No, you're wrong. It's not a small number, and it's bizarre that you're wringing your hands about it. Either you don't know that these games never draw well, or you know and are just looking for an excuse to whine. This was the highest attendance of any play-in so far this year. Attendance at the SJ - RSL play-in was 2700. Attendance at the KC - Colorado play-in was 1200. I expect attendance in DC tomorrow to be higher than any of those, but this game is included in the DC United season ticket package. Rather than whimpering "oh well," you should be impressed that so many people turned out, far more than to any other play-in so far this year, despite the following facts: 1. It's not even the actual Open Cup, but a play-in that is the first of three games that gets teams to the actual Open Cup. It's not like the winner is signficantly closer to winning a trophy. 2. It was played against the same team who provided tepid, boring opposition at the same stadium just three days ago. 3. It was a freezing (37F with windchill) Tuesday night. 4. Tickets weren't part of the season ticket package, and had to be purchased separately. Perhaps there's a structural problem with the play-in rounds, but these games just do not attract a significant number of spectators, particularly if the game is treated as stand-alone instead of being in the season ticket package. Frankly, NY supporters clubs turned out in good numbers and were loud. Philadelphia fans had an opportunity to make another away trip to Harrison, which under the balanced schedule is the last they'll make (barring a playoff miracle). Red Bull got to test leveraging the CCTV that is shown on the jumbotron as a streaming broadcast (and brought in their regular announcers for it), and with a couple small exceptions with replay timing, did an excellent job. This game was a significant success, but you want to force some unfulfillable metric on it. What, pray tell, would be an adequate attendance figure to you? Or do you get some kind of thrill by attempting to diminish what so far has been a wildly successful season by NY, both on the field (2nd place/12 points, advancement in the cup by a reserve team), and off (a net attendance increase of 60% over last year through three home games)?
Good numbers so far, similar to 2002 and 2006 and no dobleheaders so far in 2010. do anybody know if there were dobleheaders games in 2002 & 2006 this far in the season ?
2002 had one outlier game of 48k with in the first 15% 2006 had one outlier game of 35k with in the first 15% I don't know for sure, but I think it would be safe to assume that both of these were likely double headers.
2002 might have been DC at Colorado 4/3/2002, doubleheader with USMNT/Mexico 2006 might have been New England at NY 4/8/2006. I don't show that as a doubleheader, but there was a Dallas/New York game on 5/24 which had Ecuador/Colombia as the doubleheader game. It drew 52k. Don't know if that was in the first 15%, though.
Edit: It was NY that had both the 35k and 52k game according to this link http://www.downthebyline.com/2006/12/2006-average-attendance.html Jeez, they only averaged 14.5k that season even with those two huge games The 52K game came a little later in the season (25% point).
There have now been 18 of these MLS US Open Cup play-in games since 2007. I have attendance figures for 16 of them. The average is 5,515. 2007 - 8,115 for 3 games (out of 4) 2008 - 7,149 for 4 games (out of 5) 2009 - 4,724 for 6 games 2010 - 2,320 for 3 games (so far) They don't draw particularly well, no. Some more than others (like anything else). Last night's NYRB crowd was the 3rd smallest of the 16 (only the first two this year were smaller, as you point out). But it's certainly not worth worrying about, for all of the reasons you note above: it's a tough sell, midweek, it's a "whuck?" situation, not included in season ticket packages, scheduled usually at the last minute, it's unclear as to the real benefit. Frankly, I'm surprised anyone shows up. And it's certainly not worth getting into an attendance debate about. It is what it is: an unfortunate circumstance brought on by MLS reducing its involvement in the USOC because of other (more lucrative or perceived to be more prestigious) tournaments.
Ah, I see, now. That was the rebranded Red Bulls' home opener. Pele, Shakira (?), Wyclef Jean, all that. Not a doubleheader, I don't believe.
DC's play-in tonight is, in fact, the Special Event "A" season ticket. I believe they have had Open Cup play-in games in the past as part of the season ticket package. Looking into how often Open Cup play-in games are included in season ticket packages would be worthwhile, if play-in games weren't largely irrelevant. But what provides some perspective is that all tickets were $15 GA at RBA last night. Ticket revenue would be in the vicinity of $45k, with an additional $x in food, drink, and souvenir sales. The stadium pub, ordinarily restricted to a small set of paid members, was open to the public, and was apparently pretty busy pouring out $9.50 pints and $13 cocktails. There's a good chance that, despite only attracting a bit more than 3000 spectators, RBNY made a profit on the evening.
Something they would not have done at Giants Stadium, correct? Which is, in fact, the point, I take it? Even if they'd played at Yurcak or something, they wouldn't have done as well. And, yes, DC has been including "other" games in their season ticket packages for years. Not ALL of these play-in games have been, though. I would be happy to know how many teams have done this (DC hosted two games last year, drew 5k+ both times). Team averages: Colorado - I don't have a figure for their 1 game Salt Lake - 9,454 for 2 games Los Angeles - 8,727 for 3 games Columbus - 5,120 for 2 games DC United - 5,110 for 2 games Seattle - 3,949 for 2 games (both played in Tukwilla) Chicago - 3,829 for 1 game (played in Peoria) San Jose - 3,365 for 2 games New York - 3,015 for 1 game Kansas City - 1,226 for 1 game (I don't have the other)
DC has not included all USOC games in the package. I don't think they were in the play-in portion last year, but their games in the tournament proper were $25 and at the Montgomery Soccer Plex. When I bitched to one ticket rep that it was absurd to charge that much, he basically mocked me that they didn't need my money because theyw ere going to sell out. They barely filled half the place.
That really illustrates how critical it is to control your own stadium. I don't know much about the Soccer Plex, but I assume it's pretty miminal in terms of concessions and amenties, and the owners (the county?) keep virtually all of that and any advertising, so DC has to make up a lot of money through ticket sales alone... at a price point that makes its own fans unhappy.
They did start putting playoff games in there several years back, though, didn't they? I didn't mean they had all USOC games in there, only that they were one of the teams that has routinely had "bonus" games in the season ticket package that give them the flexibility to utilize them for things like this. (But not for things like a game against Real Madrid for example, right? Did they make you fork over for that?)
I assume that's it. I don't know a lot about the specifics, but they don't allow alcohol there so they wouldn't get a lot in concessions anyway. It's a cool little stadium, just not a $25 GA for the Ocean City Barons kind of stadium. Add in the absolutely pissy attitude that the ticket rep gave me and they guaranteed I wasn't coming. I haven't been a STH for several years now (I know, bad fan, etc., etc.) but they have never been really consistent as far as I can tell as to what is a special ticket game. The big friendlies have been extra, much to the consternation of a lot of people, recently. I think some of the special ticket matches last year were CCL matches. Sorry for the diversion for anyone not interested. I just found it fascinating that RBNY got 3K without making STH use a ticket. Personally, I think it's not bad. The USOC is a 2-4K target for MLS teams as far as I'm concerned.
But price point isn't set by what you need to recoup your costs. (At least, it shouldn't be.) Price point for anything is set by what you feel the market can bear in an attempt to maximize revenue based on anticipated demand. They may have miscalculated, like the MetroStars did with the USOC Final in 2003. Baseball owners constantly talk about rising salaries as a reason they have to raise ticket prices. It's bollocks. It doesn't work that way.
I can't remember what I paid for the 2003 USOC Final, but it wasn't too painful. $30 maybe? The cup final attendance was in the very low four figures. The widespread thinking at the time was the Metro front office (Sakiewicz/Washo era) did absolutely nothing to promote the cup final. No advertising, no cold calls of STHs, nada. I have no idea what they were thinking.
Haig as one of us "old timers" on this board, I'm glad you set this newbie straight..... How little context some folks have on these attendance numbers. If they are having some concerns this year they should have been around in 2000 and 2001...
Six years is a newbie now? Tough to get into this club! Guess what? I was not surprised by your number. It's just something to be proud off. 3,700? That's how much this tournament draws in New York I guess. Did you want me to oooh and ahhh about this number or something? It's neither impressive nor awful. Glad you had fun at the game.
In other attendance news, TFC got out 21,436 for their Voyageurs Cup match against Montreal tonight. TFC won 2 - 0. That game was also going head to head with a Blue Jays - Red Sox match-up. I'm guessing there weren't much more than 12k at that game.