So, effectively, half the teams had capacity crows: NY, Seattle, SJ, and KC. Then LA and Chivas still had outstanding crowds. Columbus and Dallas, effectively crapped their pants. Got that right?
The Crew's numbers weren't great by any means, but it's harsh to say that it was a complete embarrassment. I think HSG bashing is great; let's just not lose a realistic perspective.
A week before the 2009 home opener, Dallas had sold only 5K tickets. Something in the 8-10K range showed up. They announced 15K. WE'VE COVERED ALL THIS BEFORE, PEOPLE!!!
I agree, if any of you were transit planners, then this might be an interesting discussion, but still not for a soccer thread. Yet from the arguments being made, it's pretty clear we're all just soccer fans. Also, it shouldn't be a bash Dallas, just a bash Frisco thread. or The Frisco Melt Down
thursday night game for one thing. for the other, the Galaxy have totally jacked up their ticket prices too high (imho) (due to the Beckham Experiment) and even though (I think) they stayed the same from last year, they're still way too high driving a lot of natural soccer fans out of the market.
it's actually very good considering that both the Dodgers and Angels were playing tonight at home and they are both huge draws here.
Ok, fair enough... maybe it is naive to think that 2 teams that share the same stadium should be able to break 20k.... but I see your points.
Based on my very cursory review of the attendance prediction thread, it looks like the Houston game met or exceeded the expectations of most, while the LA game disappointed.
I think we should be happy with >18k for two Thursday night contests. I bet if we look at historic Thursday night attendance, those two numbers were pretty darn good.
those are pre-season games... and this was a season opener. the attendance isn't great. it would have helped if chivas had been more competitive in the la derby of late. i think the galaxy numbers are going to be good but not spectacular. the beckham thing isn't going to hold los angeles spellbound forever, especially when he shows up on crutches like he's old and lame. otoh, ld should be by far the hottest draw in the league, after his epl stint.
It was 19.8k guys.............not 9k. For a Thursday night, that's more than reasonable. Yes, we would have liked for it to have been 22k or more........but in the grand scheme of things it's nothing to actually get our panties in a twist about.
You're assuming that there is a large segment of Chivas fans, who already have 15+ opportunities to see their team play home games, that are so desperate to see them play a 16th time that they're going to go to this game too. That's a reach. You're going to get 500 Chivas fans at this Galaxy home game, sure. But you're not going to get a number large enough to justify your point.
And the Kings as well. There is a decent amount of cross over fans between the Kings and the Galaxy. The attendance last night didn't surprise me at all. It always seems to get the LA area a while to get back into the swing of going to Galaxy games. It seems to be a summer/ late fall experience for a lot of the families that come now from the South Bay. Considering it's a second home game in 5 days, it's early in the season, it's a Thursday during spring break, all the other local teams were playing at home, and (by LA standards) it was a bit chilly out, I wasn't surprised by the crowd. It was still a good atmosphere for some piss poor football.
2nd home game in 5 days is a good point. Historically, when home games are stacked on top of each other for any team, the 2nd (or 3rd) games are struggles. Your point about "summer/late fall experience" could also relate to group sales too. Most groups don't come out for March/April games.
In truth there are a lot of Chivas fans that only come for the superclassico. Typically they bring large numbers, their showing last night (filled up most of a corner) was pretty good. Nicely there has been a decrease in attendance of the thugish Chivas group who only cares for Chivas Guadalajara and an increase in the Chivas group that actually likes Chivas USA.