whoa goodsport, it was an honest question... i'm sorry, but San Jose's 10+ crowds don't impress me... San Jose's average coming into the game was just above 10,000... Thats why i asked how they got 16,000, and how come last season it was the same deal until their final game against LA and they pulled in 26,000? Am I right to assume that San Jose gained thousands of fans? and that LA only had 50 fans there? makes sense to me... San Jose, best fans in MLS, look at all that support, blow me down, San Jose's fans, wow, they are great... Move San Jose, please... The city and its fans, well they have no fans, are an embarrassment to the league...
      Like I said before, you should've stopped at...       ... since the rest of your remarks don't impress me.       Besides, they could move San Jose for all I care, but the Earthquakes are staying where they are now - it would be strange to see the San Jose downtown skyline gone when leaving a San Jose Earthquakes game, though. -G
Surprising response... "They could move San Jose for all I care" Can't believe you said that, from reading many of your posts I know what kinda fan you are and how you support San Jose, that quote doesn't reflect it... I really hope no teams ever get contracted again and definately hope no teams move, I hate when that happens in other sports and I'de hate it even more in MLS... that being said, San Jose's attendance is embarrassing, and to say (not that you said this) that playing LA and that LA's fans had little to do with the 16,000 is confusing to me... Like I said, I wasn't at the game, I can only travel to one game a season and I goto LA games cuz they have a lot of my favorite players, but ya, i wasn't at the game, so i don't know how many LA fans were there, but I have to assume its more than 50-70...but hey, maybe that was it and San Jose all of a sudden has a bunch of fans, that'd be great... hopefully next season San Jose's attendance improves to at least above 13,000, I want all teams over 15,000 (seems to be the BS attendance # people are satisfied with) but San Jose has had the ownership and onfield problems in the past, plus a name change, etc, all excuses I feel, its not like the time's of their games have been messed with like New Englands, but whatever, next season there should be no excuses reguarding attendance for any of the 9 teams* *Dallas doesn't count, anyteam in a high school stadium is allowed to have bad attendance, damn, I'de probably get EVERYONE to boycott and draw 0 fans a game until HSG put the team back at the Cotton Bowl until the new stadium opens up...but thats just me
19,404 in Columbus, nice end of the season # for a disappointing team... But I have to ask this, and of fans of other teams, why buy tickets and not use them??? and it was funny to hear some guy yell "andrulis sucks" when it was all quiet...
Ahh, I believe he was referring to the town, not the team. Sometimes things just go right over our heads....
      If you didn't refuse to read the rest of that sentence, you would've realized that I referred to the city, not to the team... and even then, it was in jest (Wouldn't it be strange for Spartan Stadium to suddenly be literally out in the middle of nowhere one day? Sounds like a Twilight Zone episode... ). Despite what LA fans would tell you, San Jose really is a nice city for the most part.       I hate it too. I was, and still am to this day, against the contraction of the two Florida MLS teams.       Understand the context of what's transpired here in the past several years (and don't think that the situation in one MLS market is the same as in all the others, because it isn't), and it's not quite the embarrassment that many believe (context... it's all about context here). As a matter of fact, when all is said and done, the attendance bumps in the last six San Jose home games are damn impressive!       Heck, there could've been 100 fans from LA, but that's not the point. I'm sure the fact that it was the Quakes' intrastate rival that brought out many Quakes fans who, for some reason or another, weren't coming to games until lately... or it could be something else entirely (perhaps it was because the front-office finally began to hustle the last few months, however late it was? who knows?). But the implication that thousands upon thousands of LA fans were at the game yesterday is false... and yes, I was at the game.       I hope that San Jose's attendance improves to at least above 13,000 as well (it definitely wouldn't be the first time), and for the reason I posted in the first page of this thread, there's a decent shot of that happening.       But yes, some of the Quakes' game times were messed with just as much as any other MLS team's (moved to 1pm Saturdays for espn2, moved to Sundays at weird times, etc.). That's just something that the league will have to live with until it becomes more prominent in the U.S. sports landscape, I guess.       Other teams are allowed to have bad attendance too, depending on the situation there. And I won't be so arrogant as to dismiss legitimate "excuses" and emphatically state that a team should be moved just because "I'm not impressed". -G
Apparently that did "go over my head"... when reading anything with San Jose in it and moving (on a soccer messageboard) you don't think of something like a city moving, which still makes no sense to me, oh well... ya, San Jose's attendance still sucks, next season should be their "last chance"...unless of course they are sold to Club America before next season, then when no fans show up it will because they switched owners again...ya
      Why am I not surprised? Could it possibly be because...       ... yeah, that's probably why. -G
clever, congrats, you can take things i said in two different posts and put them together... as for myself, I'm failing to see what that has to do with San Jose and their attendance...
      It has as much to do with it as your "expert" opinions on San Jose and its attendance, I suppose. -G
Somehow i highly doubt that number. Looked like about half of that. I know,i know it's the amount of tickets sold.
Tickets were dirt cheap outside of Crew Stadium today. I sold some extras for $5 each, as did a lot of other people, though I saw a few people getting $10 from people too lazy to walk over to the next person with tickets in their hands. Some people were selling them for $2 each, and I saw quite a few that were being offered for free.
What do you think the lowest ticket price should be? Let's pretend that the all tickets sell for the lowest price ($22). At 22,000 seats sold per game, that $464K of seat revenue per game. Now, what price would you like them to charge? Assuming you want them to completely sell out every game, to be even on revenue they'd STILL have to chage $17 per ticket ($464,000 calculated above divided by 27,000 seats). To be revenue-neutral with what they accomplished this year, they'd have to charge about the $17 for the cheapest seats. I know that people do make their entertainment decision on the basis of $17 vs. $22, but I think you're fooling yourself if you think it's all that many. $10 different for a couple isn't irrelevant, but it's less important than this decision: do I want to go to a soccer game or not? Economics tells you that you are losing some fans with the $5 higher price, but I really don't think it's the difference between selling out and alienating the entire fan base. To me, their pricing strategy seems to have worked pretty well. If they want to build on this season's success, and to eliminate the usual "attendance drops now that the novelty has worn off" dip, leaving ticket prices the same might not be a bad idea.
I think there are two different problems with the LA Galaxy pricing situation: 1) Ticket Price 2) Ticket Promotions Casper makes a good point regarding the issue of ticket price in his post. Most of the core soccer fans are probably going to be satisfied with their value even with the expensive tickets. It is going to make it tough for younger fans (20 - 30) range, especially if they are married and have families, but they will probably be able to afford to pick and choose games here and there. But when you couple the high ticket price with the ticket promotions, I can see how you might tick people off. If you are a 30 year old and have made a financial sacrifice to buy a season ticket only to see a different soccer mom type family sitting next to you over 1/2 the time, who have paid 50% prices, it could certainly send you on a slow burn. These people make the atmosphere around you less than spectacular and you can't help but be angry that a bunch of jokers who will never care as much about the team as you are can get in for much less than you. Even if the sacrificial fan continues to support LA Galaxy, he may prefer to buy single ticket seats and try to get in on what promotions he can. If the team is doing lousy or there are schedule conflicts, he is far less likely to turn out for every game than he would be if he re-upped for season tickets. If LA wants to retain season ticketholders and maintain high prices, they are going to need to go out of their way to show that they appreciate the full-price fans and give them some nice perqs. Otherwise, it is LA's best fans who end up feeling like second-class citizens. Also, LA needs to come up with some very nice package plans that cater to true soccer fans on a limited budget (such as a 10 game single-user ticket packs) that unlock some of the season ticket perqs as well. Perhaps those packs would allow a purchaser to pick a seat. Ticket promotions could be restricted to the five games not covered in the 10 game pack (a Wednesday night game here, an early kickoff against Dallas there). An example of a valuable perq for season ticket holders may be much reduced parking prices and/or a season ticket-holders lot (with a discount and designated entrance). Also coupons for 2 for 1 concession items and automatic entry into a door-prize (i.e. just about everybody gets something) type lottery that includes some pretty nice prizes (fanware, playoff tickets, a practice with the team, etc). Along with the usual meet the team day, etc. In any event, season tickets are a very important area for the league and clubs to focus their concern on. I would hate to see LA alienate some of their best fans. Those fans may be willing to sacrifice more to support their team, but they shouldn't be faced with discount fans game in and game out.
You'd have to explain why earlier in the season only 9187 showed up at Spartan to see LA. Where did all those LA fans go? Notice also that 26,853 turned out to see Columbus in the final home game in 2000, and 18k+ in 1998 to see KC in the final home game. ('99 was a weeknight, with weak attendance, while '01 was cancelled due to 9/11). Seems that the obvious conclusion is that San Jose draws well in it's last home game, moreso than it draws well against LA.