe tickets are more expensive than they are, and that might be part of the reason why they put out a discount deal for a game several weeks later. * This also means that it's hard to tell how the team is doing on its numbers based on how many people are visible in the stands on a given day. If the people who do show generate the revenue, and/or some of the now-shows are corporate ticket blocs that still generate money for the team, then maybe they aren't looking at it the way we are. Still, I personally believe in the 'Cuban Principle' (named for Mark Cuban in a blog entry of his) which is 'you don't price tickets to maximize revenue, you price tickets to fill the arena, because a full arena is the best advertisement for your product'. To be fair that'ss a bit easier when a lot of your money is coming from TV, and a full arena is a TV ad, but still. Factors above notwithstanding, DC United should not be having trouble in general selling out the stadium for most games, and that atmosphere is what drives the perception of the team down the road. You can jack up prices if the place is still going to be full, but don't be taking risks, and make sure the market understands what you're doing.
"Was that [the Beckham game] a day game or night game?" - [ a game where the upper deck {sic} was full ] The 'Beckham Game' (where he made his first MLS appearance for the Gals) was an evening game. Security was so tight that Ben Olsen (and maybe a few other players) were stopped and initially denied access to the parking lot (5?) for staff and players (!!). The upper deck was NOT full. The 400s may have been full on the quiet side, but not the 500s, nor all around the stadium. And they would have confined fans in the upper bowl to only one side of the stadium anyways. And I think it was that year that DC United had several 20K (or even 22K) games, so the 'Beckham Game' wasn't that unique.
All good points. We share season tickets in a group, so the compressed schedule want as bad for us, but I'm sure plenty of others were affected more.