I think you are on to something there. FC Dallas' front office must not be marketing the club right. They have a nice facility so they should be packing them in.
you're right overall but i think some of the seats are too high priced also 90 bucks for a sideline seat?! i wouldnt pay that i pay 18 for a red bulls game..... they need to market it better I believe dallas should stay, but they need to lower prices and really get more fans to want to come with promotions and sorts.Yesterday their stadium was almost all orange or almost all dynamo fans....
Off the top of my head I think Seattle, KC and SJ were all at 100% soccer capacity and NYRB just under 100%. Overall a solid weekend with the obvious exception of Dallas. If they can only get 8K for the season opener vs an instate rival on a Saturday, it is scary to think the rest of the season holds. But it is, what it is, hopefully they can turn it around.
Are they even marketing them at all? Can any guys from Dallas give us an idea as to how the home opener was advertised?
True, NYRB will not fold due to not selling out and it is the new standard in American SSS........ However, has any SSS opened the MLS season without selling out? Earlier in the winter I joked the 2nd game would fail to sell out, I never imagined it would be game one.
And in the process kill any hope of a stadium deal for DC, and probably risk Houston's deal too (SJ and KC are far enough along to not be able to turn back I think. If MLS contracts or moves a team in a SSS it kills their negotiating power for other SSS's. The typical line is "We need an SSS to ensure the stability of the team through bad years, if we can't get it here we'll have to move the team." If the various powers-that-be hear that line and can then respond with "Well, a SSS didn't save Dallas, so how can we believe any assurance you give us that a SSS will keep the team here?", MLS is in a bad position. Not to mention that Dallas still, to the best of my knowledge, isn't a money drain on MLS and that is literally the bottom line. If people want to contract a team for the damage they do to MLS, DC should be first in line while Dallas and other teams in their own stadiums should be near the back.
heard a couple of radio ads on the local alt. rock station on the way to the game trying to hype up the rivalry and fcd being the wildest fan experience in Dallas.
I think that the majority of you guys are over thinking the problem with NYRB. NYRB first, is not a new team, so people already know how they play. The single largest reason for not selling out is that the RedBulls where so awful last. NYRB weren't just bad, but bottom of the barrel bad so it was hard to really build momentum. I have a feeling that now that they have won some games (pre season really doesn't do anything for fans) they'll bring consistent number around sellout. My biggest problem right now is with Columbus. The overall city doesn't really support the team, which is sad. I just don't get why the Crew's office doesn't attack the Ohio State campus more often. They have over 56k students one of the largest in the nation and very close to the dorms. I can't fathom why there isn't more of a presence of the Crew at OSU. Maybe have the crew players come around campus or something.
In terms of "selling out the season opener" i think it was a bad idea to have played Santos a week earlier in the soft opening. Saying that, I'm sure NYRB made some good money over the last two weeks so I bet the front office is fine with it.
I believe the biggest money drain were the MetroStars and Red Bull playing in Giant stadium And this took like 14 seasons
The stadium practically sold out. 500 under capacity can't be considered bad, and I think that number was close to the number actually in the stadium by the end. They need to fix any problems that forced people to come late. I don't even think it's this. A lot of the empty seats were in season ticket holder sections, so it really was probably just the weather (though it does suck that some STH's are literally fair weather fans).
People have certain expectations of what's suppose to happen when new stadiums are build. Unfortunately, MLS does not have that broad appeal which tends to move the needle like other sports leagues. I think this is what people expect. That New Stadium Smell: Twins Already Sell 100,000 More Tickets than All of Last Season "To date, the Twins have sold more than 2.5 million tickets for the 2010 season. In comparison, the Twins sold 2.4 million tickets during the entire 2009 season." Allot of this comes down to management and marketing. For MLS, marketing seems to be absent in most cities (the ones I've been to). And when you're competing against other major league sports, marketing becomes that much more important.
True but even MLB can have the same problem. The Nationals have a great stadium by all accounts but the 'new stadium" appeal is short lived. Attendance has been woeful compared to the rest of the league.
As far as I can tell last night was a near sellout at RBA. So I don't really know what people are arguing about. Excuses are being thrown around for a nonexistent problem.
Agree. If people want to be upset about attendances, there are clearly real issues in the league to worry about. RBA is great and if they get 500 or so short of a sellout in that place every time it will be a remarkable blessing for MLS.
No, it was practically filled with people. There is a difference, taking into account the scuttlebutt a couple weeks go (from longtime posters) that RB was rather liberally giving away tickets to local youth soccer associations. It wasn't really clear if those murmurs were about the Santos or Chicago game, but if they wanted to keep up appearances for one, it's just as likely they'd do so for the other. And no one will ever be the wiser. From the perspective of my TV (in between the hoops and hockey) there sure looked like a lot of empty spots here and there, even late in the game - my sense is that's being a bit understated. But "it looked better/worse on TV" is such a dangerous road to go down that I'd rather not put any real stock in it. As has been said elsewhere, it's way too early to have this discussion. Come back to it in July or September.
Jason if you wouldn't make fantastic posts like this so often I would be able to give you more rep +1 for this though damn fine points.
FYI, I saw Eric Stover on an interview about a month ago and he said the organizations goals for attendance this year were 8k season tickets and 18k average attendance. So RB doesnt expect to sellout every game. He said the idea is to grow the fanbase over time. If they get those numbers that would be a major improvement from last season.
Ze Roberto himself has ruled out a summer move to Red Bull, something like 10 days ago Of course, just 1 visit of RBA could change it all