I'm going to be keeping track of attendances this year. Be patient with me. I'll track both USSF Div. 2 and USL-2. Thanks to VioletCrown for passing along the historical data from his tracking last year and from other sources (I assume kenn.com) for previous years. Here are last years final numbers. USL-1/A-League Code: Final Numbers Year Average Median %<2K %>10k 2002 3037 2185 40.1% 3.6% 2003 3335 2463 42.9% 4.1% 2004 3878 3107 30.9% 4.5% 2005 4527 3554 19.6% 7.7% 2006 4666 3370 18.5% 10.7% 2007 4771 4274 19.6% 10.1% 2008 5164 4510 10.9% 12.1% 2009 4709 3662 21.2% 13.3% Code: USL1 Total Team Avg Playoffs Montreal Impact 180494 12033 11282, 9835 Portland Timbers 146008 9734 14283 Rochester Rhinos 96425 6428 n/a Vancouver Whitecaps 79678 5312 5135, 4516, 5886 Charleston Battery 53013 3534 n/a Puerto Rico Islanders 49391 3293 4232, 5101 Minnesota Thunder 48135 3209 Austin Aztex 44611 2974 Carolina RailHawks 40953 2730 2471 Cleveland City Stars 22362 1491 Miami FC Blues 15952 1063 USL-2/D3 Pro League Code: Final Numbers Year Average Median %<1K %>3k 2005 1680 1457 21.4% 11.9% 2006 1803 1703 14.1% 11.8% 2007 1575 1423 28.1% 6.3% 2008 1614 1629 26.0% 7.3% 2009 1602 1518 31.8% 7.1% Code: USL2 Total Team Avg Playoffs Richmond Kickers 28737 2874 1923, 2991 Wilmington Hammerheads 24666 2467 2783 Western Mass Pioneers 17130 1903 Harrisburg City Islanders 18571 1857 Charlotte Eagles 12420 1242 760 Crystal Palace Baltimore 11807 1181 Pittsburgh Riverhounds 11778 1178 Bermuda Hogges 7440 744 Real Maryland Monarchs 3649 608
I feel like a broke the board. Hmm, apparently I need some more learnin' Here is the season up through this most recent weekend. Final Numbers for historical data, 2.4% played in 2010 Code: Year Average Median %<2K %>10k 2002 3037 2185 40.1% 3.6% 2003 3335 2463 42.9% 4.1% 2004 3878 3107 30.9% 4.5% 2005 4527 3554 19.6% 7.7% 2006 4666 3370 18.5% 10.7% 2007 4771 4274 19.6% 10.1% 2008 5164 4510 10.9% 12.1% 2009 4709 3662 21.2% 13.3% 2010 2706 2328 25.0% 0.0% Code: USSF Div. 1 Total Team Avg Montreal Impact 0 0 Portland Timbers 0 0 Rochester Rhinos 0 0 Vancouver Whitecaps 4934 4934 Puerto Rico Islanders 0 0 NSC Minnesota 0 0 Austin Aztex 2642 2642 Carolina RailHawks 2013 2013 C.P. Baltimore 0 0 Miami FC Blues 1235 1235 AC St. Louis 0 0 Tampa Bay Rowdies 0 0 dang... more learnin' I'll have this figured out by seasons end.
So if I'm reading this correctly, Carolina and YVR so far are below their averages, Miami is above their average, and Austin is about average?
I thought our man, Violet Crown, helped you out with this stuff in the past Marquis?? Anyway good to see we have this thread goin for 2010, and let us not forget that none of "The big three of D2 Attendance" (Montreal/Rochester/and your own PTFC) have played a home game yet between them.
Hahaha, VioletCrown did it all before, I'm just taking over because he's not interested this year, and I'm beginning to understand why pretty quickly. Vancouver is about average, Austin is about average, Carolina and Miami are below.
With a stadium that holds only 6200, AC St. Louis probably won't move the needle much on the league-wide average. But I think hitting last year's league average - 4709 - is eminently doable for AC.
Minor quibble: you might want to change the USL-1/A-League to USSF D2/USL-1/A-League. Though that's getting a bit ridiculous, and if USL1 doesn't make and NASL does next year, then, oy, vey. Maybe just make it US Second Division*? Anyway, thanks much for picking up my slack. It will be interesting to see where things end up this season. Having dropped a poor attendance team in Cleveland, but replaced it with an even poorer drawing Baltimore, plus two new ones in St. Louis and Tampa attendance should go up. I wouldn't be surprised to see Austin go down a little -- sophomore slump. Heard that Tampa sold 1K season tickets. I think the odds are pretty good that both of them will draw better than last year's league average. Minnesota, despite being a new name, I expect will do pretty much the same as last year. It's a very familiar brand up there, and very hooked into the soccer community. Overall, I doubt we'll hit 2008 numbers. But should definitely do better than last year.
Vancouver is below anything they got last year, but if you look back over a longer time frame, it's right on par with what they usually do. In '08 (that really good year for the USL1), about half their games were below 5k, all of them in that upper 4k range. More importantly -- it was just one game. With the confusing off-season, most offices had a hard time preparing and selling season tickets.
Those numbers are pretty bad. I'm not jumping to conclussions or delusional enough to think it won't go down in St. Louis here after the hype of the opener, but we're apparently sold out today, or right at it. That's almost 6,200.
The number announced at the stadium (overheard on the webcast) was something like 5600. Pretty good. However, I really do wonder why Baltimore was so hot to move up. And why the NASL thinks they're a good organization to have. Portland will at least mask all that.
1113 in Charlotte tonight http://www.charlestonbattery.com/welcome.asp about 40 of those Battery fans!
I think the scary thing is that there wasn't much hype at all other then via the hardcore fans. There was barely any mention of the team in the paper or on the radio the past few months. Most of their marketing is done via Facebook and Twitter. It's amazing to think what could happen if AC St. Louis really marketed the team. I talked to a few people in the past week that follow soccer, not hardcore by any means and had no idea that we even had a team. Tim
I don't follow the English leagues that closely. Didn't the parent club have some financial issues? So the plan for CP Baltimore is to follow in the parent club's footsteps, and blow all the money they have? Doesn't seem like a good plan to me. Here's hoping they start drawing better. Because if I were a Baltimore politician, I'd wonder if it was such a good idea to build them a stadium.
Seems to be the broken record story you hear: "No one even knows we have a team". A simple story on all the local sports channels would do wonders, I'd think. At least people would simply know of it. All that said, when a friend of mine told a co-worker who was a former player himself, he simply didn't remember the opening date, but he can bring upwards of 20 people alone who'd love to see it. So, word of mouth is important. Just keep promoting it and it'll get out there. Plus I'll be a season ticket holder for life.
Yeah, you can say put it on the local sports channels all you want, but if they channels don't want to cover the team and don't care about the team, that ain't much you can do. @Violet, Palace UK did have problems, but CPB is a separate entity. They aren't too reliant on the parent team.