Attendance growth has been basically flat in the 18 years they've been at DSGP. This happened in spite of soccer being an emerging/growing professional sport, high local participation rates at the rec level, and the state adding about a million people over that time. Soccer is materially more popular in Colorado than it was 18 years ago, and the sport has absolutely grown here. The Switchbacks and Hailstorm prove that. The Rapids themselves have failed to grow along with the sport. No, they literally just need to stop being negligent. Thats it. If they modernized the facilities, fielded a team that doesn't consistently miss the playoffs, and promote the team at the community/grassroots level, attendance at the club would improve noticeably. No way. Why would MLS reward KSE with a payday like that? KSE does little more than barely keep the lights on. MLS is giving those games to teams that have actually invested in growing the league and teams that will attract the most eyeballs. A one-off isn't going to fix anything as long as they continue to operate the Rapids as a cheap third-rate product. You're just packing a big stadium full of tourists and plastics that that will resume ignoring the Rapids once the game ends. Also, KSE doesn't own Mile High, so they'd be giving the Broncos and rent check and a big slice of the revenues.
Yeah, but now that the Broncos have been bought by another Wal-Mart heir that's just keeping the money in the family.
I think people are sometimes too harsh on the league. There are only three countries in the world where more than 26 soccer teams get average attendances greater than the Rapids. They are England, Germany and the USA. Also, there are very few metro areas of less than 3 million people where 5 professional sports teams average 5 figure attendances. Maybe Brisbane, which has a slightly smaller metro population. The Birmingham UK area has 3.6 million people and 4 teams averaging more than 13k. So even if the Rapids move into a state of the art stadium that's covered and warm in the winter, and open and cool in the summer, the prospective market is more limited than in bigger cities. And f**k KSE!
Open Cup numbers! Charleston got 5k vs Atlanta which seems to be a standing room sellout 2,168 for NYCFC 2 vs New Mexico Standing room sellout 21,650 in KC for Tulsa (I guess this was free for STH?) Sacramento also with a sellout - 11,569 against San Jose. LAFC 22,000 vs Loudoun (I think this is also a sellout, and might be a round of 16 attendance record?) Today we have Indy hosting Detroit unfortunately. Would be fun for them to have a last hurrah against their mortal enemy MLS at home. Tampa is hosting Dallas and Settle plays Phoenix at Starfire. It kind of looks like MLS has completely outgrown the temporary 4k stadiums they tend to use for the Open Cup. When you can get 20k in a stadium you own, you should just do it?
KC says: Attendance: 10,088 https://www.sportingkc.com/news/rec...-cup-quarterfinals-with-4-0-win-over-fc-tulsa
That actually does make more sense... sadly. Wikipedia has been pretty reliable with attendance numbers recently so I didn't check sources.
A long time ago, maybe 15 years back, there was a survey done of pro sports market saturation, and Denver was the most oversaturated market. (Most sports + games divided by population) I don’t know that it still is, but if it’s not, it’s right up there. Denver has the same number of teams as Dallas and DC, which are much larger metro areas. Atlanta and Houston are much bigger but don’t have NHL teams. Denver is destined to be a problem market for the foreseeable future regardless of ownership. Kroenke getting his shit together would just mean Colorado will get to the league median. The club has to be outstanding at marketing just to be average in attendance.
I mean...... the man does have a fairly big patch of real estate in Englewood, Ca....... KSE has already moved a NFL team..... Wouldn't put it past him to try a Precourt here.....
Off the top of my head I can think of the Lions (AFL), Roar (A League), Broncos (NRL) and Reds (SuperRugby), but that's it for Brisbane. What other team are you thinking of? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just not sure what the other Brisbane team would be.
Chivas USA paid Anschutz $26.5 million (while paying the league a $10 million expansion fee) to crack the territorial rights. What do you suppose a territorial rights buyout would run these days?
Dodgers, Rams, Angels, Chargers, Bruins, Trojans, Lakers, Clippers, Kings, Ducks, LAFC, Galaxy, Angel City.
And that's just pro sports. We also have 2 major universities that play all the sports except hockey, and several smaller universities that still get 1k+ to bball games.
Wikipedia removed all attendanced for this Open Cup round so everything i posted could be wrong except Sacramento, which I verified.