2006 Attendance Thread (through 7/9) Through July 9th, 2006 Code: Team GP Average Galaxy 10 19,729 Red Bulls 8 17,823 Dynamo 9 16,463 DC United 9 16,426 RSL 8 15,712 Chivas 8 14,495 FC Dallas 11 14,397 Fire 5 13,150 Rapids 9 12,920 Crew 8 12,907 Wizards 8 12,043 [B]Revs 7 10,546[/B] MLS TOTALS 100 14,914
Fire season tickets are about DOUBLE what the Revs charge this year (at least if you purchased them late last Fall. Below is info from their site: Seat Type Price Premier Midfield (chair back) n/a Premier, Terrace Midfield (chair back) $660 Corner Kick, Party Deck, Terrace $460 Firehouse (general admission) $360
If the Chicago situation doesn't change (yeah, I know it's way too early to tell) it could either scare the Krafts from building a SSS, or scare them from charging the above prices. The latter would be good.
Agreed on keeping prices down is good. One thing if you are buying a single seat, but it gets pretty expensive if you are buying for a family.
Agreed. What possible motivation could the Krafts have to build a new stadium when they are already getting "free' revenue at Gillette from the Revs. For the other squads it makes sense to have your own revenue generating park, but not for the Revs. Personally, I am pretty frustrated (and concerned) by the rather small crowds at Toyota, PHP, Crew Stadium, etc.... It does not bode well for the league. When I can't make a match, I offer my tickets in my office (about 200 folks) for free every week. Granted, Hartford is a long drive, but if it wasn't for a woman who used to be a season ticket holder, I woudn't have found a taker yet (she's already grabbed 3 games). A guy on the Fire board says he can't give away his seats at Toyota in the middle of the pitch. I'm not sure why that is, but I am pretty sure that it does not relate to lots of youth games going on at the same time, other sporting events, or the Chili festival or whatever lame excuse we posit to explain poor attendance. Sorry for the rant, but I am concerned about the direction of the league at this point as far as attendance, even though I think the product continues to improve ... Beryl
No need to apologize for the rant. We're all here hoping to see the league succeed ... In regards to PHP, I believe their numbers will start to go up as the year progresses. They have a lot more evening games on their schedule IIRC, which should help. Bridgeview ... as someone's already mentioned, it's actually not a good thing for the fans to have 9 straight home games. It becomes a tough thing to be able to hit every single one of them. I also know I've read on the Fire boards that most of them are not happy with the location (Bridgeview) of the stadium. Crew Stadium ... to be fair, that team is crap. Their attendance figures in the past were pretty good with the new stadium. LA continues to do well, and Chivas' numbers are definitely going up (remember, last year's average of 17k included something like 90k for the doubleheader with Chivas Guadalejara playing).
I remember a couple of years ago when we had a cluster of home games, friendlies and gold cup games all over a 3 or 4 week period... by the end of that even I was sick of schlepping down to the 'boro... if you have to travel, a couple of times a month is far superior and you look forward to the next trip rather than dreading it... Bridgeview is actually in a good location, but not if you are someone who relies on public transit (now it is the El to a bus)... they have talked of extending the orange line (that ends at Midway Airport now) and that might make this stadium among the most accessible of all the new stadiums (with the exception of Harrison... in 60 to 90 days)... however, that talk has been going on for the last 10-15 years and nothing has happenend yet.... I still remain hopeful, however since I have a lot of affection for Chicago (the city, not the team;-) after having lived there for 17 years... Rand
Seems like there are many reasons (or excuses?) why the Revs aren't packing the people in. Considering the ethnic diversity in the Boston area, they just aren't buying into the Revs (based on my friends' responses, this is due to the lack -or perceived lack -of quality play and lack of attention the Revs generate). And whereas weather, holiday weekends, mid-week games, etc are all valid, the real problem is that both the Patriots and Red Sox can very easily overcome these issues to have sold out crowds. Course, this leads to some troubling conclusions/questions -is there a market here for the Revs? Is the culture in the Boston area ready to have a pro soccer team? Perhaps timing has much to do with it too -if there had been a SSS back in 1997-1999, one wonders what might have happened with the enthusiasm. Has that window gone now? And a SSS doesn't seem to be cure all for attendance ills (I know as soccer fans we seem to bounce around whatever cures seem to have the best promise at the time). What would be the next cure to look at after a SSS? The weather? Media coverage? Marketing? Lack of interest in the ethnic communities? Maybe, just maybe, there isn't enough interest in the area, and that's the real problem. I hope not, but certainly in any way to reverse the trend, some money has to be spent somewhere to get interest and people motivated to see the Revs.
You can add a lack of in-stadium atmosphere to that list as well... that's some up with numerous people I've spoken to.
Not trolling but what happen with your attendance. I remember when you guys would get over 20,000 for weekday games and good crowds even when it rained. I remember one game it was against Chicago that it was raining bucks, I believe it got delayed and you guys had over 17,000 at the game. You guys had some bad teams in the late 90's but attendance was pretty good. Now you guys for the last 5 years had one of the best teams in the league and your lucky to get 10,000 to a game. Have the tickets, parking, food, etc. gone up or the Krafft's don't care.
Revs have been spending less money over the years. Fact is that the Revs don't lose much money if they bring in a crowd of 10K. Obviously that will change when we get our SSS.
The Krafts and the Revs organization never really made it a point to show their fans that they actually cared about them. Many people finally got sick of it and started to give up on the team. I know quite a few that still pay attention to the team from far away, but will not return to a Revs game ever again, even with the organization handling things much better. What could have been ...
I mentioned blackin out some home games. Blacking out games causes fans to go to the game if they want to see it.
Yes, and it also causes the team to fall further out of public consciousness. There have been passionate people in the Revs organization that truly cared about the fans above all else, at various levels. Brian O'Donovan, Fernando Clavijo and Craig Tornberg immediately spring to mind, but there have been many others. The problem is that people above them never gave them either the financial or operational backing, necessary to prevent the small game-day stuff from leaving a bitter taste: heavy handed security, stadium and parking lot rules that change from week to week, too many details to list here... Only the people that made the choice to stop coming back can really tell you why they did, but many of us who refuse to be driven away have experienced the same bitterness, and it has very little to do with how passionate we are about backing our team/players on the field. Heck, I've even occasionally thought about just giving it up myself, and who knows it may happen yet. You can only pour so much water into the desert until you run dry...
FWIW, that's a number of people you can probably count on one hand, which begs the question... The Magpie
Has anyone taken a look at the objective factors surrounding each of our home game so far this season? Weather, other major competing events? My memory for such things isn't very good but it seems that we've had a real string of horrid weather game days as well as games on days or times not ideal to draw a good gate. Fortunately, our home schedule this year has been weighted towards later in the season when the weather is often better and we may yet finish the year with a reasonable average. FWIW, I've never felt abused or disrespected by anyone in the Rev organization or anything at the stadium during my tenure as a 10 year season ticket holder. I've always been treated with respect and any and all requests I've made to Rev Central have been well received and honored. IMO, the people who packed the old Boro that have stopped coming have done so because the newness of having a Pro Soccer Team has worn off --- not because they were pushed away.
we are long suffrering boston sports fans. we prefer our team sucky and cursed. when they are good, the real fans are put off by the few bandwagoneers that show up. good news is managment recognizes this, and is doing its best to keep the pay roll down, NOT to keep solvent, but rather to make sure we suck enought to drive away the fair weather fans, and keep the die hards happy. as soon as we really hit rock bottom and start missing the playoffs regurally, the fans will be back...
Knowing some of the people that won't come back, I disagree completely. They came to the games originally because it was their team. After a while, it felt like the team didn't care about them. Again, my comments were never meant towards BOD, Todd, Craig et al. From what I can tell, the problems come from above them. Mark Briggs is one that just doesn't get it.
I guess I've never felt it necessary to project onto Rev management that they did or didn't care about me. I've always felt I get exactly what I contracted for when I bought tickets and choose to continue to come back because I like following "MY" team. Maybe the key issue here is that this is a multi-factored issue and is being viewed by people who view these issues through different paradygms and therefore the wide diversity in opinions about why attendance has dropped. Bottom Line: I think we all agree our current attendance STINKS.
To be fair, you've not experienced some of the problems that many of us had to deal with the first few years of the Revs/Riders relationship, or the Fort issues we used to have. As mentioned, those things are much better now. It was just too late for some. The thought process for some, I believe, was that the team really isn't going out of their way to make us comfortable, and there comes a point where you choose to spend your $$ in different ways. That I couldn't have said better myself.