Unfortunately, the "knowledgable" may decide to not to attend the first games of next year's playoffs, since there'd be a decent chance they'd end up having to endure a 0-0 snoozer of a game.
Did the SoCal Fox Sports Networks advertise the game at all? (They may not have since it was on ESPN)
Very, very, very, very, very poor coverage by the Los Angeles Times. It's playoffs and there was 2 inch by 3.5 inch tiny blurb about today's game-- buried on page three, down low. The LA Times is extremely pathetic when it comes to soccer. They'd rather put an story about a basketball players knee or elbow surgery on front page sports, five months into the basketball off season (!) than the Galaxy, Chivas, or USMNT games. Simply pathetic not to mention shameful.
Last year, the attendance for the first round for LA was 20,026. (only 2500 better than today). However, LA Galaxy get 2 weeks to market the game as compare to 1 week this year. LA played the second game of the series at home, the first game on the road to Colorado. An extra week is a lot of time to market to potential ticket buyers.
The attendance wasn't the greatest, but it filled out pretty well, and I'll be damned if it wasn't one of the loudest games i've been to this year.
I love how people hate on LA's attendance when it's over 5,000 higher than any other team. With only one week to market the game - and also, a last minute switch of time from what had been advertised all year. It was a great game, the fans there got really into it.
I've been defending the Times coverage this year, but for this game (& the past couple) it was dreadful. Also was very bad for the last 2 WC qualifiers. (I know we had already qualified, but still.) On page 2 today, they referred us to the internet for Grahame Jones story on the game. Not impressive. Local major teams should come 1st over out of town college rivalries, IMO.
Hmmm really. That game looked packed compared to the others I watched this weekend. But really, I wouldn't be too suprised to see SJ outdraw LA. That extra week to market with LA coming to town could be big.... or a total bust. So we'll see. Be interesting to see what PHP and RFK manage this next weekend.
Of course it did, because that number is not the number of people in the stands, it's tickets sold, which will always be higher. When U.S. leagues use the word "attendance", they're lying.
I'm not advocating that. I'm saying "If you want to replicate "regular season" attendance, then you have to replicate regular season no-shows too."
As far as DC United goes, supporters groups have had to ADD additional sections for sales, SE sold their 3 sections out right after the last game of the regular season IIRC. The last home game of the season they opened the upper deck and I'd say there were a few thousand up there. I'd expect the same for this playoff game. I think the fault of attendance has a couple of problems, most of which will be eliminated once all teams are in a SSS. 1. Scheduling: Competing with football schedules doesn't make it any easier, and stadiums are going to give preference to them over a much smaller drawing MLS. So once we can have all the games in SSS's this should eliminate part of that problem. 2. TV: Tis the season, we're now not only competing with baseball time but every major professional sport is in/or near full swing. Baseball: playoffs. Basketball: Pre-Season. Hockey: Starts beginning of Oct. Football: Full swing. College Football: Full Swing. That's a lot of sports to cover this time of year, and given the fact that MLS PAYS to have air time that means we're subject to wacky scheduling. Friday at 8PM in Chicago, Sunday at Noon in LA. Not exactly friendly scheduling for TV audiences or fans wanting to attend games. I wish MLS was having sell-out crowds for every playoff game, but until marketing and scheduling is a lot better, this is what we're going to have to deal with.
well said Rob, but this weekend other than our supporter groups bringing everyone I dont know hows its going to draw. The game starts right after the skins-giants game ends, and well you know how poeple are around here. It would be great to see the same size like last week with the crowd for the last game of the season, i just dont see that happening. stupid mls schedules! if it was saturday night, the place would be packed!
LAT has moved G. Jones' soccer analysis, including his playoff pre-game story, to the "sports extra" web-only edition. He actually did a pretty good story, about SJE's Canadian stars, and set the table for the game. But he didn't make the print edition Saturday - mostly because USC and UCLA football and the World Series were squeezing everything else off the limited page space. Not that I think a lot of people would have gone to the game anyway if the story had appeared, but just to set the record straight. And, as it was, HDC's sub-par crowd was still 6000 paid admissions greater than the next closest game.
Hey Enough with the trolling buddy! The attendance for the game was poor. The lack of promotion or the change of date who knows. Close to 18,000 in attendance and as funny as it sounds lets see how bad our attendance compares to the rest. * D.C. United @ Chicago, Attendance= 11,493 * FC Dallas @ Colorado Rapids Attendance= 9,625 * Metros @ New England Attendance= 10,003 So there you have it, With the lack of promotion, the change of date, competing with UCLA/USC Football, Lakers/Clippers, Kings/Ducks and all the fun stuff people do on a Sunday such as visiting Disneyland, Six flags, Universal Studio, Sea World, Queen Mary and all of the thousands of attractions L.A. offers, we still managed to bring in close to 18,000 people is not such a bad crowd at all. The attendance above does not even come close to our attendance. So Whats The Big Deal.
I sat in Section 114 about 5 rows up… I said half-joking a few minutes before game time (knowing LA fans arrive late)… “Wow, this would be sad if this is all the fans that showed up…” oops. Granted, it is difficult to plan for the unknown… like a game moved to Sunday when all signs pointed to Saturday… because of that little change, my Galaxy Game Day Group went from 8 to 2. Sad. Embarrassing. Message Sent. Sad for the players like Gomez, Jones, Albright and Landy Cakes who show up regularly and play hard. Embarrassing for the Galaxy Front Office who needs to do some soul searching and improving of their External/Community Affairs and Game Day Atmosphere/Event Planning. Message Sent to the Galaxy Organization that people will not go out of their way and show up for an organization that has continually let them down. And where was the “Play-Off” Stadium Experience? Please, FO. Please make the Play-Off Game Day Experience an EVENT. People want to be a part of the Galaxy… the Organization just doesn’t make it easy. But those that were there were passionate and loud. Thanks for making the match that much more fun.
FWIW, there is a positive here. First round/week 1 attendance is up over last year. 48,587 made it to the 2005 opening matches compared to only 33,527 in 2004. Let's hope the improvement from week 1 to week 2 trend continues (due to the extra week of promotion). Although, wasn't some of 2004's lame attendance due to bad weather?
Interesting, San Jose has always been considered the red-headed step child of AEG, and the Galaxy their golden boys. LA did lead the league in attendance this year, by far. What have they done to let the fans down so much? (Besides keeping Sampson on as coach )
There is nothing embarrassing about drawin 17K when the other teams are drawing 9k, 10k, 11K, per game...