the Impact is a non profitable organisation... yes some of the seatings will be more expensive such as the "president" seatings and lodge... but most of the tickets will still be affordable tickets
You'll still be able to see the olympic tower over the stand, no need to worry . As for cheap tickets, it's the Impact's dirty little (non-)secret. For last Sunday's game, they handed out 6k tickets (at probably $4-$5 a pop) to a local school commission, with very little showing up because of the weather (which was fine, but iffy before and after the game), meaning for not more than 6k in the stadium. Usually, they do this with local clubs who do show up in numbers to the game. All this being said, the Impact is not reinventing the wheel. They are looking, like TFC, Philly, Seattle, Vancouver and Portland to work off a strong base of season tickets, making it easier to sell the rest. Currently, the Impact have around 4k season tickets, and let's say there's another 3k people that will show up to watch the game no matter what (I'm being generous here). That leaves 6k tickets to be sold and distributed, and the Impact have historically gone with the bulk route. In MLS, with 13k season tickets (reasonable considering the precedent of other teams, and the enthusiasm in the city), you'll probably have 4k who will show up anyhow, and you're only left to sell half the amount of tickets (which are also an easier sell than a USL game). I don't anticipate the Impact having attendance woes once in MLS. They have also mentioned keeping around 7k tickets (that sounds like the ends) at the lowest price (which will be $300 for season tickets). As for comfort, etc., you'll find Montrealers don't need the luxury that might be more attractive to American fans. Make it solid, make it clean, and we'll be there. The Bell Centre is cramped and Molson Stadium is old old old.
I am convinced Miami could be a success. However, they need to have the formula right down to the nanoparticle: (1) Great venue in the right location (2) Sexy team with attractive style and a big name or two (3) Natural grass (4) Temperature controlled venue (5) Ability to house fans under an overhang when the typhoons hit (6) Right size stadium (7) Loaded with glamorous people attending and creating buzz (8) Oh yeah, and they have to win from the start It's a tall order, but it could happen.
To be honest, I don't think winning would help. Hell, even when "the U" was owning people they didn't sell out all of their home games at the old Orange Bowl. Miami has always been "off" in that regard ...
Don't forget the large Brazilian population down here in South Florida who are Latins but non-Hispanic and love to watch good soccer!
Joey Saputo announced today the final renderings for the new Stade Saputo. It will seat 20341. Here are some pics.
Sexy. More details from press release. "The expansion project, developed by the architects at Provencher, Roy and Associates, as well as the engineers from Cima +, will begin in mid-May 2011, but the bulk of the work will be done in the fall of 2011, which is when the new structure will be erected. The stadium will be completed by March 2012, in time for the club’s first season in Major League Soccer. The organization will be making a call for tenders on the construction as of April 2011." "expansion of the Saputo Stadium, with the stadium increasing from 13,034 to 20,341 seats. More than 7,000 seats will be added to the current stadium:" "a roof will hang over the upper rows of each grandstand, for a total of 6,948 covered seats. The roof will therefore cover a third of all seats," "the revamped stadium will also include more corporate boxes, jumping from 16 to 40. " "The Quebec government has injected an additional 23 million dollars into the stadium for the upcoming expansion. "
Don't be so hard on that response....to be fair to the poster there have been a lot of sloppy reports in Canadian media that could lead someone to think that "all the money in the NHL" comes from Canadian teams. Essentially the reports have been dealing with the growth in the salary cap since the lockout and how, now, a lot of the weaker market teams (which happen to be in the US) are worse off now than they were before as the cap is now way beyond what they used to spend and, at least, before they did not have a minimum amount they had to spend. The reports (over the last couple of years) have been pointing out that just about all of the increase in league revenues (and it is that increase that leads to an increase in the caps and floors) is as a result of the appreciating Canadian dollar (all revenues and expenses are converted to US $ for the purposes of cap talk so the theory is that there really is no extra money in those US franchises that are struggling but they are forced to spend more)......so in reporting that the Canadian media has been a bit sloppy in that they don't do a good enough job of making it clear what they are reporting and they tend to just throw all US based teams into one hamper. Of course there is a lot of revenue in the NHL that comes from US teams (particularly teams as solid as the one that I think you follow).....and hopefully his comment is a bit tongue-in-cheek with regards to MLS as well because regardless of the success of TFC and the apparant success of Vancouver and the predicted success of Montreal.....that is still only 15% (presuming they get to 20 teams) of the teams so I doubt we are even gonna represent half of the league revenue never mind "all"....that said, the poster did have a "lol" in his posting so it could just be he was trying to be funny!