The whether was a mess. Good thing it stopped in time for the game. I thought it was a decent crowd and thanks to the Son of Ben for cheering continuously throughout the game. Honestly I don't know how they do it . If it was my guess, I would say 2600 probably. Also, I don't know why people I surprised anymore because apart from the first couple of home games, Philly have never reported their numbers on time for whatever reason.
moog & Blaze, thanks for the info on the Philly game. I'm not surprised anymore rehilly's late reporting but I continue to be disappointed/annoyed. I felt similarly when CRS was late w/ reporting the attendance for their Wed. night game.
I was expecting it to be a Light Crowd for Philly because of the whether... I estimate about 3K being there, there was a decent contingent of fans across the field and the parking lot was surprisingly fuller then expected, after the game, the line up at the fence was a lot more packed than usual
Attendance for Freedom - Red Stars game is going to be very low, which isn't surprising for a weeknight in the DC Metro area. It took me 2.5 hours to get to the game (usually takes 40 minutes). I'm not saying that is the major reason for the low attendance, but I seriously considered going home and watching the webcast because I was getting so frustrated - glad I didn't though.
Just cuz I have nothing better to do on a Friday night, I did some quick and dirty calcs on day-of-week. For all the very valid comments regarding location and marketing, I was surprised at the sensitivity of which weekend day the games were in most markets. It is a given that mid-week games kill numbers, pretty consistently 25% less than weekend games across all venues (except FCGP, whose numbers are tough without even suffering a midweek game, and Washington which loses 44% of its fans vs weekend matches) The Saturday vs Sunday numbers are what caught my eye (like I said, this is quick and dirty averages, no allowance for weather, stadium grand openings, special promotions, etc) Boston and Sky Blue are pretty much a wash, with Sat/Sun within 3%. The other 5 teams seem to be very sensitive to Saturday vs Sunday scheduling: Atlanta- Sunday 4534 Saturday 3396 (-25%) Chicago- Sunday 3679 Saturday 4672 (+27%) FCGP- Sunday 2455 Saturday 3165 (+29%) Philly- Sunday 3125 Saturday 2554 (-18%) Washington- Sunday 3390 Saturday 4883 (+44%) I would have figured a weekend game is a weekend game, but this seems to indicate maybe not, and maybe this is a factor that is being overlooked. Another item of note, while trailing their Sat/Sun numbers, Boston's Friday night average (for 2 games) is better than the Saturday/Sunday average for any other team.
we can't have a two team league. the rest of the teams need to step it up. good job by chicago and boston tho.
I can't imagine the weather forecast helped the NJ walk-up sales at all. Given a choice between braving a thunderstorm (weather channel had probability at 90%, I believe) or watching on TV, I think many people opted for 'B'. Too bad, they missed a nice performance from the home team. AND missed seeing the game, period, except for 16 minutes. Too bad it won't even be available on replay.
All week I had plan on driving to see this game but sunday morning when I saw the forecast ( couple with the fact that I don't drive well at night ) I opted to stay home and watch on TV. That didn't happen but I can't say I regret my decision that much. It sounded like a good game according to MT and tweets but oh well.
6000+ in Chicago??? It didn't seem that high on TV Maybe there really were 4000+ in CT? Not for nothing but that was the quietest 6000 people to ever attend a sporting event....
Well the FSC camera's are set up opposite of the entire crowd, so its harder to hear the crowd. There were some pretty loud drums though, so that might have had something to do with it too.
people said we were quiet the week before against Jersey....Maybe FSC has to do a better job with the mixing.... What are they afraid of....a few bad words???
Don't feed the trolls. Here's the storyline: WPS attendance is bad, league will fold. So if attendance is good, it's inflated, if WPS sticks around, it's limping towards destruction, etc. It's not like you've got people looking at the actual numbers and profitability. Most minor league baseball teams would be THRILLED to lose what WPS teams lose each year - the question is whether profitability is visible on the horizon and if you can avoid huge losses ITTET, it pretty clearly isn't too far away. Of course, if you don't want the league to succeed for whatever reason, then you can whine about it. Just like the NFL, NBA, and MLB (not to mention MLS) not all the franchises that were around at inception are going to make it over the long haul. But you've got at least six solid ownership groups that are going to be happy to stick through the process. That's about 4 more than MLS had . . .
Here's an update from the figures I've been keeping (based on attendance given on the WPS site). Median Attendance by Team BOS 4560 CRS 3954.5 WAS 3753 SBFC 3362 ATL 3242 STL 3203.5 only 4 home games FCGP 3077.5 PHIL 2585 Average Attendance by Team BOS 4489.9 CRS 4205.6 WAS 3921.6 ATL 3664 SBFC 3255.4 STL 3027.25 only 4 home games FCGP 3022.5 PHIL 2872.2 League Average: 3618 League Median: 3328 Only Boston is above 2009 figures for median. SBFC is close to last season (-.3%, that's 12 tickets). Let's hope that Philly and FCGP are paying peanuts for their park rental. And the regular season winner gets to host the championship game. Ilisa Kessler and the rest of the FCGP staff better be hawking the hell out of the championship game. If they can't sell out a 5k place for the final without giving away free tickets, they need to turn in their fancy marketing titles.