I only have one member ignored and it's been so nice not even seeing the troll's idiotic comments. Who ever this is really adds nothing to the boards and I think we are all dumber for having read anything they post.
How has the local media coverage been in Tampa? Radio? TV? Anything? Even a tiny bit of media attention could drive a few more to the game. Just checking online it seems there was just a small paragraph about the loss in Minnesota a couple of days ago and that was it.
I might have to revise my guess upwards. Rowdies ads all over the radio today, player appearances on multiple radio shows and apparently many more are planned for the rest of the week. Local news has been doing segments on the upcoming game with more planned apparently. Group sales are going extremely well and if I had to guess, the new marketing firm is already paying off. One of the local news stations will be doing the weather from Al Lang tomorrow between 9 and noon (I think its tomorrow), silly stuff like that but that is alot of exposure. Rumor is that ticket distribution already surpasses the semifinal with several days to go plus walk up (weather forecast for Saturday is great, but keep an eye on the storm in the tropics.) Might crack 5k!
Media buys got to be very expensive right now, with the election going on and the parties/Cpacs paying top dollar for air time, specially in swing states like Florida.
Well Bay News 9 is reporting over 5000 tickets "sold" so far. http://www.baynews9.com/content/new...les/bhsn/2012/10/25/nasl_championship_on.html
Doesn't have to be the case. ATL has given season ticket holders the tickets in the past. Last season they gave us tickets to the extra international friendly match.
I believe it was going to be a 'sellout' no matter how many tickets they sold. Capacity is probably closer to the original 7,000 figure that was thrown around when they moved in. Honestly, with SRO it could seat even more. It was a great crowd. Very happy to see this team sell some tickets. Hopefully it will carry forward to next year.
Thats beautiful, a great crowd, a great game, a great ending to the final, congrats to the 2012 Soccer Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Rowdies!!!
Yes, we have. The vantage point looking into the crowd showed empty seats, especially in the front rows (red seats), which weren't even half full. Essentially, the whole 5400-seat capacity thing was full of crap. It should have been qualified as "which sections they weren't selling or counting". I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't counting the seats "behind home plate". Given the actual capacity, which is 7,227, I absolutely think the 6208 crowd is accurate.
Congrats, Tampa/St. Pete soccer community... now, having carefully reviewed the stadium photos, can we PLEASE move this team into a better facility? Perhaps a stadium with more than half the seats within 30 yards of the pitch (ideally the touch lines)? Crew Stadium might be replaced soon...perhaps we negotiate a deal to relocate the used steel and seating?
I thought it was understood the whole time that when the Rowdies made that statement regarding capacity at Al Lang, they were clearly just lowering the threshold for what they could call a sellout. The building obviously holds closer to 7k when stuffed full, even after one of the berms was flattened.
Hopefully Saturday night inspires management to push to fill the joint up next season. A good start would be to have a true sell out on opening night.
IMO the marketing firm they hired could finally be the major step forward the Rowdies needed to take in order to really get noticed in Tampa Bay. And now they have a championship to work with, should be very interesting to see how the team is marketed now.
I wasn't able to make it to the First Friday thing tonight. Anyone make it? The Rowdies have certainly gotten more press in the last three weeks than they have in the last three years combined. I take it that it is the marketing/PR firm's doing. The team has been all over the papers, web, and television. They are being treated like a real sports team. Before last month, they couldn't get noticed to save their life. This championship story certainly has proven to have legs in the local media. That shows hope for next season.
They're the champs (ugh does it suck to say that) they don't need the draw of the Cosmos for their home opener. If the new marketing firm is competent at all, they could have Edmonton and still should have a huge crowd. One of the lower drawing teams should get the Cosmos for the home opener to give them a bump, maybe the Stars and their new ownership group could get them.