18,300 on a Wednesday is pretty good. Some epl teams struggle during the midweek. The reporting for this team is not great. Not great, Bob. https://t.co/pCgZwQdqpB— Patrick Murphy (@_Pat_Murphy) July 22, 2021
Nobody sold out last night. Cincinnati (26,000 capacity) had a crowd of 23,162. Portland (25,218 capacity) had a crowd of 23,500. SKC (18,467 capacity) had a crowd of 17,872. Those are all teams you would generally expect to sellout who didn’t last night. Additionally, you had teams like Colorado and Chicago with only around 8k last night. Pat needs to chill.
Pat is normally a sensible guy. Hard to say where a stupid comment like that came from. It was a great crowd. Two years ago we would have been delirious over getting that number for Toronto on a Saturday. Very solid for a weeknight.
Yea, I tend to think he's one of our better "reporters". It seems he was trying to criticizing the team's ticket pricing strategy as opposed to the fans, but that initial tweet did not come off that way. I happen to agree with his criticism of the current pricing model. I saw elsewhere on twitter where he was saying this type of attendance is unacceptable because the team openly stated that they want to emulate what SKC did when they built their stadium 10 years ago. What if I told you that SKC only sold out half of their games in their first season at their new stadium? What if I told you they had crowds as small as 14-15k in that first season? Contrary to what many people believe, they did not instantly sellout every game there. It wasn't until they got into their second season that they started to be a sure sellout. The stadium really has given us a solid bump though. Like you said, last night's attendance is something we would have been lucky to get on a weekend in the old place. And with the current ticket prices, it's all the more impressive. Looking ahead to ticket sales for some future games...our next home game is another Wednesday night game. It looks like there are about 2k tickets available for that one, so we are already looking at a 17-18k attendance without anymore ticket sales. The following Saturday we play ATL. There's only about 800 tickets available for that one. After that we play SEA, which has about 1k tickets available. Then we play FCC. Only a couple hundred tickets are available for that one, and you can't find anything cheaper than $80. It doesn't look like many tickets, if any at all, are being held back for any of those games either. That's some pretty impressive demand if you ask me.
Per the below it was the best mid-week regular season crowd in 20 years. I will definitely take that. The attendance will ebb and flow a bit this season (the September Tuesday match vs NYRB is going to be interesting) but I think we are in a good position, especially if marketing and communications get their shit together, which is in no way guaranteed. Huh... someone check me on this - but the last time I show #Crew96 with an announced crowd this large for a midweek league game was...August 15, 2001 against Dallas: 19,008(In any competition, it was November 11, 2017 in the playoffs against Toronto FC) https://t.co/xhv9p680fk— Matt Bernhardt (@bernhardtsoccer) July 22, 2021
#EveryoneN's Gary Smith says that https://t.co/2PFh2RX8Ou field is "one of the better atmospheres I've been at in MLS."#CLBvNSH— Ben Wright (@benwright) July 22, 2021 And that was the atmosphere for a mid-week game.
I'll note that while the HCT line looks really long, they move people fast. I started at the family restroom in line and got to the counter in about 8 minutes.
I looked inside. Looked nice. But when I can get a half liter at Hofbrauhaus for $4 on my way in, I'll not be spending too much money there.
I grabbed a Land Grant on draft before making my way over to the Nordecke. Quick service and it will be a great place to watch away games once they get food service going.
And I'd wager that the ticket holders were nearly all there. That is a HUGE difference from year's past. Announcing 15k when everyone knows that only 11 came through the turnstiles. The concourses and even the seating areas all felt just about as full as the previous 2. People are buying tickets, showing up, buying concessions. It's fine. Yes, I think they need to figure out how to get on a sellout streak, but the sky isn't falling.
I was at the game last night, it did seem like some of the crowd arrived late. I'm guessing the Clippers game played a role; along with those visiting the stadium for the first time not fully understanding the traffic/parking situation. I thought the atmosphere was great, a little drop-off from the opener (as expected) but still energetic....even more when you consider the slow pace of the first half after the first 5 minutes. Heck, there was no stoppage time at the end of the first half. You could feel the crowd really get into the game in the second half and release the pent-up energy the last 10-15 minutes of regulation and into stoppage time. If people are going to be critical of last night's attendance and atmosphere, there is no pleasing them. If that is your take away, then maybe find something else to do with your time that will make you happy.
Friends of mine went there for a bite and a drink before the game, actually waited for 15 minutes before the gates opened at 6. Had an absolutely abysmal experience - menu not working, food and drinks served badly and slowly - and as they were about to leave someone came to their table and asked how things were. Wife laid into him and gave him what for, no punches pulled. After he left, she commented that it was nice that the manager was going around getting feedback and husband says "that wasn't the manager, that was JW Johnson."
By the way, all sorts of in-stadium ads for Scotts, Ohio Cat and Huntington again last night, but still no mention of them on the Crew website as being corporate partners. WTF?
While there is certainly room to improve (and we don't need to wax poetic on the normal problems with opening new restaurants/bars), this experience is now more the norm rather than outlier for the hospitality sector post-pandemic. While I have no idea of the specifics of their situation, I have very little sympathy for those who act as described above. When I hear accounts like this, I'm reminded that the world would be a better place if everyone worked in the service industry for at least part of their life. Here is the point which most of us understand, but fail to comprehend. No matter where I've traveled in this country, people are ready to go out and enjoy a night out, but companies are not able to adequately replace the workforce that was forced out last year. This single issue is the root cause of most of the service related issues we encounter, as those who are working are far over-worked and completely underprepared for the situation they must navigate.
Also, there was a parking mess because ParkMobile sold Crew parking in the Buggyworks and Brodbelt lots and had to revoke them at the last second when the Clippers found out.
Well, Scotts and Ohio Cat could just be advertisers at this point. I'm sure you and I could buy an ad on the board too. Huntington is a little tougher to explain since they have that big sign over the west side field club. The team went to all that trouble to hide that sign for a while, as if they were holding off until a big reveal, but then they simply yanked down the canvas with no comment. On the plus side, I got my ring last night, but that's not the most interesting thing about it; I can't say for sure it's all of them but a lot of the young guys we see in nice suits with open collar shirts wearing neck credentials and walking around the place aren't actually employed by the team: they seem to work for Legends.
Interesting. Those guys are pretty conspicuous. So I just go to the guest services people sitting behind the glass walls near the SW entrance to get a ring?